Frankenstein: Deconstructing the Monster

"What manner of creature is that? What manner of devil made him?"

Part two.

I noted that the Creature only responds to violence with violence. He doesn't kill from hate or carelessness or cruelty, but as a reaction to pain or fear. He only attacks the sailors and the farmers because they shoot at him first. He kills the wolves to save his friend. Victor, on the other hand, quickly resorts to violence when he is frustrated, jealous, or angry. He beats his creation when it "refuses" to progress past a certain level - by his standards. He attempts to burn his creation alive because it isn't "perfect" enough. He knows that Elizabeth is perfectly safe with the Creature, yet he grabs and shoots a gun out of pure envy, accidentally ending her life. 

The Creature doesn't lie, but Victor lies easily. He pretends to be the priest in the confessional in order to hear Elizabeth's darkest secrets (thankfully she finds him out). He frames the Creature for the deaths of both Harlander and Elizabeth instead of owning up to his part in them. He lies about the fire and subsequent explosion he intentionally started. Victor presents himself as a coward to the audience - incapable of facing his own sins, even incapable of killing his Creature firsthand. He opts for the cowardly way out by dousing the lab with oil and setting it ablaze. 

Interestingly, the first time we see Victor admitting to his transgressions is at the beginning of the film, but at the end of his story. Upon being saved by the ship's captain, he readily admits to being the monster's creator. He admits that the monster will kill more men to get to him, and he begs to be offered up in sacrifice. He has finally recognized the horror he created and the suffering he continues to cause as a result, and is ready to receive judgement.

Despite this, he still views the Creature purely as a violent and flawed creation. A brilliant example of this is in the prelude, when the sailors discover Victor's broken body and encounter the Creature for the first time. The Creature makes inhuman sounds throughout this thrilling opening scene - guttural growls and roars not unlike a bear's. It is the only time in the film we hear him make noises like these. It tells us that both Victor and the ship's crew view the Creature only from a place of fear and horror. They perceive him as a cursed, violent, inhuman beast. He is one dimensional from their perspective. 

Victor's version of the tale has the scent of an unreliable narrator. We can't fully believe his memory of his childhood, nor his version of how he conducted himself with Elizabeth and Harlander, and certainly not his perception of the Creature. But the most important aspects seem to be true: abuse at the hands of his father, the traumatic loss of his mother, and his obsession with defying death. 

Victor demonstrates the genius that misses the simple truths of life entirely. The scientist so desperate to stop death and recreate life, yet he cannot relish the beauty of a leaf or marvel at the Creature's purity. Like so many parents, he insists on creating life only to blame that life's existence for his own suffering. Taking care of his son is exhausting; he has to let him know how much he is sacrificing for him, how little sleep he is getting, how frustrated he is with the lack of development his child is demonstrating (by his standards). He has reached the height of human achievement and can only complain about its perceived imperfections. How is it not enough to have created a life, a new individual? It is a miracle that this child breathes, speaks a word, responds to his voice. 

As the Creature tells him, "the miracle was not that I should speak, but that you would ever listen." This is said out of rage whilst Victor rejects him with disgust and scorn. But by the end, Victor reaches a place where he can, in fact, listen.

It is only when he hears the Creature's tale - from a being who doesn't lie - that he can see from his son's perspective. He's able to admit not only his failure as a scientist, but as a father. It's then that he first touches the Creature tenderly and with love. Finally he approaches his creation without rejection. 

A personal theme to Del Toro is the generational cycles from parent to child. In some way we can all relate to this. 

The obvious example of this is shown in Victor's relationship with his father, replicated by Victor's treatment and rejection of his Creature, and finally in the Creature reciprocating Victor's violence and abuse. 

But a more subtle hint to this theme is shown through the Creature's memories of the many men his body is compiled of. We have the visual, of course - his body made up of dozens of pieces sewn carefully together, his mismatched eyes, even the shock of blonde hair peeking through the brown locks. But we also have the character's heartbreaking explanation of his dreams: "In my dreams ... I see memories. Different men. All ... pieces."

Jacob Elordi, who portrays the Creature, described finding the physicality of the character included imagining how your body would move if every piece came from someone else. Would some parts fight against others? Would there be muscle memory? Would you experience pins and needles in sections? 

For the Creature, generational trauma isn't just inflicted from his creator but also from the men he is made from. An added touch is that they were all soldiers whose bodies were handpicked from a frozen battlefield. Generational trauma from war is its own beast. 

This feels like a good place to stop part two. On to the third!