In Frankenstein, the creature is shown as not “normal” most visibly because of his physical deformities and his huge body. There are stiches on his face and bolts on his neck. His facial and body features are unlike what majority of people look like. The other characters are well dressed, with no visible physical deformities which is the “normal”. Due to this visible difference, one would consider this creature as non-human. In addition to that, the creature is not able to speak and communicate with other people. Communication is deemed one of the most important abilities of human and this movie implies that someone who cannot communicate are not “normal”. Also, the sounds he makes are those mostly heard from animals and he behaves violently. The hybrid of human-like structure and animal-like behavior satisfies people’s idea of what monstrous is. The other characters constantly referring to him at “it” dehumanizes him even more. He is not even considered a human because of the way he looks.
When the creature meets the little girl, she doesn’t fear him or run away from him. This shows how the fear of someone who looks different than us is instilled in us rather than it being a natural feeling. In this society, people learn to hate and fear those who thinks or looks different than us. The creature doesn’t understand the societal norms and consequences of actions. When he throws the girl in the water, he doesn’t do that with the intend of killing her but his inability to understand the consequence ends up killing her. People with disability are naturally considered unable to make decisions or know the difference between wrong and right. This shows that people with disability or people who are not “normal” are deemed dangerous to others. At the end, when the creature is set on fire, that is the end of the movie which has implications of victory of good or evil.
The creature is not the only character that contributes to the idea what disability is. The assistant/helper of Victor has a hunchback and is often referred by Victor as “fool”. Also, when he goes to the lecture hall, he takes the brain even though it is labelled “abnormal brain”. From this scene, we can insinuate that he can’t read and that he never does anything right. He just goes around doing what he is commanded by Victor without using his own mind. This character has a physical deformity and mental deformity in a sense. The movie portrays that people with disabilities are not able to do anything by themselves, requiring to be commanded by someone “superior” or “normal” to teach them things.
Horror is one of the most popular genres and it is quite unique from other genres. It explores ideas and concepts that don’t happen in real life, but we get visual representation of these ideas. Mostly the things that we see as potential danger to our lives are what we consider scary. Many people enjoy this scary feeling, it gives thrills and excitement. We see all the scary and horrifying things that trigger our emotions but at the same time its assuring that these things are not happening to us. To many people it can be cathartic, especially when the evil is destroyed. I don’t agree that horror as a genre is a Western privilege because different genres appeal to different emotions. Horror genre has been around since a long time in forms of stories or tales. Some people don’t like horror because it appeals to negative emotions but it’s equally important to let these feeling out.
I agree with what you said about horror films. They allow us to experience fear and uncertainty, but at a safe distance. Horror movies also show us what we typically don’t see in real life, but the content is similar enough to our everyday lives for it to be thrilling.
I really enjoyed your second paragraph and how you used the part of the movie when the little girl meets the monster to express the idea that fear and hatred is taught, which also goes into the idea that you are considered dangerous/instil fear in others when you are different from what society deems normal.