Frankenstein + Blade Runner Essay
Frankenstein and Blade Runner – Practise Essay
In what ways is your appreciation of both texts enhanced by a comparative study of ambition in Frankenstein and Blade Runner?
Despite the contextual disparity, both Mary Shelley’s nineteenth century novel “Frankenstein” and Ridley Scott’s 1982 post-world film “Blade Runner” reflect parallel values associated with the dangers of ambition. Specifically, both texts highlight the consequences of man’s lack of morality and humanity due to their blind ambitions and man’s eagerness to play the role of God in a quest for power. Additionally, both texts explore concepts related to the dangerous nature of knowledge and unrestricted scientific advancements.
Both Shelley and Scott scrutinise the importance of humanity’s sense of morality from the perspectives of their relative social and historical contexts and through this, criticise man’s lack of morality due to ambition. In “Frankenstein” the birth of the Creature alludes to the creation of Man, the Creature reaching for Victor’s embrace, inversely mimicking God reaching out to Adam. Instead, Victor’s attitude is reactionary and domineering as he ostracises the Creature and labels him “daemon,” completely disregarding the value of patriarchal responsibility prevalent in Shelley’s era. Contrastingly, the Creature’s equitable nature is portrayed through his employment of logos, “Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine towards you” and is ultimately humanised as he utilises the biblical parallelism of Paradise Lost: “I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel.” Here, the Creature’s rational statement is juxtaposed with Victor’s use of pest imagery “Begone! Vile insect,” whereby the Creature’s developed sense of morality in comparison to Victor’s tyrannical behaviour reflects Shelley’s concerns of morality deficient humans. Thus, Shelley uses the Creature to comment upon the effects of over-ambition in humans lacking morality.
In “Blade Runner” Scott
In what ways is your appreciation of both texts enhanced by a comparative study of ambition in Frankenstein and Blade Runner?
Despite the contextual disparity, both Mary Shelley’s nineteenth century novel “Frankenstein” and Ridley Scott’s 1982 post-world film “Blade Runner” reflect parallel values associated with the dangers of ambition. Specifically, both texts highlight the consequences of man’s lack of morality and humanity due to their blind ambitions and man’s eagerness to play the role of God in a quest for power. Additionally, both texts explore concepts related to the dangerous nature of knowledge and unrestricted scientific advancements.
Both Shelley and Scott scrutinise the importance of humanity’s sense of morality from the perspectives of their relative social and historical contexts and through this, criticise man’s lack of morality due to ambition. In “Frankenstein” the birth of the Creature alludes to the creation of Man, the Creature reaching for Victor’s embrace, inversely mimicking God reaching out to Adam. Instead, Victor’s attitude is reactionary and domineering as he ostracises the Creature and labels him “daemon,” completely disregarding the value of patriarchal responsibility prevalent in Shelley’s era. Contrastingly, the Creature’s equitable nature is portrayed through his employment of logos, “Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine towards you” and is ultimately humanised as he utilises the biblical parallelism of Paradise Lost: “I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel.” Here, the Creature’s rational statement is juxtaposed with Victor’s use of pest imagery “Begone! Vile insect,” whereby the Creature’s developed sense of morality in comparison to Victor’s tyrannical behaviour reflects Shelley’s concerns of morality deficient humans. Thus, Shelley uses the Creature to comment upon the effects of over-ambition in humans lacking morality.
In “Blade Runner” Scott