The pursuit of knowledge and scientific discovery throughout the ages has always been tightly woven with the morals of those that have pursued it. Whether for fame, fortune or more personal gains the responsibility of this knowledge and discovery is where moral boundaries may be crossed. The pursuit of knowledge can never be criticized, just the necessity for society and scientists to be responsible with their discoveries and creations. Shelly’s Frankenstein and Scott’s ‘Blade Runner’ both centre on the challenge of moral conscience, and the consequences when man attempts to play God. Mary Shelley and Ridley Scott are influenced by the different contexts of their times. Blade Runner and Frankenstein both draw on simular ideas but due to the difference in context and influences, the way these ideas and values are presented differ.
Both Frankenstein by Mary Shelly and Blade Runner by Ridley Scott were composed in differing contexts and due to this, they differ in their vehicle of representation. Frankenstein explores Romantic conventions, through the language, style and form of the text. The form of text reflects the context of Shelley’s time, with the use of a letter being the only means of communication throughout the post enlightenment period. The form being a novel illustrates writing and language techniques being the common formality of Mary Shelley’s era. In
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stark contrast to Frankenstein, Blade Runner by Ridley Scott takes the form of a film. With the technological advancement of film and special effects during Scott’s time this made the film a dystopia (dark feature) that uses glazed cinematic techniques of film noir. Although the wide difference in contexts and form of these texts, they both present mutual themes and warnings but are both persuaded by different occurrences of their times. Throughout Frankenstein the post enlightenment period that promotes the knowledge of science is also woven into the complex character of Victor Frankenstein, with his eventual success of usurping god. Blade Runner by Ridley Scott, in blunt contrast to the naturalistic world of Frankenstein, is barren of all natural substance and is instead replaced with a mass of indestructible technology, which is undoubtedly a reflection on the technological advancements that Scott experienced in his time. The world of Shelly is one that while in the midst of a harsh economic change, the industrial revolution, still hold nature in high esteem. Shelley reflected the changing ideals from the enlightenment to embrace the early romanticism principles. The enlightenment period brought upon many scientific discoveries and the wide pursuit for these discoveries, which echoes the character of Victor Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein strives for the pursuit of scientific knowledge, to ultimately lead him to the creation of life. But while pursuing this knowledge he is denying the responsibilities he holds to his family. There was no balance with Victor, his thirst for knowledge and fame overrode any responsibility in his life. When Victor brings his creation to life he ignores his responsibility and this leads him to his tragic demise. “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe”, when Frankenstein’s creation awakes he is repulsed by the sight of his once beautiful features, and using the technique of alliteration he refers to his godly creation as a ‘miserable monster’, by using this language technique he draws the reader’s attention in order to emphasise the depths to which the monster is miserable. Frankenstein is immediately frightened and shocked at the work of his scientific knowledge and abandons all responsibility to his creation. In that moment Frankenstein realises nature cannot be manufactured, even with the most extensive knowledge. Shelly uses rich imagery to describe the presence of the monster, which continues to show the audience the consequences and repercussions of usurping the role of God. For example, Frankenstein describes his creation as having a “shrivelled complexion, straight black lips and horrid watery eyes”. “I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel”, the monster uses a religious illusion to illustrate the emotions he withholds towards himself by referring himself to the devil rather than to that of Adam. Shelley uses the technique of dramatic irony to highlight Frankenstein’s error in the procurement of knowledge, as the failure of Frankenstein's quest is upon the reader from the start: “I have lost everything and cannot begin life anew”. Shelly suggests that knowledge is dangerous in large doses and man cannot be trusted with too much power in his hands. This suggestion much reflects the concerns of her time, with the wide dangerous pursuit for scientific discovery and the hunt for large doses of power. “In a scientific pursuit there is continued food for discovery and wonder”- Frankenstein Although many of the values displayed in Frankenstein are similar to those in Blade Runner, Scott encapsulates a new response to them, more relevant to his contemporary personal context.
Much like Shelly, the world of Scott is in the depths of a technological advancement, as it progresses through the computer age and is affected by capitalist greed. Scott wove the context of his time throughout Blade Runner with the overload of technology and economic greed. The economic greed being present in the capital hungry character of Eldon Tyrell, who also represents the Wall Street power surge of Scott’s
era. The universe of Blade Runner is made up of a never ending stream of technology and is barren of all natural substances, with the creation of the ‘Nexus Six’, who are an elite creation of human replicants, with only a four year life span. Scott contrasts human characters to replicants who appear to have more absolute companionship, empathy, morality and compassion than 'humans', as Tyrell's quote; "more human that the humans" which is empathising and again contrasting the emotions of humans to replicants, portraying the replicants as more civilian. The abundance of technology and the capitalist greed is indefinitely reflected in the character of Tyrell, who is the creator of the replicants and has abandoned all responsibility he holds to his creations. Eldon Tyrell endeavours to hold fame and fortune for his ongoing creations, he has no empathy and only portrays the emotion of greed, which reflects the times of Scott. Roy Batty, one of the Nexus Six replicants, is virtually at the end of his four years of life; he desperately wants to continue his life and he knows ne person who could give him the life he so desires, Tyrell. Scott incorporates elements of noir film, to highlight the negative power of science. This scene holds a dark sombre tone to it with the effect of the dim gloomy lighting. As Tyrell is explaining the scientific evidence against producing more life, the camera is perching him on a high angle compared to that of Roy which is at a high camera angle, this particular film technique is used to show Tyrell is in fact the powerful one at this point in time. When the lips of the creation and the creator touch, the camera moves in the form a close up, the music heightens just as Roy moves to kill Tyrell. The music creates tension and sudden fear of the situation, towards the audience. “Can the maker repair what he makes?” Roy batty is questioning Tyrell, can Tyrell undo what he has mistakenly done or somewhat repair the mistakes he has made in this unruly path of discovery? Knowledge is power and power can often override responsibility and conscience. Through Tyrell’s lack of moral conscience and drive for fortune and fame he becomes the victim of his own effects, much like Victor Frankenstein. Scott creates a world where humanity is mirrored into inhumane experiments and in doing so, humans themselves become the dehumanised. Tyrell and Victor are very similar in their treatment of their creations. Their values and actions are the same; Blade Runner is merely Scott’s depiction of Frankenstein in modern context. Both have created a life, yet their reactions to this life juxtapose the normal human reaction to creating a living soul. Instead of rejoicing for the creation of life, they reject the human values and further themselves from humanity in doing so. Blade Runner and Frankenstein both carry in their own different contexts but are driven by a universal message; the drive to interfere, alter and improve the very foundations of the natural evolvement is unstoppable, but somehow we must begin to take full responsibility for our actions, as we increasingly, and some say, foolishly, try to replace god.
A wave of mixed emotions arises as the pages of novels alike Frankenstein and The Kite Runner are turned. In the spectrum of morality, the authors, who are separated by years marked with societal developments, bond over their necessity to redeem past sins. Both, a hideous creature and a young Hazara boy, are victimized by the claws of prejudice and the scarcity of a sound home-- the relevant incidents that create interest in the narratives. Set in Afghanistan during the late 20th century, The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir and Hassan's friendship, the hardships of betrayal, and the ultimate attempt to glue the broken pieces together. As prevalent themes, sin and redemption are found in Amir's lifelong regret of being a witness to Hassan’s
Many books around throughout time have had two characters that are very similar and can be compared and contrasted. One book, The Hunger Games, introduces the characters of Katniss and Peeta in way so that they may be analyzed quite easily. Katniss and Peeta are both willing to get through the test of the Hunger Games and they both want to keep living for the sake of another person. But, at the same time they are also very different. Katniss has a more masculine personality because she enjoys hunting and scavenging, while Peeta is more reserved because he is just a dough boy and works in a bakery. While The Hunger Games has two great characters to compare and contrast, so does the classic frame narrative, Frankenstein. In Frankenstein, Mary
Many similarities can be found between Mary Shelley's 1816 novel, Frankenstein and the 1982 movie Bladerunner . The number of similarities between these two works, created more than two hundred years apart, is staggering. A cursory look at both works reveals these similarities:
Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein was first published in 1818 in an increasing secular British society, after the French revolution but the beginning of Industrial Revolution and during a period of technological and scientific advancement. Over 150 years later, Ridley Scott released Blade Runner, a film set in the 2019. The influence of the Cold War, capitalism and rising consumerism and uncontrollable scientific developments in areas of cloning, came together to form a dystopian world. Despite the differing contexts, values such as man's fascination with creating life, an obsession with science and discovery and the importance of parental responsibility are present in both texts, essentially representing Mary Shelley in the 1800s and Ridley Scott in the 20thcentury. The universality of such values are how each text broke through boundaries of their time, thus leading to being viewed as valuable. Shelley and Scott’s concerns for such issues lead to not being critically acclaimed at the time.
The repercussions of treating sentient life as monsters or miscreation’s is disastrous. When non-human conscious life is created it is easier to treat these creations as outsiders rather than accepting them. There are two stories that show this clearly. The novel Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelly and the film Ex Machina by Alex Garland. When self-conscious life is created it must be treated as such.
Comparing the Novel and Film Adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. “Horror and science fiction tend to present radically opposite interpretations of what may look like comparable situations.” (Kawin, 1981.) Bruce Kawin helps the reader to understand how a story in the genre of science fiction could be adapted, or bastardized if you like, into a horror. This is similar to the film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
The notion of humanity is a picture intricately painted using the ideals and morals that define us as human beings in contextual society. The audience is influenced by the morals and values present through techniques in texts to paint their own image of humanity. Our ideals and morals that differ in texts through context, scrupulously shape our image of humanity
In this novel, Shelley focuses on the debate between scientific discoveries, religion and the moral ethics of how far man should pursue his desire for knowledge, which reflects the society of the 19th century’s concern of where the scientific advancements were going similarly to the present day debate on whether stem cell research is valid.
Frankenstein is a fictional story written by Mary Shelly. It was later adapted into a movie version directed by James Whales. There are more differences than similarities between the book and the movie. This is because, the movie is mainly based on the 1920’s play, other than the original Mary Shelly’s book Frankenstein. A text has to be altered in one way or the other while making a movie due to a number of obvious factors. A lot of details from the book were missing in the movie, but the changes made by Whales were effective as they made the movie interesting, and successful.
In today’s world of genetically engineered hearts and genetically altered glowing rats, the story of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, seems as if it could be seen in the newspapers in our near future. The discoveries seen in modern science, as well as in the novel, often have controversy and negative consequences that follow them, the biggest of which being the responsibility the creator of life has to what has been created. Victor Frankenstein suffers from a variety of internal and external conflicts stemming from the creation of his monster, which in return also experiences similar problems. Shelley uses these tumultuous issues to portray the discrepancies between right and wrong, particularly through romanticism and the knowledge of science.
As time goes on, many things tend to change, and then they begin to inherit completely different images. Over the years, the character, created by Dr. Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s famous novel, has changed dramatically. The monster, regularly called “Frankenstein,” has been featured in numerous films, such as Frankenweenie and Edward Scissorhands. Although, the characters in today’s pop culture and the monster in the well-known 1800’s novel have similarities, they are actually very different. The many similarities and differences range from the character’s physical traits and psychological traits, the character’s persona, and the character’s place in the Gothic style.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, explores the monstrous and destructive affects of obsession, guilt, fate, and man’s attempt to control nature. Victor Frankenstein, the novel’s protagonist and antihero, attempts to transcend the barriers of scientific knowledge and application in creating a life. His determination in bringing to life a dead body consequently renders him ill, both mentally and physically. His endeavors alone consume all his time and effort until he becomes fixated on his success. The reason for his success is perhaps to be considered the greatest scientist ever known, but in his obsessive toil, he loses sight of the ethical motivation of science. His production would ultimately grieve him throughout his life, and the consequences of his undertaking would prove disastrous and deadly. Frankenstein illustrates the creation of a monster both literally and figuratively, and sheds light on the dangers of man’s desire to play God.
In conclusion, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is considered to be a historical novel, based on scientific advancements. In this novel Shelley depicts her own definition of human nature, by showing the Creature and the ways that humans reacted to him. The novel also showed the differences between morality and science. The differences of science from when Shelley wrote the novel until today, including the foreshadowing of what would happen if we use science for the worse.
Despite being separated for over a century, Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) are linked by the examination into the essence of humanity. Shelley’s Romantic Gothic novel explores the dehumanisation and isolation resulting from the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment while Scott’s futuristic film, through film-noir style, warns of a post-modernist dystopia potentially resultant from the excessive pursuit of profit, in a world obsessed with technological advancement. Both texts despite their varying contexts elicit how elemental human qualities are lost in the excessive pursuit of science and technology in the name of progress.
Gender inequality will always affect the way women are portrayed in society, the weaker, unnecessary, and other sex. It is not just a subject of the past, but still holds a name in society, however in the olden eras the way women were treated and are looked at, in a much more harsh condition. In Shakespeare’s Othello and Shelley’s Frankenstein women’s roles in the books are solely based on the way they are treated in their time period. The way women are portrayed in these books, demonstrate that they can never be in the same standing as men, considered the second option, and therefore will never have the same respect as men. In both Othello and Frankenstein women are treated as property, used to better men’s social standards, and lack a voice,