Comparative Study of Frankenstein and Blade Runner

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The comparative study of Mary Shelley’s romantic gothic novel, Frankenstein (1818) and Ridley Scott’s futuristic hybrid film, Blade Runner: Director’s Cut (1991), both significantly demonstrate the personal struggles experienced by individuals due to the loss of nature and humanity as a result of technological advancement. Mary Shelly explores how Victor Frankenstein’s desire to pursue knowledge and power without personal responsibility leads to both the Creature’s and his own struggles in life. Likewise, Ridley Scott show how Tyrell’s unethical actions of creating replicants and a lack of parental responsibility for them result in their personal struggles in a disintegrating society in the near future. In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein’s unethical enquiries into the source of life and the attempt to usurp the role of God cause the Creature to experience various struggles in life. Shelley’s use of Galvanism and Genesis, with the support of biblical allusion to criticise humanity’s disregard for nature during the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century is used to exemplify the detrimental consequences of science on individuals. The struggles face by the Creature in an attempt to live peacefully, supported by the Creature stating: ‘You gave me life…but left me to die’, emphasises on Victor’s lack of responsibility for his own actions, the repetition of first person narration ‘I’ and ‘me’ and the use of oxymoron capture the responders’ sympathy and leads to the conclusion that the Creature is possibly more human than Victor. The Creature also struggles to gain companionship from his creator and other individuals due to his grotesque physical appearance: ‘When I became fully convinced that I am the monster that I am’, this is supported by his statement: ‘My heart yearns to be known…’, the use of personification emphasise on the Creature’s desire to be ‘loved’ by
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