Composers create a representation of the future by incorporating contextual beliefs, knowledge, and values to highlight the impact of humanity’s hubris. Despite a chronological disparity, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) excoriate the cognitive estrangement of mankind’s attempts to usurp the role of God and our Technicism ideology; mankind’s obsession with transcendence will ironically result in the regression of human integrity. Similarly, Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) and James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) augur the requirement for change, hence excoriating humanity’s ignorance and desensitised perception of sovereignty. The hubristic and immoral pursuit of transcended scientific knowledge is the basis for humanity’s tragic downfall. Shelley’s characterisation of Victor as a human with a metaphorical “thirst for knowledge” and a hubristic desire to “tread a land never imprinted by the foot of man” alludes to Shelley’s Age of Enlightenment concerns of galvanism and “playing God”. Using dramatic irony “I ardently desired the acquisition of knowledge”, Shelley characterises Victor’s insatiable desire for knowledge and his attempts to undermine the constitution of humanity as the “Modern Prometheus”. This hamartia is excoriated by the sexual connotations of Victor’s “fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature” where his attempt to play God, ironically highlights the regression of humanity to a primitive and
From the beginning of time until now the limitless pursuit of knowledge reveals man’s weakness. Modern society provides humans with a wide variety of sources on how to gain knowledge, both good and evil. The thirst for forbidden knowledge beyond what man can essentially handle, causes a tragic life. The protagonist in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley exemplifies the behavior of the ideal man grasping for more knowledge than he can truly bare; in turn this knowledge becomes tarnished. Shelley eludes to the Greek myth of Prometheus allowing the reader to delve deeper into the general theme that those who pursue an insatiable desire for knowledge, if not tamed,
“Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow” (Shelley 60). In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, she expresses her beliefs regarding the danger of pursuing happiness through the attainment of knowledge, because true happiness is found in the emotional connections established between people. The pursuit of knowledge is not necessarily an evil thing, but it can cause destruction when it is pursued beyond natural limits. Victor Frankenstein becomes a slave to his passion for learning in more than one way; first his life is controlled by
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.
In Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, ‘Frankenstein’, a recurring motif of ambition and the quest for knowledge is present among the characters of Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton and the creature. Victor’s obsessive ambition is his fatal flaw, ruining his life and leading to the murder of his loved ones and eventually his own death. Robert Walton shares a similar ambition
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
Victor Frankenstein was obsessed with knowledge, and thought knowledge was the key to unlocking nature and become a pioneer in science and challenging God. “I have described myself as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature” (Shelley, Frankenstein, 21). Victor always had to push boundaries, and his passion drove him closer to science and immorality and farther from his family and friends. Once Victor sees his abomination animated, his potential come alive, he wishes for nothing more than if it had never happened. He moves on to a new obsession – fleeing his past. It consumes him and his health.
Shelley uses Victor’s lack of humanity as a metaphor for mankind’s negligence of the dying essence of romanticism in the time the book was written. It is evident in the chapter where Victor uses the serenity of nature to attain tranquility in a troubled mind. The visual imagery created in Montanvert accentuates the
“Learn from me…how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow” (Shelley, 39).
Many innovations throughout the modern world have made life significantly easier, safer, of higher quality, and are said to be done for the "greater good of humanity". However, these accomplishments come at a cost, as expressed through the concepts of creation and responsibility that lie at the core of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It is through these concepts that Shelley explores how society has changed during Romanticism and the Industrial Revolution, with lessening importance on shared knowledge and the "public sphere" and more emphasis on individual achievement and identity, leading to a fractured and isolated society. In this paper I argue that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein criticizes the impacts of Industrial Revolution and Romantic
In the gothic novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley weaves an intricate web of allusions through her characters’ expedient desires for knowledge. Both the actions of Frankenstein, as well as his monster allude to John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Book eight of Milton’s story relates the tale of Satan’s temptation and Eve’s fateful hunger for knowledge. The infamous Fall of Adam and Eve introduced the knowledge of good and evil into a previously pristine world.
In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and Frankenstein’s Creation reach similar conclusions humanity by seafaring to the North Pole, delving into the dark depths of science, and observing the rejecting nature of humans. The three tragic heroes Walton, Frankenstein and the Creation are all character doubles in their initial enthusiasm for knowledge, inner dualist personalities, religiously glorified personal goals, possessive relationships and negative effects of gaining knowledge. The three character’s views of humanity are a microcosm of the culturally accepted importance of beauty, and how the culmination of knowledge can be blinding and lead to utter ruination.
‘Blade Runner’, the film adaption, directed by Ridley Scott in 1982, of the 1968 novel ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ by Philip K. Dick. This essay will explore the meaning of the Tyrell slogan “More human than human” by following Deckard on Earth in Los Angeles 2019 as a futuristic, dark and depressing industrial metropolis by looking into and discussing what is real and what is not, the good and the bad and why replicants are more appealing than humans. This essay will analyse and pull apart the “Blade Runner’ world, the condition of humanity and what it really means to be human.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein explores the concepts of knowledge and science and the dangers involved with the pursuit and investigation of these ideas. The novel conveys Shelley’s attitudes towards science by portraying it as having the capability to exceed the bounds of human restraint. Through the development of her protagonist Victor Frankenstein, the romantic and gothic aspects of her novel, the period of 1818 and the influences of the world she was living in that
Shelley’s commentary on humanity’s intense ambition for greater knowledge, laced with the sorrowful dangers of isolation and creation paint a picture of humanity’s ultimate desire for companionship and societal order. On the other hand, Camus creates a picture of total chaos; a confusing, accidental world of the absurd where a detached, amoral protagonist strives to find the useless meaning of life. Oftentimes, humanity struggles to understand its overall position within the universe. If the universe fails to answer our own questions, at least humanity can fumble around together in
The text "kissing Becky: Masculine Fears and Misogynist moments in Science Fiction Films. This text explores the misogynist side of Blade Runner. More importantly, each female characters in this film express an extreme level of male fear of or violence toward women. In Blade Runner, 2049 Women are either literally prostitutes, holographic housewives like joy, a product that is marketed with the lines "Experience Joi," "Everything you want to hear. Everything you want to see.", more violent boss women, also a 'companion' but one who can kick ass who nevertheless meet gruesome deaths that we watch in horrifying detail. Men also get killed, of course, but we don't watch their eyes bulge for tens of gratuitous seconds, they are blunt, noble deaths, not desperate fetishistic ones.