Blade Runner And Frankenstein Comparison

“I think therefore I am.” A line spoken by Pris that goes hand-in-hand with what I believe to be the most important theme: Just because you can, does it mean you should? These three pieces share some striking similarities.

In Brave New World, the people on Earth are born in bottles, but before birth, they’re genetically manipulated to be of a certain class, and after birth, they’re conditioned to be happy with what they have and to never want anything that they don’t already have. This system crafts a seemingly perfect society of basically just work and sex. Our main characters are; Bernard Marx: an Alpha-plus who is considered an outcast because he is different, Lenina Crowne: a Gamma who is considered very beautiful and is locked in a love

triangle with Marx, Henry Foster, and John the Savage, John the Savage: was born on a Native American reservation and is not a part of the society the other characters are. John still holds the ideals of the way things used to be, for instance he refused to have sex with Lenina out of wedlock (and when he does sleep with her it ends in his suicide).
This story shares numerous similarities with Frankenstein and Blade Runner.

The ever-looming question of “Just because you can, does it mean you should?” is a prime example. In this new society, the government has the technology it needs to create the perfect humans, but does the government really have the right to play God in this way? It is a very similar situation in Frankenstein. Doctor Frankenstein had the means and motions necessary to create his monster, but by the end of the story, the reader may often be left wondering who the true monster of the story is. It would be easy to slap that label on the creation, but why not the creator? The monster did not ask Doctor Frankenstein to create him, he was just stuck in the crossfire when Doctor Frankenstein attempted to play God. The very same statement could be made about Doctor Tyrell in Blade Runner. When Tyrell decided to play God, his creations were the cause of his demise (much like Doctor

Frankenstein).
In Blade Runner, there are mass produced human-like being called replicants and they are sent to do work on other planets that the humans occupying them don’t want to do. However, they are illegal on Earth and if they are discovered on Earth the punishment is death. For Pris, Zhora, Leon, and Roy the possibility of death is a risk they are willing to take if it means they can encounter Doctor Tyrell and extend their lives, as replicants are programmed to live only four years. This is when we meet Rick Deckard, an ex-Blade Runner who doesn’t seem to keen on taking up another case. Rick manages to take down all of the replicants except for Rachel, who is Doctor Tyrell’s most unknown replicant. So unknown, that she herself is unaware that she is a replicant, all because Doctor Tyrell gave her memories.
Another similarity shared between the three stories is the idea of life that is manufactured and manipulated, not created naturally.

In Blade Runner, it was the replicants on the run from their inevitable deaths. In Frankenstein, it was Doctor Frankenstein using mad science to create life that he then shunned because his creation was not what he expected. Then there’s Brave New World, the society that creates human life to fit what the society happens to need at that point in life, where people are created to be happy with what they have and never want anything else, which would seem like the perfect society until one thinks about all the freedoms we humans take for granted today that would have to be given up, “I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.” (page

242).
Which brings us to Frankenstein, the story of either (depending on how one looks at it) a monster and the man who created him, or a monster and his creation. Doctor Frankenstein had drawn up a plan to bring life back to a dead body, and he is successful. However, after he brings his monster to life, he runs away because he is disgusted and afraid of his monster. While alone and wandering the countryside the monster learns to read and stumbles across Doctor Frankenstein’s journal and reads about his own creation as noted by the Doctor himself. The monster then proceeds to take his revenge out on Doctor Frankenstein’s family. In order to stop him, Frankenstein promises to make a mate for him as long as he stays away from civilization. The Doctor inevitably breaks his promise to the monster and destroys his new creation before he gives it life. The monster then kills Frankenstein’s new wife Elizabeth and the Doctor chases the monster until he, Doctor Frankenstein, dies.
Another recurring event in these three stories is death. In Frankenstein it was William, Elizabeth, and then Doctor Victor Frankenstein himself, all killed at the hands of the monster. In Brave New World it was John the Savage, who committed suicide after having sex with Lenina out of wedlock. In Blade Runner it was Zhora, Leon, Pris, and Roy, who were all killed simply because they were replicants who came to Earth seeking help extending their lives.