Each of us has a responsibility for being alive: one responsibility to creation, of which we are a part, another to the creator a debt we repay by trying to extend our areas of comprehension. ~ Maya Angelou. The ethics of creating life should be of the upmost importance, we should not jeopardise humanity and the environment in the pursuit of science, advancement and technology. In their pursuit for knowledge, power and technological advancement, Mary Shelleys Frankenstein and Ridley Scotts adaptation of Philip K Dick’s ‘Do Androids Dream of Sheep’s’, ‘Blade Runner’ neglect their creations, fail in their parental responsibility, and the consequences of its absence within each context. Despite being composed 160 years apart both texts have similar themes which reflect the attitudes and concerns of society of their time. An emphasis is created on humanity’s demise as a result of egotistical attitudes and negligent behaviours, in an over materialistic world.
Shelley portrays Frankenstein’s behaviour as irresponsible and neglectful towards his revolting creation. Shelley uses emotive language to highlight Victors rejection for his creation. “Devil, wretch, vile insect.” Written during the industrial revolution, Shelley’s Frankenstein can be interpreted as a warning for the repercussions of one mans neglect. This negligence is exposed through Victor Frankenstein’s nature as he falls victim to the dangers of unmonitored technological advancement and lack of his moral boundaries. Victor is engulfed with curiosity of technology, buried with the want to create perfection and in attempting to construct what he is not he creates a repulsive monster. “The labours of men of genius, however erroneously directed, scarcely ever fail in ultimately turning to the solid advantage of mankind.” Through this quote and the use of literary allusions we are given an insight to Frankenstein’s remorseless and egotistical nature.
Similar to Frankenstein, Scott questions humanity and the moral implications of science and the growing neglect and lack of concern for the environment. Scott has explicitly portrayed the dystopian setting of P.A. 2019 to represent the potential deficiency of society’s moral knowledge. The replicant’s fate is dangling in the hands of their creator, Tyrell, with his hunger for knowledge and power deserts them and thereby condemning the replicants to a life of misery. Roy: “It’s quite and experience to live in fear isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave.” Emotive language is used to manipulate the audience into sympathising with the replicants. In Scotts film, he characterizes the subservient nature of the replicants and raises serious moral and ethical issues, Tyrell has created beings with no basic human rights. This is illustrated in the scene between Rachael and Deckard, where he does not hesitate to feed her the lines she must say to him and almost forces her to be involved with him. Deckard: “Say kiss me.” Rachael: “I can’t rely on…” Deckard: “Say kiss me.” Rachael: “Kiss me.” Deckard: “I want you.” Rachael: “I want you.” Deckard: “Again.” Rachael: “I want you. Put your hands on me.” Scott uses shot framing and cinematography in conjunction with editing to create tension in an entirely dialogue focused situation. In comparison with today’s society, this scene could almost be considered rape if it were not for the fact that Rachael is not human.
Victor attempts to mirror God and take over Gods role as creator and master of the universe, but his vanity, arrogance and thirst for knowledge blinds him from seeing the repercussions of his actions. In Shelley’s Frankenstein Victor’s pursuit of knowledge succeeds in discovering the secret of fabricating life and brings a monster made of parts of the dead to life. The creature, from the moment of his birth, can be seen to mirror and to resemble the life of his creator: their lives and their fates are horrifically intertwined. Both creator and creation become obsessed
Module A: Comparative Study of Texts and Contexts -compare texts in order to explore them in relation to their contexts -effects of contexts & questions of value (morals, ethics, principles) First Value -> 1st text -> 1st paragraph ->2nd text -> 2nd paragraph -> draw links to 1st text -> 3rd paragraph -> analysis: what’s changed? Second Value : As above -Talk about similarities AND differences -Topic sentences: This text reveals this value about this context Second text: how has…
Module A – Frankenstein and Blade runner Module A: Comparative Study of Texts and Context This module requires students to compare texts in order to explore them in relation to their contexts. It develops students’ understanding of the effects of context and questions of value. Each elective in this module requires the study of groups of texts which are to be selected from a prescribed text list. These texts may be in different forms or media. Students examine ways in which social, cultural…
Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament (Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible) Introduction Using contemporary studies as the foundation of his research John Walton reviews the ancient and Near Eastern and Israelite cognitive context. He provides guidance for students and general public to have a wider understanding and expand their knowledge of today’s culture, and historical culture interacts with the ancient world culture. In doing so, he tries to balance all…
five sections with over twenty historical images. The author provides the audience an appendix of images used in this published work as well as gives his acknowledgements accompanied by a list of abbreviations. The author uses several contemporary studies as a big part of his research as well as reviews the ancient and Near Eastern and Israelite cognitive context. This section provides a general guidance for students and the audience to have a better understanding by expanding their knowledge of today’s…
Comparative Essay: Frankenstein and Blade Runner “In what ways does a comparative study accentuate the distinctive contexts of Frankenstein and Blade Runner?” A comparative study of Mary Shelly’s classic novel “Frankenstein” and Ridley Scott’s film “Blade Runner” allows the common issues between the texts to be explored and accentuates the vastly differing contexts in which they were composed. Despite their composition being separated by 200 years, Shelly and Scott shared a similar perspective…
Changes in context and form offer fresh perspectives on the values in texts. How does Pacino’s film reveal a new response to the values explored in Richard III? The movie itself should take the high seed in the essay Al Pacino's docudrama, Looking for Richard, reveals new perspectives on the values, integrity, loyalty and justice, discussed in Shakespeare's morality play, Richard III, through the emended perception of Richard. A focus on the integrity of the character ultimately ensures a depreciation…
liberal sect of American Christians. In the period following American Independence many writers showed interest in religious ideas and texts of India. They belonged to the social and religious community of New England Unitarianism. Later they entered a uniquely American religious movement. Transcendental writers of the nineteenth century commented on Hindu texts. During that period the Transcendentalists were not alone who was interested in Hinduism. They were considered radical by the larger…
169 Josef Schmied* Translation and Cognitive Structures1 Abstract This project is based on a corpus of English and German source and target texts, ranging from contemporary literature to scientific textbooks. We try to create a machine-readable and aligned corpus which will allow us to discover and categorize translation equivalents for a number of linguistic items, such as prepositions, subordination, deictic elements, metaphors or culture-specific structures. On this basis we look for…
The connections between texts highlight the timelessness of the values and concerns being explored. Whilst Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, and Ridley Scott’s film, Blade Runner, reflect their respective society’s reaction to a shift in core values, they similarly examine what it means to be human, concluding it is compassion that distinguishes ‘man’ from ‘beast’. Didactic in nature, both texts also warn the audience of the dangers of man’s hubris and his attempts to ‘play God’ on mankind and…
Rewinding time to 1200 BCE teaches us that this idea of Māyā has had different roots. As mentioned earlier, the concept of Maya is over 3,000 years old and it first appeared in Vedic literature. The Rig Veda mentions Māyā at an estimated 70 times and studies of the ancient Vedic literature show that Maya was not understood as illusion rather it was commonly associated with might, power and supernatural abilities.…