Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner Comparison and Contrast Introduction Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner are two story lines created in a different era, Frankenstein being an early published novel on the creation of an experimental monster that longs to have a normal existence whilst Blade Runner is a more modern take to a future society where there have been genetically engineered robots named ‘ replicas’ that are in appearance indistinguishable from human beings which choose to escape to the planet earth in search of extending their life spans.
The comparison of similarities between the two stories begins with the most simple and obvious being the creation of as referred in the film Blade Runner “ Replicas” of human beings. In Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner there have been visually identical robot creations of human beings called replicas in which whose sole purpose of existence is to carry out tasks that are menial or dangerous.
In the novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley the creature Frankenstein commonly referred as abomination or monster, is showing the scientific advancement in technology and galvanism being research of electrical current creating the stimulation of a body’s muscle, which is used to bring the creature Frankenstein to life. The main warning in between the comparison of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the expansion of Industrial revolution of modern humans, this solely being the creation of human replicas and the industrial boom that this itself could produce for humanity.
Though the creation of these human replicas in the near future would be highly capable, it would not produce any major sustainable form of economy or gross wealth to the world. This meaning that unemployment rates would rise, homelessness would rise, regular income would become hard to find for human beings as these robotic replicas would have no need to be paid and can work significantly more hours than a regular human can with no need for breaks increasing productivity.
If creations like Frankenstein were a common occurrence the world to would also plunge into chaos dealing with the creatures which shown gain intelligence and would gain in turn violent towards humanity in a desire to fit in comfortably. To contrast the two stories is relatively simple; the two films share forms of differences in era and a basic human acceptance. Starting with era, Frankenstein is an early production/novel in which scientifically a creature is created and serves as a warning how something that could prove well in future can itself turn drastically wrong.
This is also shown in the film Blade Runner providing a simplicity for humans turns wrong with the creation of the replica robots being ‘ used’ as an ease in which they get sick of and in turn escape to humanity having only a 4 year life span in which they try to find a way to extend. This is different to Frankenstein’s approach choosing instead to learn of humanity and tries finding a way to be accepted instead of trying to merge and hide in humanity.
The human acceptance between both films is significantly different but in turn not so much, Frankenstein for example is unaccepted because of his physical appearance and general attitude to the human community for their reactions against him, whilst the replicas from the film Blade Runner are accepted as they look and act alike to human beings which from a regular human their differences would be hard to distinguish.
Frankenstein is unaccepted in human society for his general appearance for not fitting in with the regular human. It is simple to understand as if you yourself had an 8 foot monster approach you, you would act in fear or you would act violently towards the creature. Thus Frankenstein begins to dislike the regular human because he does not fit in. However, the difference in Blade runner is that the replica robots of humans are accepted into society because they appear the same and act the same as normal human beings.
Regular people are unaware that these robots that they have living in a part of their society are actually robots hence testing needs to be done to ensure whether the replica is a robot or human and if found disposed of accordingly. This started off with basic emotion, and gained more complex. Conclusion The novel Frankenstein and the film Blade Runner are both similar to each other but pose differences such as human acceptance and era. The generation reading Frankenstein would have had the creature portrayed as a monster and generally not accepted into society hence the simple reaction to remove or destroy the creature.
However in Blade Runner the replicas pose a threat to humanity not from brute force or simply not fitting in, they pose a direct threat to industry, and general day to day human function and actions. The warning posed similarly by both stories is a direct threat to human kind of replica creations of the human body are not meant to be created as they exercise danger, post a threat to humanity and in general do not fit in with day to day human interaction and society.
