Texts in Time
Texts embody paradigms corresponding to their social, economic and historical
contexts. The capacity of thematic concepts to transcend time is manifest within Mary
Shelley’s 19th century gothic novel Frankenstein (1818) and Ridley Scott’s science
fiction film Blade Runner (1992) as both pose similar existentialist discourses
regarding the fate of humanity. As a Romanticist, Shelley condemns humanity’s
intrusive assumption as creator. Similarly, Scott responds to Shelley warning by also
spurning man’s ruthless ambition. However, the film’s 20th century context of
capitalist greed and mass industrialisation shifts the criticism onto the pursuit of
commercial dominance. Both texts employ techniques such as allusions and
characterisation to depict similar dystopian visions ensuing from man’s dereliction of
nature.
Composed during the Industrial Revolution and radical scientific experimentation,
Shelley typifies the Romantic Movement as she forebodes her enlightened society of
playing God. Her warning permeates through the character of Victor, whose selfaggrandising diction “many excellent natures would owe their being to me” represents
a society engrossed with reanimation. Shelley moreover questions the morality her
microcosm’s pursuit of omnipotence through Victor’s retrospection “lost all soul or
sensation but for this one pursuit”, as the juxtaposition of “all” and “one” emphasises
Victor’s cavernous obsession to conquer death; akin to scientists of her time such as
Erasmus Darwin. Moreover, recurring mythical allusions to Prometheus, “how
dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge” further portray Victor as an Aristotelian
Tragic Hero; a noble character whose hamartia of blind ambition foreshadows his
own downfall and dehumanisation, “swallowed up every habit of my nature”. In
addition, Victor’s impulsive denunciation of his grotesque creation, leads to the
Monster’s metaphysical rebellion “vowed eternal hated and vengeance to all
mankind”. Here, Shelley elicits a historical allusion to the French Revolution as she
demonstrates how man’s unbridled assumption of power discerns the inevitability of
his ruin.
Despite their temporal and contextual disparities, Scott also incorporates Gothic
elements of horror but procures a man-made cataclysm that is a product of his own
desire to achieve commercial dominance. Unlike Shelley’s moralistic forebode, the
lurid flames in the opening mis-en-scene highlights a dystopic world that has already
come to a heinous fruition. Here, Scott draws a literary allusion to Blake’s The
Marriage of Heaven and Hell on Earth to denote how man’s excessive authority,
“built with stones of (his) Law” accrues in totalitarian-like society; where this is
symbolised through the omniscient eye motif that is, moreover, an allusion to George
Orwell’s 1984. Further, revising Victor’s usurpation of God’s prerogative, Scott
conveys Tyrell’s capitalist fixation through his mantra “commerce is our goal”. The
composer reinforces this through multiple low angle shot of Tyrell’s monolithic
corporation, highlighting its commanding ascendancy over its impoverished urban
surroundings. By doing so, Scott denounces the arrogance of corporate giants and
their heedless exploitation of the proletariats class.
Furthermore, Scott’s reflection of a society enveloped within Cold-war paranoia of a
potential nuclear disaster is depicted through Tyrell’s violent death at the hands of his
own creation. Here, Tyrell’s ominous scream as Roy ruptures his myopia-riddled
eyes, a metaphor of his blind ambition, creates a noirish ambience of utmost horror as
responders construe how man’s hubristic desire to achieve omnipotence results in his
inevitable destruction. However, unlike Shelley’s critique of heedless scientific
pursuit, Scott’s perspective has shifted to that of man’s capitalist voracity and is a
reflection upon the 20th century’s rapid expansion of multinational corporations.
Reflecting upon Romanticism as a reaction against the Industrial Revolution’s grave
neglect of the environment, Shelley advocates nature’s capacity to provide spiritual
renewal regardless of humanity’s flaws. Initially, the composer conveys the
consequences of Victor’s profound ambition, as she prefigures his exclusion from the
natural world; shown in his emaciated appearance in the imagery of “so thin and
pale”. However, despite Victor’s vast preoccupation in science, his eventual return to
the sublime natural world in Chamounix is able to evoke his spiritual renewal as
Shelley depicts this in the pathetic fallacy of “the flowers of spring bloomed into the
hedges.” Here, Shelley draws a literary allusion to Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey
where the responsible adult also recognises that nature will always welcome man’s
return to “sober pleasure.” This spiritual invigoration is further mirrored through
Monster’s affable encounter with spring weather, which similarly “restored (him) to
some degree of tranquillity”; therefore demonstrating the indivisible temperament of
nature to humanity and its indelible capacity for spiritual enlightenment.
In stark contrast to Shelley’s discourse, Scott’s manifestation of a bleak industrialised
macrocosm is his suspicion that technological progression has already discerned
man’s divergence from nature. In the film’s opening sequence, Scott portrays his
dystopian society through film-noir style of perpetual darkness, where the superficial
world’s only source of illumination is from the synthetic glow of neon lights.
Moreover, the composer’s representation of a world usurped by technological
expansion is symbolised through the absence of authentic fauna and their incongruent
substitution with artificial owls and snakes. Responders further construe through
Rachel’s high-modal dialogue, as she indubitably validates an owl’s artificiality “Of
course it is”, that Scott denigrates the Reagan Government of his time for its political
inaction towards environmental concerns.
However, in light of Shelley’s embrace of sublime nature, Scott also conveys how the
presence of nature can facilitate the hope of spiritual renewal; proposing its entire
restoration. The composer denotes this through his transient but vivid depiction of
Deckard’s fleeting unicorn dream. Here, Scott’s implementation of melodramatic
ambient music and vibrant dandelion hues procures an invigorating atmosphere, as he
advocates the importance of the natural world as a source of the sublime. Contrary to
Shelley, however, Scott’s depiction of nature within a subliminal dream is
metaphorical of his belief that rapid technological innovation has already superseded
the position of nature. Therefore the film’s 20th century context encompassing vast
ecological degradation evokes his admonition that rapid technological progression
may already have precluded a possible return to nature.