Blade Runner and Frankenstein Comparative Essay
How has your study of Frankenstein and Blade Runner deepened your understanding of the ways the characters within a text are vehicles through which composers explore the values of their time?
A comparative study of texts and contexts show how composers use characters to demonstrate the impact that the values of individuals have on the world. Despite a significant time difference between the novel, Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus, written by Mary Shelley in 1818, and the film, Blade Runner, directed by Sir Ridley Scott in 1992, both composers use characters to warn future societies about the consequences of distorted values by emphasising a lack of key values. The characters who; do not respect the role nature has in life, value their own personal desires over everything else or ignore the importance of parental responsibility are shown to have detrimental effects on their lives. Animating these fears of distorted values urges the audience to alter their own values and attitudes and influence further impact on the world.
The importance of respecting the omnipotence and the crucial role of nature in the world are emphasised by characters that are stripped of the glory of the natural world. Victor Frankenstein, the relatable protagonist in Frankenstein, was at first inspired by the glory of nature and was overwhelmed by its majesty. This admiration and wonder was soon replaced by a “fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature”. Frankenstein decides that he alone can replicate nature and bask in the eternal praise and glory of the “creation of an animal as complex and wonderful as man”. This delusion ultimately leads to his punishment by the very force that had inspired this pursuit, nature. Personification is used to create imagery of the fierce power of nature. “I might be driven into the Atlantic, and feel all the tortures of starvation, or be swallowed up by the immeasurable waters that roared and buffeted around me.” Similar to Frankenstein,
A comparative study of texts and contexts show how composers use characters to demonstrate the impact that the values of individuals have on the world. Despite a significant time difference between the novel, Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus, written by Mary Shelley in 1818, and the film, Blade Runner, directed by Sir Ridley Scott in 1992, both composers use characters to warn future societies about the consequences of distorted values by emphasising a lack of key values. The characters who; do not respect the role nature has in life, value their own personal desires over everything else or ignore the importance of parental responsibility are shown to have detrimental effects on their lives. Animating these fears of distorted values urges the audience to alter their own values and attitudes and influence further impact on the world.
The importance of respecting the omnipotence and the crucial role of nature in the world are emphasised by characters that are stripped of the glory of the natural world. Victor Frankenstein, the relatable protagonist in Frankenstein, was at first inspired by the glory of nature and was overwhelmed by its majesty. This admiration and wonder was soon replaced by a “fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature”. Frankenstein decides that he alone can replicate nature and bask in the eternal praise and glory of the “creation of an animal as complex and wonderful as man”. This delusion ultimately leads to his punishment by the very force that had inspired this pursuit, nature. Personification is used to create imagery of the fierce power of nature. “I might be driven into the Atlantic, and feel all the tortures of starvation, or be swallowed up by the immeasurable waters that roared and buffeted around me.” Similar to Frankenstein,