The Elephant Man - Movie Review Example

The Elephant Man Is Insanity Real, Socially Constructed or both? Introduction “The Elephant Man” directed by David Lynch and released in 1980 is a widely acclaimed film for its biopic portrayal of the nineteenth century British social celebrity, Joseph Merrick. While physical deformity is not uncommon in the society, such grotesqueness as was the case with Mr. Merrick or “The Elephant Man” (as he was called) is truly an exception. The film makes us realize how much physical appearance is a necessity for societal acceptance and how much an individual’s intellect is submerged by his form. More awakening is the reception that the society endows to its unfortunate citizens; which despite the Victorian era having given away to modernity has not changed much. “The Elephant Man” has as already been mentioned is based in the Victorian era; a time marked by the emergence of the industrial revolution and massive advances in the human civilization. John Merrick (the name in the movie) is rescued from his miserable life as sideshow freak by a leading English surgeon, who gives him shelter in the London Hospital. Though the good Dr. Frederick Treves cannot help John with his deformity, he discovers the person inside him and introduces him to the London society. Fortuitously, the London society and its Glitterati are amused by John and he soon becomes the ‘toast of London’. However, fate is still harsh and he is kidnapped to the continent by his former circus master. He is later found and returned to the hospital, where the story ends. David Lynch specifically focuses on the societies’ varied reactions to john. This clearly undergoes a change with time, more so as John himself begins to realize his true worth – though this is shown implicitly in the film. The Elephant Man was exploited by his masters, Flogged and laughed at by the society, made an object of scientific curiosity and displayed as a mere exhibit. Yet he was treated with kindness, shown respect and to an extent even loved. His life teaches us that a man’s identity is not his figure but his mind. That the goodness that he portrays is the goodness that he is shown. I chose “The Elephant Man” for its remarkable critical appraisal of the life of the physically deformed and their stigmatized position in the society. What truly impressed me was that despite the imaginably horrendous circumstances of his earlier life, The Elephant Man was educated and possessed a remarkably refined mind just like any of us. It led me to wonder whether character and intellect are such that they cannot be diminished by the harshness of the circumstances in which they are reared. It was equally surprising to me that despite the cruelty of his living circumstances, John Merrick did not become ‘insane’. This was no doubt compounded by the fact that he could very well comprehend the humiliation that he was subjected to. It questions our understanding of the true basis of insanity. Is it a biological neural disorder or is insanity simply a fiction of a conservative judgmental society? It could very well be argued- and many characters within the film have raised similar questions – did John Merrick simply go from being one sideshow freak to another? In clearer terms, why did he become the toast of London? Was it for the person that he was or was it simply a concealed amusement at his disfigurement? After seeing the movie for the first time, I remember feeling sorry for the Elephant Man though I did not feel happy for him at any point during the picture. His life would never have the pleasures that we take for granted and was essentially incomplete. Also, I strongly feel that the society that we live in today is not very different from the one that he lived in. In fact, today’s society with its numerous Oprah Winfreys’ and Larry Kings’ would have made a faster and greater celebrity of John Merrick than the Victorian society ever could. The chapters from his life are thus as valid today as they were then. The Elephant Man The Elephant Man, played by John Hurt, is the central character of the film. According to the description that Dr Frederick Treves gives to the Royal Academy, John has an abnormally expanded skull with a ‘useless’ right hand. Also, his body is covered with fibrous tumors or ‘papillomatus growth’ as they are called. All these along with his strangely curved spine earned him the name of “The Elephant Man”. To keep the audiences’ curiosity alive, this character is not shown until a little later in the movie, during which he remains in the shadows or is silhouetted. He is intentionally shown as an imbecile, a creature who has no intellectual capacity and is totally dependent on others for his survival. Even Dr Treves has no idea of his mental state for after the lecture, he “Prays to God that the man is an idiot”. Throughout his life, the character has lived in suppression and consequent fear of everything. He is frightened by the world. He is afraid to express himself to anyone and does not respond to any physical stimulus that he is subjected to. It is not until later when he has left the dark and dingy confines of his circus life and given refuge in the general hospital that we are introduced to John Merrick, the person. During the part where he has Tea with Dr Treves and his wife, Anne, John expresses the deep sense of resentment that he has for his condition. It is at this point that we are exposed to his deep reservoir of emotions. His greatest sorrow was how much of a disappointment he was to his mother which makes it clear that he was highly conscious of his disfigurement. His belief in god and his devotion to his mother are two of John Merrick’s particularly striking characteristics. He tells us that he reads the bible everyday and the profound love that he has for God is made very apparent in him citing the 23rd psalm. He also carries a photo of his mother with him everywhere and the photo is an object which is brought out at numerous occasions in the film. Perhaps this was done so with the intention to show that his deformity was not genetically inherited (though the real Joseph Merrick’s mother was crippled (Treves, 1923)). Given his experience with people in his circus life, it is surprising that he harbored no misanthropic feelings of any kind. He is always shown as being a genuinely good human being - polite, courteous and modest. His infliction did indeed make him weary of other people but it did not erode his faith in humanity. Another significant character in the picture is Dr Frederick Treves. Treves is a surgeon who has much interest in anatomy which was what initially made him notice John Merrick. His true motivation for contacting John is debatable. As is raised by one of the lesser characters in the movie itself, was he simply a “deservedly ambitious young doctor trying to make a name for himself”. Maybe it was so. After all, during his lecture at the royal society, he repeatedly mentions that “he has never seen a more perverted or degraded version of a human being as this man”. But at same time, once Treves himself realizes that John is not an imbecile, his attitude towards John changes from that of an academic curiosity to one of humanitarian concern. He was singularly responsible for the positive changes in John’s life and his acceptance in the London society. When john has become a celebrity, he is shown to express genuine guilt at his own actions, questioning aloud whether he is a “good man or a bad man”. He empathizes with john at one point, stopping to wonder if “he wasn’t exactly like John”. He is to be credited for going beyond his role as a doctor and in providing John with a chance to live like a human being. Representing the other side is Bytes, the proprietor of John’s freak show. He made a livelihood out of john and showed absolute disregard for his emotions and needs. In the pretext that he was caring for him, he flogs and mistreats John. At one point, his beating was so severe that John was forced to be hospitalized. That he never really cared for John’s wellbeing is apparent from the fact that he kidnapped John from his sanctuary at the hospital. Also portraying a malignant presence is a night porter (played by Michael Elphick) who starts taking money from people for a sight of John. Their actions upset john and depress him. Of extreme interest is the institution that John is placed in. The director is to be credited for his amazing portrayal of a Victorian hospital- with its primitive surgical tools, non – existent anesthesia and buzzing gas lamps. The staff is initially shown to be very scared of the Elephant Man; with one particularly memorable scene of a nurse screaming at the sight of John. Also Mrs. Mothershead, the matron, warns the other nurses at one point not to bring any mirrors into John’s room. Later however, even their attitudes change and becomes more caring and loving. The nurse who screamed at the sight of John befriends him and is shown having frequent conversations with him. More commendable is Mrs. Mothershead, who at one point called john ‘a blank wall’ but later began to care for him. The staff is shown to be ignorant to John’s emotions; though in my opinion, this is not a sign of their lack of professionalism but simply a function of their lack of experience and the time and place that they lived in. Mrs. Motherhead and Mr. Treves serve as two of the most prominent authority figures in the film. At no point in the film is John shown to be suffering from insanity. To the contrary it seems as if the Director wants to emphasize that a man can maintain his sanity even under the most testing of circumstances. If this was the case then why was John generally considered to be an imbecile before he was discovered by Mr. Treves? Was it because no one in his proximity gave any notice to john other than for his ‘freakishness’? Probably so. There is no justification to their assertions of John being mentally retarded. “Mental retardation is not something you have, like blue eyes or a bad heart. Nor is it something you are, like being short or thin. It is not a medical disorder . . . nor is it a mental disorder. . . . Mental retardation refers to a particular state of functioning that begins in childhood, is multidimensional, and is affected positively by individualized supports.” (Luckasson & Schalock, 2004) This definition of Mental Retardation which is supported by the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) makes it clear that John was not mentally retarded, even when his intellectual abilities were not very clear. Thus it becomes very clear that John’s insanity in the earlier part of his life – which was used by many as an excuse to exploit him – was simply a social construction. Was john affected by this general perception of the public around him? John’s acute fear of people and his alienation from the society can definitely be explained by this. Even if he was not constructed to have mental illnesses, his disfigurement would definitely have resulted in him being outcast from the society. He had definitive communication problems and the first time he visits the hospital, he does no more than grunt or breathe to express himself. For every person, eye contact and verbal contact serve as their primary means to communicate with the society (Rosenhan, 1973). That john could not maintain either is clearly evident from the film. However, it shall be inhumane if I did not add that this was mostly due to his disfigurement and not because of any serious psychological issues on his part. John’s issue highlights a particular unifying theme in Psychology –our behavior is modified by multiple factors (Bernard, 2006). In John’s situation the primary factor responsible for his behavior was indeed his deformity. This was followed by the treatment of the physically deformed in the society and the unfortunate circumstances that john was subjected to. Why was a person such as John subjected to so much humiliation and misinterpretation? Perhaps it is because if the society believes something to be real, then we act on the knowledge that serves to validate its realness (Gabel, 2005). That is, it was inconceivable to the Victorian society that a man of John Merrick’s deformity and social status could be sane; therefore the society acted in such a manner as to make him insane. In the process, his own true character was lost until it was discovered by Dr Treves. I conclude the main body of this paper with an interesting observation on the film. David Lynch as a director is famous for his use of physical symbols in his movies. In “The Elephant Man”, machines serve as a deep physical symbol that appears throughout the movie. Even if they are not being exclusively shown, we can still hear their metallic clanks. Perhaps this is meant as a symbol of the times that John lived in – the beginning of the industrial Era, where machines were treated as symbols of power. But I personally believe that this also show how John was used by others as a mere ‘machine’ with no concern for his thoughts or emotions. Conclusion It is enlightening to me that a person of John’s physical deformity and the background of his life could still be a fine individual – with all the refinements that is the indication of culture. Perhaps this is a gift of his childhood; where undoubtedly, his mother would have taught him to read and write. The fact that a human being could undergo so much hardship and humiliation and still maintain his sanity is a reminder of the strength of the human intellect and how it resists suppression. In retrospect, I find the following facts particularly intriguing: Even Dr Frederick Treves, who was an accomplished Surgeon, could not initially discover that John was not an imbecile. Thus, a person’s initial symptoms should not be made the only criteria in their diagnosis. It should not also be made criteria for their social acceptance. The behavior of the socially deformed should not be mistaken for mental disability or disturbance. It might simply be their response or defense to the reaction that the society presents to them. Our treatment of the physically deformed has definitely undergone changes over time but our reaction to a deformity of John’s Magnitude has not changed much. This is evident from the fact that even today ‘freaks’ are part of our circus performances and even feature in our television shows. Inhumanity as john was forced to experience might have severely diminished but our instinctive reactions could not have changed. Our initial reaction is indeed one of revulsion. So is insanity real or socially constructed? I am led to conclude that it is a combination of both. To be more specific, a person cannot be truly insane until he is mentally disturbed due to biological factors but he might be taken as being insane by the society even otherwise (AHMD, 2004). John’s life serves to remind us that the human spirit can never be extinguished and that whatever be the obstacles that one faces in life his true nature shall ultimately triumph. To conclude, I quote a poem that was often quoted by John Merrick and was used in a pamphlet accompanying his freak show: Tis true my form is something odd. But blaming me is blaming God; Could I create myself anew, I would not fail in pleasing you. If I could reach from pole to pole, Or grasp the ocean with a span, I would be measured by the soul, The minds’ the standard of the man. References AHMD. (2004). Insanit. Retrieved from American heritage Medical Dictionary: http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/insanity Bernard, B. (2006, March 20). Seven Key Themes of Psychology. Retrieved from Associated Content: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/24826/seven_key_themes_of_psychology.html Gabel, S. (2005). Social Construction, Mental Retardation, and the Stories People Tell: An Essay and Review of The Social Construction of Intellectual Disability. Mental retardation , 299 - 306. Luckasson, R., & Schalock, R. L. (2004). American Association on Mental Retardations Definition, Classification, and System of Supports and Its Relation to International Trends and Issues in the Field of Intellectual Disabilities. Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities , 136-146. Lynch, D. (Director). (1980). The Elephant Man [Motion Picture]. Rosenhan, D. L. (1973). On Being Sane in Insane Places. Science , 250-258. The Elephant Man. (1990). Retrieved from The Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080678/ Treves, S. F. (1923). The Elephant Man and other reminiscences. London: Cassell and Company LTD. Read More