Hybridity is a very interesting subject that constitutes the main theme of the movie, Werewolf of London. A hybrid is a mixture of different kinds which prevents the thing to be pure. If something is pure, then it can be easily identified. One of the characters in the movie wonders when does the plant world ends and the animal world begins about a plant that eats a frog. That plant is neither a plant nor animal, but something with the qualities of both. Like this plant, werewolves are neither man nor wolf. In Werewolf of London, the characters in the movie have several anxieties crystalized in the figure of the werewolf such as colonial anxiety, class anxiety and sexual anxiety.
Dr. Glendon got poisoned in Tibet, and became a werewolf there. Then he returns his homeland, England. When he goes to a home party to kill his wife he makes sounds of a wolf. A gentleman in the party says that if he was in somewhere else he would say this is a sound of a wolf, but in England it cannot be. In this scene, it is significant that people do not want the things which are stranger to them. They want their race to remain pure. Also, England is the most successful country in colonialism. The people of England, most likely, are the ones who can suffer colonial anxiety due to the country’s great range of connection with the various places on the earth.
In the movie, the werewolf self of Dr. Glendon goes to a slum area of London to pass the nights of full moon. There might be two explanations for this situation. One is Dr. Glengon is a member of high society, and probably he does not want his friends to find out his secret. That is why he chooses to spend the night in slum area instead of the places where high society lives. The other one is the view of lower class people as they are worthless comparing to higher classes of the society. Dr. Glendon’s subconscious might think that it is more harmless to kill someone from the lower class instead of someone from the upper class.
Dr. Glendon becomes werewolf at every full moon. So he leaves his wife frequently due to his situation. His absence causes a sexual anxiety in him, while his wife gets closer to her childhood crush. Similarly, in Bisclavret, Bisclavret disappears three days of the week, and his wife does not want to sleep with him due to him being a werewolf. Both in Bisclavret and Werewolf of London, Bislavret and Dr. Glendon feel sexual pressure as they transform into a werewolf and become uglier, and it is impossible for them to sleep with a human being. The wives commit themselves in adulterous relationships which confirm this sexual anxiety.
Dr. Glendon’s dual personality causes many anxieties to both himself and the people of London. He feels he is not a member of the high class and he cannot be with his wife which are class and sexual anxieties, and the people of London fear that something stranger to them is in London which is colonial anxiety.
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