Blade Runner And Frankenstein: A Comparative Analysis

Even since the beginning of time man has pushed the limits of knowledge, and with every new discovery there are pros and cons, we have all heard the saying curiosity killed the cat and ignorance is bliss. Despite the great gulfs of time in-between the writing of both texts, they both portray the same themes central to the story as the context of both texts was of a time of great social and technological change.

An idea that is present in Scott’s Blade Runner and Shelley’s Frankenstein is they believe that in the future God and society’s ethos may be one day be replaced by science and technological advances, through the characters Victor and Tyrell.
Genesis 1:27 states that “God created humankind in his image.” A God is the creator of life
and much like a father figure, God is meant to guide his creation through life. However, in victor’s case, he disregards his creation and any responsibility for it, rejecting the newborn, forcing the creature out into the world to fend for itself.
Victor is represented as a man desperately searching for the elixir of life and the key to immortality. However, his obsession with immortality leads him to resume the role of the modern day God.
Victor violates ethical principles of playing God. Repulsed at the very sight of the creature and immediately regrets his work, “but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” Even though Victor created the creature himself, he was so blinded by his obsession that he could not see the monstrosity right before him until it was too late and the lifeless stitching of corpses had become with life.
Further in the story the creature confronts Victor and questions his authority to give life, “who are you to sport thus with life?” This rhetorical question in the story shows how the creature, which should be at a stage of immaturity, has already surpassed his creator and is now acting rationally and responsibly, a characteristic that Victor lacks, the creature asks if his creator has the right, asks if he is a god. At this part of the book the audience come to empathise with the creature and start to reveal certain resentment for Victor and his insensitivity.
In addition god was compassionate enough to grant Adam with a companion, the same deed that victor cannot bring himself to do, showing that he cannot empathise for the creature, treating it as worthless.
The idea that the role of god can be taken over is influenced by the industrial revolution, a time when the power of the church was waning and the control of science was starting take over.
This prompted Shelly to write a story as a warning to society about the dire consequences of rivalling and defying god.
This warning is similar to Blade Runner, where Tyrell, a mere man, who is the only representation of a god, in the absence of any type of religion throughout the film. He is depicted as the pinnacle of scientific achievement, which lives by his lonesome atop his Ziggurat shaped building, watching over the world he is not a part of. The ziggurat is symbolic of a temple and is used to represent Tyrell as a God like figure.
Tyrell, much like victor, disregards any consequences for his actions and empathy for his creations. This is shown by Tyrell’s comment when he notices Roy has come to confront him, “what can we do for you,” this comment show how Tyrell feels he can patronise this replicant, talking him as if he were a child even when Roy is Tyrell’s physical and emotional superior, this also reflects Tyrell’s ego, believing he is a superior being. Roy replies “I want more life father,” Father is used to show how it is time for Tyrell to take responsibility for his god like actions. Tyrell replies with this platitude remark, ”the light that burns twice as bright, burns half as long,” this reveals Tyrell lack of remorse and compassion for his own creation and how he cannot
empathise with Roy’s inevitable death. Soon after this unpleasant encounter Roy kills Tyrell. His death represents Scott’s belief that humanity may one day succumb to the technology they have created.
The warning is shown throughout the film blade runner that man cannot resume the role of god if the presence of god in society is absent. The consequence of man being god is represented in the first scene where the 2019 Las Angeles is a dark place, with a close up on flames which is symbolic of Dante’s Inferno. Also Scott use Las Angeles because it means city of angels which is it so longer. This juxtaposition represents that a world where man is god will turn into hell.
Scott shows these dangers, much like Shelley, to represent the fear of science giving men too much power and men abusing that power.

Both texts represent the danger of the obsession of knowledge through the protagonist surreptitious journey to find the elixir of life and the key to immortality. Despite being written and filmed in very different times, man has always been on the search for key to immortality, this is why the central theme has been passed down from one text to another. Shelley and Scott were concerned that the advances in science and technology would lead to dehumanisation and isolation.
‘The rhyme of the ancient mariner’ is a poem about a mariner who was sailing and decided to kill an albatross. After this all his crew died except for him, and the sailor is left to warn the others of the consequences of destroying nature. It is present in the opening line of Frankenstein. This allusion gives insight into the issues to be explored later in the book.
Shelley explores the mental anguish of humans and how far one would go to test the limits of moral ethics to unlock answers of life and death.
His obsession with the possibility of ameliorating the human life leads to his loss of humility and empathy and so he isn’t able to empathise with the feelings and needs of his creation. Shelley explains through her book that the obsession with knowledge can lead to loss of humanity.
Victor was driven by “one thought, one conception and one purpose.” The repetition of the word one identifies his obsession with the “secret science” led him to push aside the rational and reject any moral barrier that stood in his way. Shelley’s first portrayal of this concept is when Victor steals body part of the deceased, which he explains they are candidly as “raw materials,” and the audience is left to ponder, is this morally and ethically right?
Victor’s quest to find the elixir of life and the key to immortality leads him to a self-imposed exile, where he isolates him from his friend and family, this represent. Shelley’s writing was influenced by the enlightenment period, which represented that loves was to come first, therefore this shows how victor will stop at nothing pushing aside his fiancée for his work, representing his extreme obsession.
Then he creates this creature from the spare parts.
The ambition of Victor leads him to reject the rational and render him blind to the consequences, and as the creature comes to life, he is overcome with the sudden realisation of his actions.
This idea or theme has been influenced by the gothic genre and the industrial revolution, where many scientific achievements were being found. Shelley wrote this a warning to show the dire consequences if science was not handled carefully. Further towards the end of the book Captain Walton describes Victor as a “man on the brink of destruction,” this is the final warning, to show how the obsession for knowledge can destroy a life.
This same theme is present in blade runner, Tyrell a man who appears to be a scientific genius appears an avaricious fool for tampering with such a powerful science. Tyrell is shown to be similar to Frankenstein as he is indifferent to the feelings of his creation. He creates Rachel as he is experimenting with life and he is shown to have no compassion as he finds amusement with her situation, “Rachel is an experiment, nothing more.” The audience questions whether it is morally justified if a person is able to create life out of
amusement.
Tyrell, living alone above the world in Ziggurat, seems to be more of an observer rather than a participant in life, but still seems content by this. Scott shows this to represent how the search to ameliorate one’s life through scientific advancements can lead to isolation and dehumanisation. This is also present with the character J.F Sebastian, who has been isolated from the world, so he lives alone in a building with nothing but his toys as company. This is the dangers put forward by Scott, showing that mass consumerism could one day lead to a dejected and melancholy world.