Feminism In Ex Machina

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Feminine Transition; Dependence to Independence
The story of Galatea and Pygmalion is very famous scene from the Greek myth. A sculptor Pygmalion made a woman sculpture and named Galatea, and fell in love with the sculpture. Eventually, the sculpture Galatea turns into a real human and married to Pygmalion. The film Ex Machina directed by Alex Garland and the text Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw both relate to this Greek myth. These works both focus on the certain theoretical term, transition in feminism. In the film Ex Machina, the main character Ava is AI (Artificial Intelligence) created by the scientist Nathan. Another main character Caleb who is also scientist, he joined the project that testing Ava to measure her ability as an AI. Also, the …show more content…

He simply considers Ava as one of his creation. Instead of Nathan, his assistant Caleb fell in love with Ava. Since Caleb seduced by Ava, he started to turn against Nathan. On the one hand, Galatea; Ava is on top of Nathan and Caleb and tries to use them. The relationship between three of them suddenly changes a lot even using violence. In the film, Ava is not a straightforward Artificial Intelligence that Nathan intended. Ava even considers herself as an independence ‘human being’. “AVA sees a naked human girl. And is hypnotised by the sight of herself.” (Ex Machina 117) According to the quote, Ava definitely describes her as a human when she mirrors herself in the film. Ava even manipulates Caleb to get what she want; freedom. She purposefully uses her sexuality as tool to seduce Caleb. This refers that she is transforming into manlike from a simple AI. Ava definitely achieves transition weather it is good or …show more content…

Higgins only considers Eliza as his academic achievement not a woman herself. He transforms Eliza into a completely different person and eventually no one realize Eliza. Eliza never wanted this transition but the ultimate desire that Eliza wants is to be an independent woman.
“I know. I am not blaming him. It is his way, isn 't it? But it made such a difference to me that you didn 't do it. You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking, and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she 's treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you, because you always treat me as a lady, and always will.” (Act 5, Shaw) Eventually, Eliza and Higgins failed to have an agreement of defining their relationship. Because of this failure, Eliza decided to leave Higgins as an independent woman

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