SOURCE: "The Comic and the Grotesque in James Whale's Frankenstein Films," in Planks of Reason: Essays on the Horror Film, edited by Barry Keith Grant, The Scarecrow Press, 1984, pp. 290-306.

In the following essay, Welsch and Conger discuss Whale's use of the comic and grotesque in Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein.

Both the grotesque and the comic are much discussed terms, and for much the same reason: their discovery in art or life is largely a subjective matter; both depend for their intensity, and even for their existence, on the perceiver. If we find something comical, it is largely because we temporarily become disinterested, spectators whose hearts are momentarily "anesthetized." We distance it by concentrating our attention on the presence of incongruity, eccentricity, infirmity, or illogicality. Similarly, if we find something grotesque, it is because we temporarily become alienated, spectators who feel threatened: we distance it by perceiving...