Frankenstein_and_Blade_Runner

Introduction Frankenstein and Blade Runner The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and the film blade runner directed and produced by Ridley Scott provide unique and profound insights into the values that humans have in science. The values of society at the time of the texts’ composition are reflected to the audience through the use of language and film techniques, as in evidence in Blade Runner where the technique of ‘retirement’ is used when Deckard slaughters a replicant. Granting the two texts in question represent vastly different context certain parallels can none the less be drawn between them in relation to the shaped values that are universal to the human experience. Equally, there is also a significant degree of difference in the composers’ exploration of contextually specific aspects of human life, including the values that humans have placed on science and the ‘thirst for knowledge’. Conclusion Man’s relationship with the physical environment is also an aspect of the human experience that is explored in both texts as it highlights the insights into understanding how the context shapes values of the humans. Frankenstein highlights the romantic appreciation of nature and the value that victor places on nature ‘as the valley is not beautiful as that of servox’. However, in Blade Runner the setting is diametrically opposed to beauty as the artificial milieu of the futuristic dystopia depicted emphasizes the importance of nature by sabotaging it. The values that Tyrell has placed on science has taken over the world and ‘mutated’ the earth dramatically that people move ‘off-world’ to live on colonies. The values placed in science as explored in both texts highlight both the values human have in their interaction with each other and on science.