The Monster Meets his Bride

Blog Post #1 : Scene

The Monster Meets His Bride

Christopher Drury

The Bride of Frankenstein is a sequel focused on Frankenstein’s monster finding a wife, and more important, a friend. The scene where the Monster meets his “wife” for the first time is of great importance.  This scene is full of emotion and love expressed from the Monster that is unseen by the audience before. We see the differences between the Monster and the bride. We see how the slightest change to the process can throw off an experiment and we also see that the eyes play a serious role in our society.

            The scene starts off with the creation of the bride and the entrance of the monster.  The bride if wearing white and the monster is wearing all dark colors. This usually represents the struggle between good and evil but in this situation it is something different. They are both monsters made from the dead so therefore people will view them as bad and dangerous.  The colors don’t represent good and evil, but rather perfection and imperfection. We see the proof of this throughout the scene. 

The monster was the first creation and is flawed. He has obvious flaws like the metal stubs sticking out of his neck and more subtle ones like his lack of understanding of people and many words.  The bride is only around for a short time but it is easy to tell the improvements made with the second creation.  She is entirely human in appearance except for one stitch line under her neck.  She is what one would think of astatically when trying to create a human. 

            Not only is the look of the monster spot on but her reaction is as well.  She was just reborn so therefore she has the innocents of a child.  Her first reaction the monster is a smile. She is not afraid of him nor does she run away. Unfortunately for the monster, that does not remain the case for too long. Literally 15 seconds after she first lays her eyes on him she screams. At that first sense of touch and is terrified.       

            Frankenstein’s monster tries to get the bride to like him and to be friendly with him. While he was with the blind man, the monster was taught that a handshake was a symbol of friendship.  I think it is remarkable that the monster can take this idea and push it forward in the way that he does. He does not try to shake the bride hand but rather to hold it and even pet her hand. This obsession with the hands shows a bid difference between the monster and a normal human. Most people see the monster with their eyes and have a feeling of hatred and a desire to get rid of him.  The monster does not look with only his eyes but he feels with his hands and wants to experience this things he is with. The bride, who is more human because of her brain created by Pretorius, sees the monster and screams. She tries to find comfort in Dr. Frankenstein but she cannot stand the monster.

            The bride can be used to represent the repression of the “Other,” more specifically, the woman.  Robin Wood says in his article “The American Nightmare: Horror in the 70s” that “The dominant images of women in our culture are entirely male created and male controlled,” (27). This is no truer than in this scene. The two men, Dr. Frankenstein and Pretorius, create a woman. They are under complete control and complete domination of her image and roll in this world. It is directly in line with what Wood is saying.

            Inevitably, the monster is so heartbroken and so disappointed with his life that he has nothing else to live for that he decides to destroy the equipment used to create him. In the end, he mutters the words “We belong dead,” to Pretorius in a profound way. He recognizes that the life he has was created in a way that is unnatural and that life should not be created in such a way. The monster lets Dr. Frankenstein live due to the fact that the love if his life would not leave without him. The monster sees the love and lets them go. One final moment before the lever is pulled and the monster looks at his bride and sheds a tear. The emotion is felt by the whole audience and reveals the true heart that the monster has. That one tear really gets us to empathize with the monster and reflect on the hard life that he was forced to live.

Work Cited

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