Analyse How Mary Shelley’S Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’S Blade Runner Imaginatively Portray Individuals Who Challenge the Established Values of Their Time.

All texts are strongly influenced by the context in which they have been created. Therefore, the social, cultural and historical contexts of composers will be noticeable within the text. However, this does not mean that the text can’t be understood by audiences living in contrasting worlds throughout time. Texts created in different contexts also present current concerns and values which are and have been present in many human situations throughout time. These concerns and values are especially evident when analysing Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982). The tense and testing relationships and views on the definition of humanity from the creators in the texts, Dr Frankenstein and Tyrell towards their creations, the monster and Roy strongly establish values of their time.
Both of these texts are written from completely different historical contexts but they were also both written during periods of significant changes in society. Shelley wrote Frankenstein during the romantic era, which is evident with the constant romantic concerns about science and technology that are present within her text. Similarly, Scott composed Blade Runner during the technological revolution, a time when advances in science and technology lead to grave fears about the environment and the loss of humanity which is very evident in the text. However, aspects of romanticism are still present in Blade Runner, which allow Scott to make similar insights into human experience, nature and life just as Shelley did.
The main point that both composers make is that humanity is not just a species, but a quality of life that not all can possess. Both Shelley and Scott attach human qualities to their non human characters and do the opposite with their human characters. This makes the human characters are constructed as monsters and the ‘monsters’ as uncharacteristically human. For example, Dr Frankenstein is described as “a fiend”, while Tyrell in Blade Runner is...