Essay – Keiralee – Mod A Power and responsibility are codependent concepts, where responsibility is always evident when discussing the concept of power. This perception of power and responsibility is derived from the analysis of Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein (1818) and Ridley Scott’s science fiction film Blade Runner (1982). By discussing nature’s sublimity, social hierarchy and society’s socialisation, we see how social responsibility is the core of any issue humanity faces. Frankenstein is the story of a man on a pursuit to create life, succeeding with dire consequences. Through this, Mary Shelley illustrates different forms of power as an unchecked capability of society, and expresses their dangers to humanity.
Both Shelley’s novel and Scott’s feature film are examples of texts that transcend the age they are created in – they serve as warnings to humanity about the dangers of scientific alteration of the natural cycle Shelley’s Frankenstein was composed during an era of rampant social and scientific change; although this change was not necessarily progress. Shelley’s novel examines the moral responsibility of the scientist, and offers the consequences of annihilation of nature. During the 19th Century, the environment stopped being a source of beauty and inspiration and largely became another commodity; a casualty of the Industrial Revolution. Shelley continues the Romantic theme of emphasis on nature with her repeated
Victor Frankenstein is affected by such views, and reflects a swing back and forth from Romantic to Enlightenment. The novel is mainly focused on how humans treat nature and how it affects their lives. There is a complex line between the Romantic's respect towards nature and the enlightened thinker's emphasis on rational thought and ambition, and we can see several examples of this in the novel. Victor Frankenstein explores the Enlightenment point of view and due to the creation of the monster undergoes a complete shift towards the Romantic point of view on science and knowledge. The Romantics disliked enlightened thinkers' emphasis on rational thought.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Scott Ridley’s Blade Runner, although constructed in different contexts, are both instrumental in demonstrating the universal notion of the nature of humanity. Through the literary discourse of Frankenstein, Shelley is able to draw from the contextual influences of the Romantic Movement and Enlightenment, therefore exploring the valued notions of excessive knowledge and the role of creator in establishing glory. These universal notions have been appropriated and shaped in Blade Runner, to therefore present the way in which the contemporary capitalised society of America has led to a futuristic world characterised by the consequences of excessive knowledge and usurping the role of creator. Both Frankenstein
Introduction Warn us of the consequences of overstepping our boundaries and unbridled technological advancement. Subsequently, it becomes evident that despite their temporal and contextual differences, both texts are in fact linked through their common concerns and concepts. The story is partially based on Giovanni Aldini's electrical experiments on dead animals and was also a warning against the expansion of modern humans in the Industrial Revolution. Although written in different times, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Bladerunner by Ridley Scott both address similar concerns about the consequences of unrestrained technological abuse, relentless consumerism and their threat to the natural world as man exerts power to alter the natural
The parallelism between Victor Frankenstein and Prometheus is seen through both of their actions of trying to play God by giving life. Both Frankenstein and Prometheus tried to create their own being or race to worship them, and were punished in the end for their endeavors. In “Frankenstein”, one can see the power struggle between Frankenstein and The Creature. Frankenstein becomes obsessed with his studies and project of creating a human, and in a way becomes power thirsty as he plays God by giving life. When his experiment comes to life, Frankenstein gets scared, thus giving The Creature all of the power he previously held.
When comparing Mary Shelley’s 1818 Gothic novel ‘Frankenstein’ and Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi film ‘Blade Runner’, the distinctive contexts are accentuated through the fundamental commonality regarding the misuse of power. This issue is foremost addressed in Shelley’s 19th century context of the Industrial revolution; a period of unprecedented scientific endeavour where the world was on the brink of destruction due to technological and scientific advances. This issue is extrapolated forward in Blade Runner, portraying the effects of two hundred years of industry and technology – the creation of a dystopian, apocalyptic society where the forewarned consequences of misuse of power are commonplace and all natural order is absent. Essentially, the symbiotic relationship between the two texts condemns humanity’s desire for power and highlights the two distinctive contexts and how they affect the representation of this idea in both texts. Throughout Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s warning against the abuse of power and interference with natural forces permeates through the character of Victor, whose obsession with power taints his moral compass and subsequently causes him to tamper with nature.
Throughout the novel Frankenstein, author Mary Shelley defines morality based on a nature and nurture of ones and it plays relevant role on a person life. Shelley explains sometimes a mankind’s morality can be bad and she mentions it through her the characters Victor Frankenstein, the creature and Robert Walden. Frankenstein’s great desire of creating life endanger his family and goes against nature, his careless disregard for a naïve creature turns it into vicious exterminator and Walden’s unachievable fantasy of finding north pole put his crew in deadly
When these texts are examined comparatively, the contiguity, proximity and associations that can exist between them shape more than just an interesting response but one that is illuminating. Both texts demonstrate man’s relentless pursuit for knowledge as detrimental to humanity’s existence. Shelly recognises the ‘horrors’ and dehumanising consequences of the prolific changes of the early 19th century. She criticises the great promises and progress of the Industrial Revolution using the isolation and destruction of the scientist Victor Frankenstein as a social warning for society. Victor’s egotistic obsession with “unfolding the deep mysteries of creation” forces him far away from nature and society into an isolated and dehumanised existence, ideas reflecting Shelley’s Romantic perspective.
Analyse how a comparative study of your two texts has shown how values have changed over time Through recurrent, universal themes, texts from different contexts may successfully portray how certain values have changed over time. The values of a specific context are shaped and defined by the social, cultural and historical influences of its time. A comparative study of Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, from the Romantic Era and Ridley Scott’s film, Blade Runner, from a period of rapid globalization, reveals how these changing influences have altered the values of society. This transformation in values is greatly explored in both texts through the themes of Man playing God, greed, and the fragility of humanity. By interpreting advancements