Victor represents society intent on pushing the boundaries and themonster represents the product of this curiosity; of technology gone wrong;technology without ethics. “Accursed creator! Why do you form a monster so hideousthat even you turn away from me in disgust?” The monsters constant rhetoricquestioning addresses these ethics and illuminates the monster as a symbol of innocence in the face of corruption. Victor’s relationships also allow insight into themoral dilemma of creation. Victor’s positive family relationship is juxtaposed againsthis spite for the monster, a somewhat child of his.
In the novel Frankenstein we see Victor’s technological ambition turn into repulsion as the creation of the monster help him realize the magnitude of his mistakes. “The beauty of my dream vanished, breathless horror and disgust filled my heart”, this shows that Victor was blinded by his ambition and by giving up morality and using technology for his own selfish needs he was not able to foresee the inevitable horrid consequences. On the other hand in Blade Runner the ethical issues of science and technologies are not only portrayed through the creation of the replicants but also by the destruction of nature and its environments. During the beginning of the movie a camera shot from above shows a dark, industrialized city filled with fiery explosions while ominous music is played in the background, the image of the city and non-dijectic sounds portray and emphasise how society has lost sight of what really matters and no longer prioritize
However, whereas Victor’s hatred for the monster and relentless will to kill it drives him to his death, Walton ultimately pulls back from his treacherous mission having learned from Victor’s example, how destructive the thirst for knowledge can be. Also, in the novel, Walton highlights the fact that whilst success is great, “while glowing with enthusiasm of success” (7) if you have no friends it doesn’t matter because there is nobody to enjoy your accomplishments with. As a result Walton
All of these characters have an ambition for intelligence, which they deal with in different ways. Victor wanted to make a creation of life from lifeless matter, and he sought to do so no matter what. Frankenstein then begins to study hard and becomes a victim of desolation, leaving him detached from his family and friends to accomplish this outrageous goal of creating life. Through his curiosity he creates a creature, who at first was a beautiful thought, but turned into his very own nightmare. For Victor, his creation, the creature, was his dangerous knowledge, leading to a series of haunting events for him.
The Obsessions of Love, Hatred and Fame Obsession comes in many forms, but it’s the obsessions with love, hatred, and fame that can make or destroy a person. Obsessions can be put to good use when used as a tool to drive a person forward to obtain a goal. But more often they become a consuming force that blinds and stifles a person’s view purpose. In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, obsession is clearly evident throughout the story with the characters Victor Frankenstein and Robert Walton. It is these obsessions of love, hate and fame that eventually destroy Frankenstein and defeats Walton.
Frankenstein and Bladerunner challenges the notions of “men of genius” and raises the critical concern of the dangers of obtaining and acting upon scientific knowledge. It questions how these men of genius can allow themselves to free reign to experiment and interfere with the mysteries of life itself. This can be seen as a ‘Prometheus linking’ motif as both scientists Victor and Tyrrell strive for perfection and are unconcerned with the
Mary Shelley demonstrates this concept through Victor’s pursuit for knowledge, caused by the change of values between the Romantic Era and the Age of Enlightenment. As electricity was discovered, Victor’s admiration for the subject of Galvanism provides him a “thirst for knowledge”, reinforced by his “longing to penetrate the secrets of nature”. This sexual allusion emphasises Victor’s loss of Romantic values which ultimately leads to an extremely arrogant attitude where he “bestows animation upon lifeless matter” and creates the “hideously deformed” monster that metaphorically represents the greed that blinds him. Its horrific actions, namely the killing of people closest to Victor, force him to finally realize that they “died by my hands”. Thus, Shelley warns that the destructiveness of Man’s intrinsic desires for knowledge stems from the change in values.
Practice Essay Question – Othello How do composers use archetypes to achieve their purpose? Use your related text as well. Archetypes allow composers to reveal characteristics inherent in all individuals and augment our understanding of the text. William Shakespeare’s Othello and Mary Harron’s American Psycho both utilise the villainous archetype to represent our universal potential for evil, as both archetypal characters live a life driven by self-interest and jealousy. They create opaque facades to deceive and manipulate others to claim self-superiority.
The desire to succeed interferes with being happy. A person can get lost in the process of solving a problem so intently that they forget those around them, to eat and even where they are. In Mary Shelley's horrific Frankenstein an example is the character of Victor, whose unnatural pursuit of knowledge, of discovering how to create the perfect being, is so extreme that he loses himself in his creation. Frankenstein follows the story of the brilliant Victor and his many achievements, which go astray after he brings to life a creature in order to sate his own curiosity about the "mysteries" of life. It becomes difficult to picture Victor as a human being because he attains in-human qualities like the ability to go countless hours without eating
Although sharing little in setting or premise, the texts Frankenstein and Blade Runner share many of the same concerns as they both challenge the values and morals of the societies in which they were set, most notably the notion of what it means to be human, as well as articulating the composers' critique of the advancement in science and technology. Both texts also exhibit the consequences of imprudent creation and the hubris of an individual to rise above and disrupt the natural order. Written in the eighteen hundreds by aggrieved writer Mary Shelley, the novel Frankenstein presents readers with a Romanticist perspective of technology ‘dehumanizing’ mankind as society was not made clear of their indistinct boundaries. Through Victor’s regression, “I, the true murderer, felt the never dying worm alive in my bosom”, the symbols of the ‘worm’ explore the downfall in