Frankenstein/ Blade Runner Essay

The youth finds peace with Nature away from war. After running into the forest from the clamor of battle, he soon comes to an empty field. The solider could tell that “This landscape gave him assurance. A fair field holding life. It was the religion of peace. It would die if its timid eyes were compelled to see blood. He conceived Nature to be a woman with a deep aversion to tragedy.” Here, Nature is described as a sensitive woman who dislikes the horrors of war, just like he loathes it. The youth feels comforted by this fact accordingly, and takes some time to evaluate his actions. But this encounter with the omniscient Crane is far

The ultimate consequences of Promethean ambition are characterized through Victor and Walton, who parallels Victor, yet is able to turn from the ‘intoxicating draught’ of superiority and unbridled ambition. This juxtaposition of character reinforces the significance of moral responsibility, as Shelley ultimately mocks the hateful bond between Frankenstein and his child, the Monster. The harsh consequences of disrupting nature and forfeiting moral conscience are conveyed, connoting the inevitable demise due to loss of self and identity.

Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner reflects some of the key themes seen in Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein. For one, both the sources touch on the necessity of creators taking responsibility for their creations. Another key theme established in both works is the idea that emotional complexity and knowledge, over memory and appearance, allow people to be defined as human beings.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, whilst separated by 174 years, feature very similar content which can be seen by comparing the two side by side. Coming from different contexts, they both express their anxieties about technology, which is shown through a man made creature, and they both exhibit a strong valuing of nature. However due to their different contexts, these ideas are represented differently. The medium of production is clearly different, as is the representation of the creature and whether or not they are able to assimilate into society. In both texts the responder

Despite different contexts, both Shelley’s Frankenstein and Scott’s Blade Runner enthrall the audience in a journey to explore the inner psyche through the various perspectives that are drawn.

Although the comparative study of texts in time offers insight into humanity’s changing values, it is the portrayal of common, contextually resonating concerns which continue to engage us timelessly. Despite their divergent media and compositional milieus, Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein (1818) and Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner (1982) share ongoing anxieties regarding unrestricted technological growth and social decay. By examining these texts together as social commentaries which are shaped by their Regency and contemporary contexts, we come to a heightened understanding of human nature and its flaws.

Film Noir uses similar aspects to Romantic Gothic novels and uses darkness and shadows to set mood and to portray ideas. This can be seen in a number of scenes where Deckard is in his apartment. The light, or rather, the lack of, is used to highlight the depressive mood and to emphasise Deckard as a flawed and mysterious character. Additionally, the hardboiled genre features a fallible protagonist, in this case Deckard. The audience is continually questioning the morality and the agenda of the ‘Blade Runner’ through the entirety of the film, which can be paralleled with Frankenstein, and his lack of morality as his “eagerness perpetually increased” as he creates his

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:

Texts composed from specific contexts provide insights into new paradigms corresponding to their historical, social and economic framework and as a result, composers incorporate and mould ideas within texts as a reflection of context. The capacity of thematic concerns to transcend time are manifested within Mary Shelley 's 19th century gothic novel 'Frankenstein ' (1818) and Ridley Scott 's dystopian science fiction film 'Blade Runner ' (1992) as both pose markedly similar existentialist discourses regarding the fate of humanity. Through 'Frankenstein ', Shelley 's romantic approach condemns humanity 's intrusive assumption as creator during an era where scientific hubris prompted people to abandon the metaphysical aspects of life,

The setting of the film is possibly the most important device in terms of theme. Blade Runner takes place in Los Angeles during the year 2017. In the opening shot, Scott immediately exposes us to the side-effects of a full century of industrialization: Factories fill the cityscape, pouring a never-ending stream of smoke into the sky. What was once sunny Southern California is now covered by a constant layer of pollution that blurs night and day. Wrecked and abandoned skyscrapers trash the city. Acid rain pours continuously. The overall sensation of the opening scene has a sobering effect on the viewer. After decades of technological advances for the betterment of society, what remains is a trashed, almost uninhabitable planet that has been virtually abandoned. In essence, Scott warns us that technology has damaging effect on both the environment and culture.

Bound by different contexts, authors often use a popular medium in order to depict the discontent of the ideas of society. This is evident in the module Texts in Time; as Blade Runner, having been written more than one hundred years after Frankenstein is still able to reflect the ideas proposed in the latter. Blade Runner by Ridley Scott deals with the effects of globalisation and consumerism during 1980’s. Alternatively, the epistolary novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley deals with the kinship to the natural world set in the Romantic Era and enlightenment period. However Blade Runner, although subjected by a different context, also portrays a similar idea to Frankenstein; the fear of science and technology coupled with the value of the definition of a human. Through this commonality, we are able to utilise the values of Blade Runner in order to truly understand Shelley’s purpose.

In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley shows a variety of themes that concern creation of humanity, family, the sublime. Shelley presents these themes through characters, and the actions and emotions experienced in particular situations. With these themes in Frankenstein, there are similar relationships that are in Scott Ridley’s Blade Runner.

Blade Runner became recognized as a film noir due to Ridley Scott portrait of Los Angeles as it might be in 2019: smog covered sky, towering factories emitting giant flames, and massive financial conglomerates that leave shadows and darkness for the world below. The whole ornate architecture of the past has been replaced by the industrial world as it is left to be eroded away by the continuously falling acid rain. Humanity is left without an identity since there are only a few physical remnants of the past. People can no longer remember how things were before.

Both Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein and the Ridley Scott's 1982 movie Blade Runner depict a bleak future about the fallen dreams of science. Blade Runner is based on a novel called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick. Although Frankenstein was written a century and a half before Dick's book, the two stories share a similar dystopic vision of humanity's future. They also use similarly structured storytelling to explain the impetus towards self-mastery and mastery over the universe. Shelley depicts a doctor and mad scientist who creates a "modern Prometheus," referring to the Greek Titan who steals fire from the gods in order to bestow the gift to humanity. The symbolism of Shelley's subtitle "modern Prometheus" sets the stage for the novel's thematic development. Frankenstein's "monster" commits acts of sacrifice just as the Titan does in Greek mythology. Like Prometheus, Frankenstein's creation becomes a thorn in the side of the creator. The creator punishes the creation by completely isolating him from humanity, causing tremendous suffering due to social isolation. Shelley's theme is replicated again and again in science fiction literature, taking various forms as a story of a creator abandoning his or her creation. Blade Runner is one of those science fiction stories that draws from Frankenstein's message of the poignant existential suffering that comes from being alienated socially and spiritually.

In “The Open Boat,” Stephen Crane demonstrates nature as a destructive symbolic element that describes an objective correlative aspect. There are specific events and characteristics which expresses emotions in the form of artistic revelation. For example, the mysterious experiences of nature as a character creates a persuasive impression. Stephen Crane illustrates descriptive phenomena as an exceptional delicacy: “The manner of her scramble over these walls of water is a mystic thing, and moreover, at the top of them were ordinarily these problems in white water, the foam racing down from the summit of each wave, requiring a new leap, and a leap from the air” (585). The beauty of nature compares a personality with a belief of faith in the human