Frankenstein/Blade Runner Essay

The blindness of one’s morality in the irresponsible pursuit of knowledge and power, and the consequential diminishment of our humanity that ensues is explored in both Frankenstein (1818) and Blade Runner (1982). These texts warn against the neglect of responsibility and the obsession with scientific endeavours. Despite different times, both Mary Shelley’s and Ridley Scott’s contexts represent cultural anxieties about the nature of progress, both underpinned by profound technological expansion and marked by rapid growth of the economic industrial landscape. The cautionary message is displayed in each text through the creation of strong characters and the use of a number of literary and cinematic techniques.
In Shelley’s text Frankenstein’s animation of the creature explores the consequences of the blind pursuit of knowledge. This moment is largely a comment on the unknown consequences of the grand expansion of scientific knowledge and experiments of the day, particularly in anatomy with figures such as Luigi Galvani. Frankenstein is an exaggerated incarnation of such figures: the master scientist who seeks to interfere and control nature, rather than the scholar-scientist who seeks to understand. Shelley warns against this as Frankenstein embarks on his creation of life, and the strengthening of his obsession to unlock the secrets of life becomes apparent. Shelley uses the gothic polarity of life and death to examine the nature of his obsession. Frankenstein ironically surrounds himself with the materials of death and corrupted bodies to create life and as such reveals the grotesqueness of his transgression. Shelley’s use of gothic settings highlights his isolation, “and forced to spend days and nights in vaults and charnel-houses"; a metaphor for his isolated state of mind, reflecting Frankenstein’s diminishing humanity. As his humanity diminishes, the idea of who is monster and who is human here surfaces. Shelley draws from the Age of Enlightenment and the