Frankenstein​, written by Mary Shelley, directed by James Whale, and produced by Carl

Laemmle, reveals many romantic elements throughout the film. Some of which are obvious, and

others not so much. Dr. Frankenstein, played by Colin Clive, and Fritz, played by Dwight Frye,

are on a mission to revive the dead, and they start by scavenging for body parts to be harvested

from corpses. Fritz, who’s not quite the brightest assistant, is assigned a task to retrieve a brain

from a research facility. Fritz finds a brain suitable for testing, however, he drops the brain,

destroying the container. In turn to fix his mistake, he takes another brain, but fails to pay

attention to details. The second brain is the brain of a killer.

The movie starts to stress imagination over intellect when Dr. Frankenstein starts to

make a contraption using electricity to bring his concoction of body parts to life. After lots of

experimentation and hard work, Frankenstein’s monster is brought to life. Although, the corrupt

brain causes this monster to become a killing machine. Frankenstein tries to control and

discipline this monster to change his ways, scaring it with fire and when the monster was caught

off guard, injecting it with a sedative to calm it down.

One romantic stress in ​Frankenstein ​is extremely noticeable, and that romantic stress is

experimentation over tradition. Typically, something that’s dead should stay dead. However, Dr.

Frankenstein is determined to revive people through experimentation, and his first test subject

will be his monster created with body parts from those who were lynched. This monster was

Frankenstein’s biggest challenge, not only to bring to life, but control as well. The monster got

loose, originally he was harmless, but after meeting a young girl and playing with flowers, he

kills the girl by tossing her in the water. By realizing what he did, he goes on a rampage and

returns to Dr. Frankenstein’s mansion during a party.

Another romantic stress revealed toward the end of the movie is intense passion over

controlled wit. He tries to keep the love of his life safe, by putting her in a room, all by herself. A
logical man never split the group and let someone be alone with a killer on the loose. The

monster breaks into her room, and terrorizes her. Luckily, he doesn’t catch her, but he escapes

through the window in which he entered. When Dr. Frankenstein enters the room, the monster

is already gone. Frankenstein brings together a search party to look for the monster and kill it.

In the end, the town burns Frankenstein’s monster alive in a windmill. These romantic

stresses are conveyed to the audience through suspense, and the actions of Dr. Frankenstein,

his experimentations, his rash decisions during a time of crisis, these things show how certain

emotions and ideas can clash and put other people in danger. That also shows the romantic

stress of individual over society. His desire to experiment and bring the dead to life put the

village in danger. Overall these stresses are what make ​Frankenstein​ a good movie to watch.