Examples Of Empathy In Frankenstein

We are allowed to empathize with the creature in a few ways; the first is through the way he is treated. After Frankenstein creates the monster, he locks it up and allows Fritz to bully the creature. This creates moment empathy because we create an emotional understanding with the creature. From our perspective, the creature resembles a scared animal, or a vulnerable child. It hasn't had time to distinguish right from wrong, so when it lashes out and kills Fritz; it is simply acting in self-defense. From this point on, the monster will associate his mistreatment to those who created him. What’s so interesting about his mistreatment and the empathy we are allowed to create because of it is; our first thought of a “monster” is something void of emotion, a thing of science in this case. However, during his mistreatment we see the opposite; the creature of science has emotions, and this is reinforced when he meets the little girl Maria.

The final way we are able to empathize with him is through his untarnished sense of wonder. After meeting a little girl
named Maria, the monster is shown a game in which she is throwing flowers into a lake. We see the creature overwhelmed with excitement and curiosity, very human qualities. He is able to experience his joie de vivre, which creates a resemblance of a child. However, he eventually allows his emotions to cloud his judgment and throws Maria into the lake, leading to her death. This creates sympathy for the creature, after all, can we say if he knew better?

The idea of “otherness” is also shown throughout the film.
The first example is Henry Frankenstein. Early in the film, we find out that Henry has isolated himself in his laboratory, refusing to see anyone, including his fiancé. In addition, he has also postponed their wedding. Frankenstein is literally avoiding his fiancé to create a man. This shows otherness in two ways. 1) He is acting like an outsider, regardless of his education and reputation. 2) One could read this as his way of expressing homosexuality; he is after all trying to create the perfect “man” out of death, and only after his experiment goes wrong, he agrees to marry Elizabeth. The second example of otherness focuses on the creature Frankenstein created. The monster was born from death, unable to communicate, and the fact he doesn't look normal. He has bolts in his neck, assumed green skin, and scars and stitches line his body. He is almost a
Revenant.

Finally, otherness is shown in its most idealized form after the vengeful mob traps the monster and Frankenstein in an abandoned windmill, which ends with the creation throwing the creator from the windmill into the crowd. James Whale in a sense promotes the creation to a Christ figure, with the burning mill resembling the cross on Calvary. This suggests that the real monsters are the bloodthirsty mob, which fear the unexplained, deformed, and misunderstood creature. I mean, was the monster really bad?