Frankenstein and Blade Runner Essay

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“Why is it that Frankenstein and Blade Runner present similar perspectives to humanities use of technology despite being composed more than 150 years apart?” in your response make detailed response to both texts.
The desire for social progression has always shrouded society. Both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) were produced during eras of technological exploration. Through depicting technology breeching moral boundaries through context, characterisation and intertextuality, both Scott and Shelley highlight the dangers of progression with the absence of ethical emotion – a timeless social issues which binds these two texts. Written during the industrial revolution and the emerging era of existentialism and exploration – Shelley’s Frankenstein can be interpreted as a warning to the technologically curious. This curious nature is personified throughout the protagonist Victor Frankenstein, who tragically falls victim to experimentation without boundaries. This was an attempt to foreshadow the potential dangers of unmonitored technological advancements. To reiterate this sentiment, Shelley also aimed to stress the divinity of nature in the face of technological dominance through elements of Romanticism. “The weight upon my shoulders was sensibly lightened as I plunged yet deeper into the ravine” emotive imagery highlights the cleansing effect of the environment, juxtaposed against the oppressive nature of the technologically advanced city. This idea of negatively depicting technologic dominance is similarly illuminated by Scott. To emphasise the age of globalisation, consumerism, corporate domination and commercialism, Scott has intended the dystopian setting of P.A. 2019 to represent our potential existence should we let technology get out of control. The establishing panoramic long shot of industrial columns spewing fire against the eternally dark horizon generated fear for what our society might come to be. The majestic ziggurats of the Tyrell Corporation loom over the city squalor – a visual metaphor for technology’s domination over society and the resulting negative impact. It is clear that Scott had intended Blade Runner to be a warning of our own progressive drive as a society. Shelley has characterised Victor and the Monster as elements of this technological progression. Victor represents society intent on pushing the boundaries and the monster represents the product of this curiosity; of technology gone wrong; technology without ethics. “Accursed creator! Why do you form a monster so hideous that even you turn away from me in disgust?” The monsters constant rhetoric questioning addresses these ethics and illuminates the monster as a symbol of innocence in the face of corruption. Victor’s relationships also allow insight into the moral dilemma of creation. Victor’s positive family relationship is juxtaposed against his spite for the monster, a somewhat child of his. This represents the separation of emotion and technological progression and the dangers that accompany this. This illustrates the warning Shelley aimed her progressing society to heed. Similarly, the characterisation within ‘Blade Runner’ sheds light on the fragile relationship between technology and emotion. Roy Batty – the product is in fact ‘more human than human’ against the society that produced him; personified by the anti-her Deckard. As Roy releases a white dove upon his acceptance of imminent death it is evident that he acknowledges himself as a sad
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