Frankenstein & Blade Runner: Morality

"There are few novels that have been more interpreted and reimagined than Frankenstein and it has become something of a cliche bioethics - especially in debates about embryo research and reproductive technologies - to invoke Victor Frankenstein's hubris in "playing God" by creating a person out of inanimate matter. And yet, reading the story again two hundred years after its publication, we find that its moral teachings have been stubbornly ignored, or even inverted, by the scientists and ethicists who have the most to learn from it ... "

" ... In the novel, the Creature undergoes traumatic experiences that reflect a condition that relates to understanding one’s self throughout the novel. In this case, the Creature is constantly trying to define himself as he suffers through multiple traumas. In psychoanalytical terms, a trauma always comes “second” (Amfreville 5). In other words, trauma does not exist
until a second traumatic event awakens the first and thus is recognized or, known again, as traumatic ... "

BBC Bitesize presents their analysis of Frankenstein which includes plot, characters, themes and more.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is one of the most widely read novels of all time. Its two central characters, the scientist Victor Frankenstein and the being he creates, have gained mythic status in their own right. Engaging with the novel's characterization is crucial to gaining a real understanding of its themes and contexts, including education, gender difference, imperialism, personal identity, revolutionary politics, and science. This study includes: an introductory overview of the novel, including a brief account of its historical and literary contexts; its reception history; discussion of the major themes and narrative structure; detailed analysis of, the representation of main characters, such as Walton, Frankenstein, and the creature; and a conclusion reminding students of the links between the characters and the key themes and issues."

" At its core ... Shelley's Frankenstein is a contemplation on what it means to be human, what it means to chase perfection, and what it means to fear things such things as ugliness, loneliness, and rejection ... "

" ... In Philip K. Dick and Philosophy thirty Dick fans and professional thinkers confront the fascinating and frightening ideas raised by Dick's mind-blowing fantasies ...

"Perhaps nothing is more emblematic of Ridley Scott’s 1982 dystopian film Blade Runner than the Voight-Kampff test administered by the movie’s titular law enforcers, including Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard. The series of questions in the fictional test ... are designed to separate out humans from replicants by provoking a physiological response indicating empathy. Only true humans, not replicants, feel that emotion ... "

" ... Put in the starkest light, the film is not about what makes us human but whether we can be saved from ourselves, from our terrifying inhumanity, our moral blindness ... "

" ... "In Japan we believe all inanimate objects have a soul, so a metal robot is no different from a human in that respect, there are less boundaries between humans and objects," he said ... "

" ... Blade Runner's multi-generic nature offers a complicated and ambiguous presentation of morality due, in part, to the difference in the locus of morality and science fiction and film noir, and then, more extensively, in the film's presentation of fear and sympathy regarding the replicants' existence ... "