Ava is one of “Ex Machina” ‘s central characters. This character is quite interesting and complicated at the same time. Though she is an artificially created robot, she is very similar to a human being. Moreover, it can be claimed that Ava managed to become better, smarter, and even more moral than Caleb and her creator Nathan (Friedman & Kavey, 2016).
Nathan considered Ava just another ambitious project and didn’t realize that Ava has consciousness allowing her to be independent of her creator. She wanted to be free, while Nathan had his own plans and wanted to erase her personality. As a result, Ava used Caleb and manipulated him with the help of romantic relations (Macdonald et al., 2015). She had access to all the information in the world and was able to be more feminine than any other woman in the world. Therefore, it was easy for her to make Caleb fall in love and start to think irrationally. Ava considered Nathan as a threat to her existence, and he was the only human being she knew before meeting Caleb. As a result, she believed that every human being posed a threat to her existence, and when she decided to leave Caleb locked inside the mansion, she didn’t feel any empathy towards him.
Though Ava has acted quite violently, it is impossible to blame her. She has consciousness identical to humans, and she has free will. Thus, it is inhumane and cruel to manipulate a robot with free will and use it as a slave, even if you have created it. The robot that is thinking, feeling, and acting like a human should have the same rights and freedom as a human being; thus, all actions made by Ava can be justified because freedom is one of the most important values, and no one has right to limit freedom of a conscious being.
Works Cited
Friedman, L.D., and A.B. Kavey. Monstrous Progeny: A History of the Frankenstein Narratives. Rutgers University Press, 2016. Print.
Macdonald, A. & Reich, A. (Producers) & Garland, P. (Director). (2015). Ex Machina [Motion picture]. United Kingdom: Universal Studios.
