What Netflix’s Frankenstein Can Teach us About Prejudice
Lina Kabbour, Culture Staff Writer, BA Politics and International Relations
Netflix has recently released a new film adaptation of the literary classic Frankenstein, directed by Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro investigates the theme of prejudice through the mistreatment of the Creature played by Jacob Elordi. The scars on the Creature that set him apart from everyone else, and his subsequent rejection from the world, are an obvious metaphor for how those who are othered in society are discriminated against.
In light of the far-right protests against asylum seekers in the UK, and ICE brutally detaining undocumented migrants in the US, it has become more important than ever to critically examine how certain groups of people are stereotyped as dangerous and savage due to their racial differences. Thus, through the 2025 film adaptation of the iconic story, we must see the parallels between the way the Creature is mistreated and how people in our own world are being dehumanised in the same way.
From the Creature’s birth, it is immediately evident how he is treated more like an animal than a human; as his Creator, Victor Frankenstein, places him in chains, repeatedly referring to him as ‘it’, and decides to burn the building the Creature is in once he deems him useless. This process of dehumanisation is, unfortunately, a mirror of our modern world, with videos by the White House showing undocumented migrants being put in chains and far-right protesters in summer 2024 attempting to burn down hotels that held asylum seekers.
Furthermore, as the Creature is left to survive alone, he travels into the forest and shares berries with a deer until hunters shoot at them. In this scene, Del Toro displays how the Creature's innocence and humanity are ignored and is met with violence because he is not perceived as human enough, thereby eliciting further sympathy from the audience for his character. Eventually, the Creature ends up living outside the hunter's home and learning along with the child, who is being taught by her blind uncle, by looking through a crack in the wall. As the hunters leave for an extended period of time, he begins to develop a friendship with the blind man. Due to the uncle’s lack of sight, he is unable to see the markers of difference on the Creature’s face and treats him kindly.
However, as the Creature confides in the blind man, he calls himself a “monster” in contrast to the man who calls him ‘a good man’ and ‘a friend’. The way the Creature’s negative self-perception is portrayed here shows the psychological impact that trauma and racism can have, unveiling how prejudice is not only materially harmful, but also emotionally too.
As the film progresses, a pack of wolves kill the blind man, and when the hunters arrive home, they begin to shoot uncontrollably at the Creature, assuming it was him who committed the act. These continuous displays of blatant prejudice that the Creature faces are emblematic of how bigotry in our current political climate unfolds. Thus, when watching Del Toro’s film, it is vital that we remember that while the Creature is fictional, the discrimination he faces is not.
