Frankenstein & Blade Runner: a Comparative Analysis

What are the limits at which humanity will reach? What are we capable of and at the end of it all what will be judged as our defining quality? For centuries philosophers and writers have been pondering these questions. One recurring theme related to these questions, despite the context and the time in history of which it is questioned seems to continue to fascinate and defy writers of an answer. What role does science and technologies have to play in society and what will its impacts be upon humanity? Evidence of this question being pondered by writers and composers can be seen through various different texts throughout time. The novel Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelly and the film Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott although composed over 150 years apart share this common question. The storyline, content and text type while vastly different, address similar themes and ideas concerning the ethical complications of science and technology.
The gothic novel Frankenstein released in 1818 and written by Mary Shelley reflects the changes of society in the time of which in which it was written. Europe at the time was going through a revolution of science or “enlightenment”. Many new and amazing ideas concerning philosophy, science, medicine and the origins of human kind were being questioned and realised. People were in search of knowledge. However some believed that some branches of science pushed the natural limits with which humans should tamper with. The idea Galvanism (belief that electricity could be created within the flesh of animals and humans) and Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution scared traditionalists and some factions believed these “new” sciences could be detrimental. The Romantics of which it was believed Shelley had close ties within, where people who believed in freedom, human’s connection to nature, imagination and individualism allowed artists freedom, experimentation and creativity. Shelley’s contrasting beliefs of romanticism contrasting