The Concept of ‘The Other’ in Bride of Frankenstein

By Kathleen Hendrich

In 1979 Robin Wood introduced the world to the concept of ‘The Other’, which represents that which we, as an audience, fear and hate in ourselves, and therefore repress. Depending on the film, era or intended audience, ‘Otherness’ can be embodied in many different ways, but it is always representative of something that differs from or challenges the heteronormative, bourgeois society in which we were raised. In horror films, the monster often represents ‘The Other’ in some form, and is usually either assimilated into society or annihilated, marking the return to normal and the continued repression of our innermost desires.

In Bride of Frankenstein (1935) the ‘Otherness’ that the monster represents is the proletariat. Representation of the proletariat would have been very threatening to the film’s original audience, as it was released in a time when the bourgeois society had everything to lose and the proletariat everything to gain from a disruption in the class system. The monster’s embodiment of the labourer is evident from the very start of the film, as we are introduced to him while a mob of people – bourgeois society – are watching and rejoicing as a building burns around this monster who is so threatening to their lifestyle. He is then forced into the role of the villain of the film based on his appearance, and remains so, partly due to his inability to defend himself, for most of the film. In The American Nightmare, Wood emphasises ‘the strength of Karloff’s costume’ (p.29), which is simple and black, not at all indicative of any kind of wealth or status; the clothes of the working class, further solidifying the monster’s role as ‘The Other’.

 For quite some time throughout the middle of the film the monster appears to be assimilating, most evident in the scene where he happens upon an old blind man playing the violin, who takes him in and gives him food, wine and cigars, plays him music and attempts to teach him to speak. This food, wine and cigars signify the pleasures of the bourgeois society, pleasures that the common labourer may not afford, and are part of this process of assimilation into bourgeois society. The man’s blindness is of critical importance to this scene because it is, for the most part, the monster’s appearance that sets him apart from civilisation and has forced him into exile, and because the blind man cannot see his differences, he perceives the monster as his equal, allowing him to experience friendship for the first time. While the low angle of the camera may be constantly reminding the viewer of the sinisterness of the monster, the blind man is unable to see this, resulting in an unobstructed and unbiased view of the monster. In the same article, Robin Wood points out the depth of the monster that ‘suffers, weeps, responds to music, longs to relate to people’ (p.32). Whale has painted the monster as someone to sympathise with, and, by doing so, is sending a message about the class system and bourgeois society of that era.

In the end, however, the monster was unable to assimilate and so, in keeping with Wood’s theory, had to be annihilated when Dr. Pretorius’ castle is destroyed around him, mirroring the events in which he is first introduced.

Works Cited

Wood, Robin. “The American Nightmare: Horror in the 70s”. (1979): 25-32. Print.