Blade Runner and Frankenstein Essay

1177 Words5 Pages
The transient nature of humanity continually questions the ever-changing values and ethics in society. Although a contextual difference of 150 years, Mary Shelley’s gothic novel, Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s science fiction film, Blade Runner focus on similar concerns and issues reflected by the zeitgeists of the people of their time. Blade Runner and Frankenstein illustrate the evolution of the role of women, the necessity of nature and parental responsibility through the manipulation of selective and skilful techniques. The women in Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein are conveyed as weak and helpless characters, a rigid dichotomy compared her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women that fight for gender equality and criticized the "false system of education" provided for women. The debilitated women in Frankenstein imitate what was socially expected of women in her time, while the monster demonstrates the only alternative available that is self-education. The monster's practice of education is congruent to the Wollstonecraft’s argument for self-education. The monster recalls his when his winter was spent in studying his friends and ‘learned and applied the words, ‘fire,’ ‘milk, ‘bread,’ and ‘wood’’. The repetition of fire is metonymic for the monster’s angst and as a result of his fury, all the weak women die, whilst the strong and educated women remain unharmed – primarily Safie as well as Agatha DeLacey. Safie however is an incredibly strong female character, offsetting the uneducated women. The monster's revenge, when viewed in this context, becomes symbolic of the goal of feminists: to undermine society's stereotypical expectations of women through defiant self-education. Shelley's message is clear: the goal is for women to overcome society's limitations through education, rather than trying to forcefully destroy society's values.
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