Mar 5

In all three works, Frankenstein, RUR, and Blade Runner, the role of gender is an important theme. Although they vary in their contributions to the plot of the work, the theme is present for all.

In Frankenstein, the role of women is intensified, as women are highly idealized and regarded as a source of happiness, but are passive towards situations in their environment. Caroline, Victor's mother, is described in the beginning of the book as having an overwhelming caring and motherly nature, as well as being immensely beautiful. She is also described by Alphonse, Victor's father, as being the perfect wife and his own source of happiness in the world. However, when she contracts scarlet fever from a young Elizabeth, she neglects her own well being to tend to her daughter. Although this act is immensely considerate, the fact that she is passive towards her own well being contributes to her death.
Elizabeth is another example in Frankenstein. Near the middle of the book, when talking to his son, Alphonse asks Victor if his change in behavior is due to the impending marriage between him and Elizabeth. Victor declines, stating that Elizabeth is his only source of happiness. On their wedding night, Victor ventures out to find the monster, who told him he would visit him, while Elizabeth elects to stay in bed. This proves to be fatal, as Elizabeth is murdered by the monster due to her passiveness towards Victor's absence.
In the book, the Monster asks Victor to create a female companion for him. This stems from the Monster's realization that he needs a female companion in his life to be happy.

In RUR, the role of women is downplayed, as there is an absence of females throughout the play, but the females that do appear are shallow minded and make bad decisions. In the play, there is a lack of female figures. Both Old and Young Rossum, the creators of the robots, were male. All of the scientists at the robot factory are male. There is even a lack of "female" robots, because there is no perceived need of female robots, as they will be thought of as "lesser" in society than male robots.
One main character, Helena, is extremely unintelligent and makes horrible decisions. She persuade the scientists in the lab to give the robots feelings and a soul, to make them feel more human. This proves to be a mistake, as this leads to the robots revolting. Helena then tries to stop the robots from creating more robots by destroying the "secret of life" for the creation of new robots. This, again, proves to be fatal as she burned the humans' bargaining chip for their survival, and the robots kill everybody.

In Blade Runner, the women are depicted as a source of happiness and love. Both Deckard and Roy have love interests, Rachel and Pris, respectively. Deckard discovers that Rachel is a replicant, but regardless, falls in love with her, and the movie ends, regardless of the version with them together. Roy's love interest, Pris, is retired by Deckard in Sebastian's apartment. The immense emotion shown by Roy as he mourns over her lifeless body shows the extent to which he cared for her. He retaliates by breaking two of Deckard's fingers, one for Pris and one for Zhora, who was previously retired by Deckard.

I believe Roy's dialogue and choice to spare Deckard is his way of showing the world that he had no original intention of doing the things he had done. I believe he did it because he was pushed too far once, and became fed up with the idea of slavery in an instant, and decided to take action towards what he felt was unfair. I believe that Roy decided to save Deckard's life because he had developed emotions. The Nexus-6 replicants were designed to die after 4 years, to prevent them from evolving and having emotions. I believe Roy did develop emotions and wanted to show that human or robot, emotions are the same in any being, and although the replicants and humans are physically different, emotionally, they are exactly the same.