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It's like in Dante or Ovid. Things aspire toward their true nature and nature aspires to bring out the truth in people. Try as they might to fight off nature, nature wins out. The Wolf Man is in a sense more modern than the other Universal movies, because Larry isn't a lunatic, a deviant or a foreigner. They in fact point out that he's been in America. So, his humanity and his Americanness are inescapable. It's sort of American machismo that makes him so gauche with Gwen. All his noble upbringing doesn't matter a whit on account of his cowboy demeanor. Later on, he tries to outdo Gwen's fiancee at the shooting gallery, but can't shoot the wolf. With all the posturing that the shooting game presents, he's stunned by his primal manhood. Sophistication doesn't work for him. The question sort of becomes "is it more tragic that a wolf is forced to wear clothes and walk upright or is it more tragic that a man can become an animal"? I think it's wonderful that during war time a movie is made about whether we can reconcile our civilized and uncivilized selves. During war, we have the gun, we're out the shooting gallery and yet our bestial nature is staring us right in the face. The intent was probably not quite so deep, but the poetics are there.
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