Burning Woman: Sexualized Robots and the Vilification of Women in Metropolis and its Precursors

Abstract

The vilification and subsequent destruction of feminine robots is a surprisingly common trope in film and literature. This essay draws connections between three very different works—Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Villier’s Tomorrow’s Eve, and E.T.A. Hoffman’s The Sandman—and posits a shared narrative reason for the deaths of the three artificial women: male projection. Comparing and contrasting the three death scenes with each other as well as other texts on feminine literature and projection demonstrates how little substance there is to these “out of control” women/technologies beyond the faults of the men who create them. Furthermore, this essay brings up a prudent question: could these artificial women have become something more if it were not for the displaced guilt and projected egos of the men around them?