Frankenstein Essay
To what extent does your comparative study of Frankenstein and Blade Runner suggest that the relationship between science and nature is an important universal concern? In your response make detailed reference to both texts. Both Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, and Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, present the importance of the relationship between science and nature and their impact on humanity and act as a warning against the pursuit of knowledge without boundaries. “Frankenstein” is a mixture of scientific discovery, literature, myth, and religion as Mary Shelley explores the relationship between science and nature through 1800’s gothic fiction and romanticism. Blade Runner reflects the world of the 1980s as cyberpunk and film noir present individuals in a decaying world and disintegrating social fabric, caused by the abuse in the relationship between science and nature. Mary Shelley was aware of contemporary experiments in imitation and creation of life as Scott assumes technology might have developed to enable the production of fully-functional androids that are unrecognisable from humans. Both texts, reflecting the world in which they were created, aim to suggest the relationship between science and nature is an extreme social concern. Both texts examine the breakage of the bond between nature and humanity due to science and the continual quest for knowledge and the power it brings. Together the texts acknowledge the intellectual and technological abuse and fear of the outcome if nature was to be depleted and lost due to science. The Romantics, of Mary Shelley’s context, despised industrialisation and the unnatural life it represents. “Frankenstein” is based on the existence of ethics and a natural order which Victor violates in creating life, although he hopes to be doing good for humankind. Frankenstein finds his creation immediately repulsive, attacking the Creature with a barrage of denigrating words: “wretch”, “miserable monster”,