Frankenstein vs. R.U.R.

In my opinion, the major common motif in Frankenstein and R.U.R. is: what does it mean to be “human”?

1) Appearance
Victor Frankenstein's creature is gigantic and does not look like a regular human being at all, with his monster-like features. The robots in R.U.R. look so much like humans that even Helena could not tell or believe that Sulla was a robot.

2) Character and Individuality
Frankenstein's creature has his own personality and character, whereas the robots in R.U.R. do not--they are all very mechanical and the same. The robots do work in an everyday, mundane fashion, and even during their rebellion, they seem to all be the same. Domin and the others are frightened upon seeing the army of robots surrounding them, because they all look the same, which makes it haunting. Also, when they kill the humans, all of the robots only have one thing in mind, which is to kill off the humans, and they don't seem to differ from one another very much.

3) Attitude and Independence
The creature in Frankenstein can fend for himself. He also has his own attitude and personal opinion, unlike the robots. The robots are simply clones of each other, and they don't have distinct personalities.

4) Realization that they are different
The creature definitely realizes that he is different, mostly through the way people (such as Victor and the townspeople the creature encounters) shun and are disgusted by him. The robots do not realize they are different from humans until the end, when they notice that they are physically stronger.

5) Morals/feelings
The creature has morals and feelings, although it may not seem like it, as he murders so many humans. However, if people had treated him more nicely when he was first exploring and getting to know his surroundings and the world, he might have ended up as a kinder being. The robots do not have morals or feelings whatsoever in the beginning, until they are modified. At the end, Robot Primus and Helena fall in love with each other, and are willing to sacrifice themselves for one another.

6) Physical capabilities/ability to feel physical pain
The creature is undoubtedly a lot stronger than humans, and he can also feel physical pain. (For example, he was in pain when he was shot while trying to save a drowning girl.) The robots, however, cannot feel physical pain.

7) Ability to reproduce
The creature longs to have a partner, but for company and not necessarily to be able to reproduce. He simply is lonely. However, the robots want to reproduce and take over the world (at the end of the play). They try to make Alquist succeed in finding a way to recreate robots.

8) Gender
The creature is referred to as "he" and the robots as "he" and "she", giving them a gender and making them more similar to humans. If they were not given genders, they would be more like items and not living beings.

9) Ability to take over mankind
The creature probably could kill off humans if he had more of his kind to do it with him, thanks to his superhuman physical capabilities. The robots actually do take over and almost completely wipe out the entire human race (except for Alquist). Both have some kind of capability to take over mankind.

10) Created by humans/"god" figure
Both the creature and the robots were created by humans. This makes Victor Frankenstein and Rossum look like "god" figures. In fact, Rossum had the intentions of playing a god-like role by creating the robots, but Victor didn't necessarily care for that. He just wanted to decipher how to create new life, and he was successful.

11) Purpose of creation
The creature was created as Victor's experiment to find out how to breathe life into an inanimate being. Rossum's robots were created to do work for humans, in hopes that we would not have to work anymore.

12) Isolation/effect on the rest of the world
Both the creature and the robots were created in isolated areas. Victor closed himself off in his lab, and Rossum started on an island. (Young Rossum also locked Old Rossum up in his lab for a long time, which is another example of isolation.) However, both the creature and the robots greatly affected the outside world. The creature murdered a number of innocent people, and the robots murdered all humans on the planet (except for Alquist).

13) Treatment
The creature was not treated like a human, mostly because of his gigantic and monstrous stature. The robots were treated as (and created to be) slaves, constantly doing work for the humans. Both were not treated equally compared to humans, ending in chaos. The creature torments Victor by killing his loved ones after Victor refuses to make him a female companion. Rossum's robots rebel against their human creators/authorities, and end up killing off the entire human race.