Blog Post 1: The Homunculus Scene from Frankenstein
Kathleen Hendrich
This scene between Dr. Pretorius (Ernest
Thesiger) and Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive) is vital in showing Dr. Pretorius’
character and motivation behind creating this new monster. This representation
of a self-entitled and power hungry man is important to the plot, as it allows
the audience to feel sympathy towards the monster, who, even with his scary
physical appearance, is now no longer the least likable character in the movie.
This scene utilises various techniques to show to the audience that Dr. Pretorius
is not, as Dr. Frankenstein seems to be, driven by curiousity and love of
science, but by a frame of mind that may even be labelled a God Complex.
The most obvious sign of Dr. Praetorius’
lust for power is the pride he takes in his homunculi, these tiny creatures
over whom he reigns supreme. He has absolute control over all of his
experiments, and it is evident that he very much enjoys that by the way he
talks about them, as if they were pieces of art and not living beings, and also
in the way that he manhandles them, for example picking up the miniature king
with a pair of tweezers.
Dr. Pretorius’ choice of subjects is also
very telling; by choosing a king, queen and bishop, he finds himself in a
position of power greater than royalty, greater than both heaven and hell. He
has cast himself as God in this science experiment, even at one point proposing
a toast ‘to a new world of Gods and monsters’, meaning Gods like himself and
the monsters they create. He then went on to call the creation of life
‘enthralling’. The ease with which Dr. Pretorius talks about creating life is
as though he believes that it his not his privilege, but his right to have ‘(grown)
his creatures, like cultures’ as if they were simple bacteria.
More subtle clues of Dr. Praetorius’
supposed power come from the set up of the scene. When Dr. Praetorius and Dr.
Frankenstein first sit down, Dr. Praetorius is sitting above Dr. Frankenstein,
looking down on him, a covert reminder that one is in a self-imposed position
of power over the other. They find themselves in the same position at the end
of the scene, with Dr. Praetorius this time only slightly above Dr. Frankenstein,
but leaning towards him in a close up that allows the audience to fully take in
the shadows cast on his face and wide eyes. Observed this way, he seems almost
insane, thus further cementing him as the true villain in this story, even when
compared to the monster.
Also dispersed throughout the scene is a
certain amount of humour, thus producing a complementation between the comic
and the grotesque, as identified by Conger and Welsch. The comedy in the scene,
and throughout the entire movie, adds to the eeriness brought about by the
grotesque, as it allows the viewer to reflect on the absurd and grotesque
nature of what they are watching.
Works cited:
Conger, Syndy M. & Janice R. Welsch “The Comic and the Grotesque
in James Whale’s Frankenstein Films.”
Planks of Reason. Barry Keith Grant & Christopher Sharrett, eds. Scarecrow
Press, 2004. 240-254
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