Frankenstein and Blade Runner Context

2072 Words9 Pages
Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s motion picture Bladerunner (Director’s Cut) both imaginatively portray several individuals who challenge the established values inherent within their respective contexts. Both compositions are cautionary tales regarding the creation of life, the challenge of the unwritten moral boundaries of society, and the nature of humanity. Contemplation of the human condition has remained an enduring concern of literature and the two texts offer many similar reflections, however, the language form, meaning and significance of each portrayal differs according to context. Analysis of each text’s rendering of these characters offers the audience insight into the changing values and perspectives ingrained in the nearly two hundred years between publications. Consideration of context is central to understanding the established values challenged within each text. Frankenstein, was composed by Mary Shelley in 1818, in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, a time of technological innovation and tumultuous social consequences. The Enlightenment period, which spanned years from around 1650 to the 1800s, had emphasised scientific objectivity, rationality and viewed technological development as the ‘progress of Man’. Frankenstein espouses the values of Romanticism, which arose as a reaction against the Enlightenment. Instead of searching for rules governing nature and human beings, the romantics searched for a direct communion with fellow Man and Nature. Romanticist discourse treated humans as unique creations, not subject to scientific rules. Frankenstein serves as a warning against the unchecked scientific progress that was taking place around Shelley. Similarly, the context of Bladerunner sets out a backdrop of established values which its characters challenge. The years surrounding the making of the film, the later
Open Document