Fundamentally, a textual composition is an embodiment of its corresponding contextual concerns, however significant thematic concepts possess a universality transcending time and place. This notion is epitomised within Mary Shelley’s nineteenth century gothic novel Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s science fiction film Blade Runner as both texts espouse congruous arguments regarding the dangers of artificial replication. Despite over a century of separation, Shelley and Scott convey comparable values concerning man’s inherent imperfections of greed, the unrestricted advancement of technology and the potentiality of destruction arising from a continual search for omnipotence. Their interpretations of the concurrent themes are contextualised within their respective periods as Frankenstein is a condemnation of the reckless pursuit of knowledge, whilst Blade Runner is a denunciation of capitalistic greed in the twentieth century.
Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein illustrates the various complexities evident in the creation of unnatural beings, and serves as a critique to the radical scientific experimentation prevalent during the Industrial Revolution. Shelley uses her Gothic narrative as a cautionary tale to physicists of the Romantic Era who were engrossed with reanimation by highlighting the potential consequences associated with mankind’s continual pursuit of omnipotence. As the central protagonist, Victor Frankenstein’s proclamation that ‘many excellent natures would owe their being to me,’ is analogous to scientists during the 19th century who possessed a fascination with resurrection and pursued it with a reckless ambition. Victor relentlessly ‘chases nature to her very hiding place,’ in his fervent desires to surpass the encroachment of natural order and ‘unfold the deepest mysteries of creation’ The personification of nature is a metaphorical representation of the manipulation of conventional order and Victor’s ability to pursue it is a depiction of his...