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You can also watch relevant video lessons for Frankenstein through the following videos.
Interpreting Frankenstein: • Decoding Mary Shelley:...
Critical Analysis of Frankenstein: • 🌿 Nature's Aesthetics ...
Values and context are often reflected in an author’s writing. Therefore an understanding of the specific values and contexts of the time is elementary in the study and analysis of any text. In the Gothic novel Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley, the influences of the Romantic and Enlightenment movements, the industrial age, Galvanism and Rousseau’s social contract can be identified throughout the text. This is also true for the Science film Blade Runner (1992) by Ridley Scott. Corporate greed, blatant consumerism, environmental degradation and the science of cloning are all contextual influences expressed throughout the film. Through studying both texts together we can foster a greater understanding of notions of humanity and uncontrolled human ambition and how views of these notions have altered with time.
Humanity and consideration of what it means to be human is an issue prevalent within both texts. However, each text draws different conclusions due to the influence of contextual values. In Shelley’s Frankenstein, a feeling of empathy is created for the monster to demonstrate its human qualities; Frankenstein states, “From my earliest remembrance I had been as I then was in height and proportion… What was I?” The rhetorical question highlights the monster’s heightened perceptions and imagination, as well as self-awareness and curiosity. This is further emphasised by the conjunction “Opening the curtains and looking on him with yellow, watery, but speculative eyes.” The use of diction in “but speculative” reflects Shelley’s Romantic notion of emotion and imagination being connected to humanity, but also the in-built prejudice that the Romantics would have towards such a creature. The Romantic notion of physical beauty being linked to inner beauty damns the monster who is both ugly and unnatural. The monster’s hideous appearance is considered in the Romantic’s context to be evidence of a poor character and his actions eventually coincide with his. “I saw at the open window a figure the most hideous and abhorred… with his fiendish finger he pointed towards the corpse of my wife.” Thus knowledge of the contextual values of the Romantic period is tantamount to understanding the way in which Shelley positions the audience to respond to the monster, and allows us to perceive her notions of humanity.
The idea of humanity is portrayed differently in Blade Runner, where the contextual values of the 1980s reflect a society more open to diverse notions of humanity. Blade Runner positions us to ultimately accept the replicants as ‘more human than human’. The juxtaposition of Deckard and Roy is evidence of this. Deckard is cold, cynical, depressed and unethical as highlighted in his rape of Rachael. Roy is intelligent, beautiful, feels love for Pris, and even quotes literature:“Fiery the angels fell deep thunder rolled around their shores burning with the fires of orc”. Scott’s depiction of the replicants as the possible future of humanity is informed by the growing awareness and exposure to technology. Debates over the ethics of cloning and even robotic artificial intelligence made Scott’s 1980s and 1990s audiences more accepting of the notion of replicants. Roy makes the comparison, “We are not computers Sebastian,” indicating that Roy is self-aware and considers himself more than a machine. The replicants’ humanity is reinforced visually through the violent death of Zhora. Anything but a ‘retirement’ dramatic, slow music is played and her violent death is shown in slow motion. These film devices are evoked a sympathetic response from the viewer for Zhora. Thus the contextual values of the technological boom of the 1980s and science ethics being debated in the public sphere are central to understanding Scott’s depiction of the replicants and the concept of humanity his film conveys.
Ambition is an issue discussed in both Frankenstein and Blade Runner. Frankenstein is a vehicle for Shelley’s concerns and criticisms of the ambitions of Enlightenment thinkers to demystify nature, which is God’s domain and therefore sacred to the Romantics.. The influencing contextual values of the Enlightenment, expressed in the writings of Humphrey Davy “Science has bestowed upon man powers… which have enabled him to change and modify the beings surrounding him.” Are also evident in the characterisation of Frankenstein.
26 июл 2024
