Frank and Chris

Stories of monsters have long served as vessels for societal anxieties, yet beyond these fictional aberrations lies the more disturbing truth that monstrosity is constructed through the very social systems that produce those fears. Mary Shelley’s 1818 Gothic novel Frankenstein fabricates its ‘monster’ as a caution against Enlightenment-era scientific progress divorced from ethical responsibility. Two centuries later, Jordan Peele’s 2017 social horror film Get Out reimagines the gothic landscape in the liberal setting of an alleged ‘post-race’ America, interrogating the ongoing racial exploitation of African-Americans in the modern age. Yet through their exposure of the prejudices and social constructs that designate the title of ‘Other’, both composers reveal the ideological systems of control which define, marginalise, and fully subjugate are more monstrous than any physically grotesque individual. The construction of the ‘monstrous’ Other functions as a mechanism through which societies preserve the dominant social order by legitimising the exclusion and marginalisation of those who fall outside them. Shelley initially positions readers to fixate on physical hideousness through Victor’s description of his Creature’s “yellow skin scarcely cover[ing] the work of muscles and arteries beneath”. Shelley’s deployment of Gothic corporeal imagery presents the Creature as an object of terror before he even speaks or acts, assimilating the reader into a society that defines the Other according to perceived inhumanity. Shelley’s polyphonic narrative structure grants the Creature his own voice, providing his lament that “All men hate the wretched” while he is wretched and “miserable beyond all living things”. The Creature’s emotive diction and hyperbolic self-description reveal his profound depth of emotional introspection, directly contradicting and undermining Victor’s earlier portrayal of the Creature as an unfeeling monster. Thus, by embedding the Creature’s narrative within Victor’s and Walton’s, Shelley utilises polyphony to expose how power determines who is the Other, revealing the Creature’s ‘monstrosity’ as a product of narrative exclusion. Ultimately, Shelley exposes how the construction of the ‘monstrous’ Other operates as a tool of social control, preserving the dominant order by legitimising the exclusion of those who do not conform to its boundaries. Just as Shelley initially invites readers to misidentify the Creature as the monster before revealing Victor’s true moral corruption, Peele similarly dismantles surface appearances by deconstructing the veneer of progressive White liberalism through his exposure of the underlying objectification and commodification of Chris. Peele presents a series of microaggressions in the garden party scene, with one of the White guests claiming that “Black is in fashion”, a seemingly liberal remark. In response, Chris lowers his gaze toward the ground and physically steps backwards from the conversation, a performance detail which both signals his discomfort and represents his diminishment to no more than a fetishised commodity. Thus, Peele raises awareness of the racialised objectification and Othering wielded by the contemporary White elites, echoing Shelley’s critique of how dominant groups construct the ‘Other’ to sustain power. The scene in which Chris is forced to watch the Coagula explanation operates as a tool of ideological indoctrination. Jim Hudson describes the procedure with polite, measured civility, a tone that sharply contrasts with the cross‑cuts to the Sunken Place, visually juxtaposing liberal politeness with Chris’s total loss of agency. Hudson’s admission, “I want your eye, man”, reduces Chris to a single, exploitable body part, revealing how White society appropriates Black features while discarding Black personhood. Through this chilling commodification, Peele exposes a contemporary form of Othering that mirrors Shelley’s critique of how dominant groups deprive Others of agency. Ultimately, monstrosity is shown to be a social construction that functions to dominate, rather than an inherent quality within the individual. Both composers portray elitist creators who elevate themselves beyond moral and natural limits, demonstrating how their domination of the ‘Other’ depends on the moral corruption of the systems of control they inhabit. Shelley presents Victor’s ambition for domination within the Enlightenment’s scientific realm when he confesses, “It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn”, a desire that drives him to raid slaughterhouses and graves. This hubristic hyperbole supported by the biblical allusion creates a subversion of authority; Victor aspires to position himself on par with heaven, suggesting his transgression in defying the natural order has occurred before his creation began. Realising that his creation has not come to fruition as expected, Victor expresses that “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room.” The word “rushed” evokes an impulsive, childish tone, positioning Victor’s ironic denial of the culmination of his ambitions as a source of danger; a man who holds power but lacks the maturity to handle its consequences. Victor’s abandonment of ethical responsibility challenges audiences to examine the Enlightenment ideology that equates knowledge with dominion and legitimises the irresponsible control of bodies, nature, and life itself, exposing the emergence of monstrosity from the structures that empower Victor to transgress boundaries. Paralleling Shelley, Peele reimagines the transgressive actions of a creator via the Armitage family’s system of dominance through the psychological control of Black individuals, evident through Missy Armitage’s hypnosis of Chris with the stirring of tea. The incremental zoom into an extreme close-up of Chris’s facial expression, radiating visceral distress, paired with his discomfortably rigid sitting posture reflects the systemic violence frequented by modern White elites to subjugate Others. Furthermore, the chilling motif of the teacup serves as a metaphor for the literal ownership of Black individuals in the Atlantic slave trade, allowing Peele to challenge the status quo of a supposedly ‘post-racial society’. Thus, both composers portray monstrosity not occurring in the Othered bodies, but inherent in the systems which encourage individuals to transgress natural and moral boundaries. Frankenstein and Get Out continually position and reposition audiences to dismantle [Conclusion linked to thesis] [Themes to thesis], ultimately challenging audiences whether they actively resist such monstrous social constructs, or are simply complacent in the division of societies.