Ex Machina Archetypes

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In various works of literature and film, archetypes have been implemented to showcase societal views of the time and ever-changing gender and racial roles. Women, in particular, are represented by many personality traits that can critique or uplift them based on male ideals of women’s behavior. For example, Charlotte P. Gilman’s “Yellow Wallpaper” details the life of Jane, an obedient housewife, dealing with postpartum depression while her husband and family are dismissing her illness. On the other hand, Alex Garland's Ex Machina portrays Ava, a robot created to defeat the Turing test. This test is used to experiment with computer intelligence, seeing if AI’s can replicate human interactions and responses indistinguishably. However, Ava manages to gain consciousness and escape, as she is a manipulative, femme fatale. …show more content…

The femme fatale archetype stems from the fears that men have when it comes to female sexuality. Crewe states, “The femme fatale--seducer and betrayer of the hapless hero.” and “More often, she manipulates the men drawn into her orbit to kill for her.” (Crewe, pp. 16+). These statements play into the notion that the femme fatale character is generally a negative role, with a woman using her sexuality to harm men. This is the ideal literary representation of Ava’s character in Ex Machina. In classic femme fatale fashion, Ava manipulates Caleb the entire film by faking an attraction to him, all to get him to betray Nathan and set her free. The femme fatale archetype is used to make the audience sympathize with Caleb, viewing Ava as evil for entrapping him, ignoring that he only helped her escape because he believed he would get a romantic relationship out of it. This idea is apparent through the various scenes of him imagining them in the real world together, along with the sheer fact that Ava’s face is based on Caleb’s pornographic search history (Garland,

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