Anita Silvers the Elephant Man,

Anita Silvers

The Elephant Man," as seen through the eyes of Anita Silvers' philosophy expressed "From the Crooked Timber..."

Mr. Merrick," says the famous actress visiting John Merrick, as portrayed by John Hurt in the film "The Elephant Man," "you are Romeo." And the romantic, gentle Merrick, a man possessed of a delicacy of spirit and a refinement of character exceeding that of most ordinary mortals certainly is Romeo, the narrative of the film suggests. He is a romantic man, willing to sacrifice anything and everything for love, even while society tells him that his feelings are wrong, and that love is wrong. Although he cannot change his expression, the timber of his voice and the forthrightness of his feelings transcend conventional assumptions of what it means to be beautiful, human, healthy, and whole.

Throughout the film, the ugly assumption of humanity that exterior physical appearance should be equated with interior physical strength and beauty are exploded. The attempt to medicalize Merrick's condition in isolation of Merrick's internal life falls short, as the lecture that attempts to explain his so-called deformity does no justice to his character, which has miraculously emerged hale, whole, and hearty, despite a lifetime of abuse and social deprivation. As detailed by Anita Silvers, in her essay "From the Crooked Timber, Beautiful Things Can Be Made" the aesthetics of beauty and health must be continually challenged, if a truly inclusive and tolerant society is ever to be created, where people with disabilities or differences are not viewed as strange, freakish, abnormal, or inferior.

In "The Elephant Man," the ugliest creatures are not Merrick, but the people who gawk at him, and treat him in a dehumanizing fashion. One of the most hideous examples of humanity is that of Merrick's keeper, when Merrick is being exhibited in a freak show, before he is rescued. The man, despite Merrick's evident intelligence, treats the so-called Elephant Man as if he were an animal. The distorting funhouse mirror that makes Merrick's face seem normal when he gazes at it is also a metaphor for the distorted schema of values embraced by the purveyors of the freak show, who are determined to see human beings as commodities, mere bodies rather than as fully human souls. The greatest disability and deformity, the film suggests, is a heart insensible to the humanity of other people.

Merrick's keeper beats and confines Merrick in such a manner that the doctor played by Anthony Hopkins says that hopes Merrick is not sensible to his condition, because the idea that an innately human intelligence could be trapped in such a debasing life is almost too horrible to contemplate. Unfortunately or fortunately, Merrick is quite sensible to his plight. This is illustrated in the early scene when Merrick reads far deeper into the Bible than he has been instructed, showing his love of philosophy and insight into higher ethical principles that exceeds that of the medical professionals who attempt to see him as a condition, not as a unique and creative being who desires to make the most of his life, even while he may be, in the words of Queen Victoria, "one of the crown's most unfortunate subjects" because of the way he has been shunned since he was born.

The hideous ugliness of normalcy is perhaps best demonstrated in the mob scene where Merrick is trapped in an underground station, and cries out that he is not an animal, but a human being. In truth, the so-called normal persons have been acting like a stampede rather than compassionate creatures, unlike Merrick who still retains the individualism, that is humanity's truest birthright. This reversal or world upside down where the persons dehumanized with animal or medical names actually exhibit the values that make human beings distinct from animals validates the suggestion that the way that both popular and medical culture celebrates health, symmetry, and beauty is profoundly misguided.

In her essay, "From The Crooked Timber of Humanity, Beautiful Things Can Be Made," Anita Silvers makes a profound call that the standards of symmetry and wholeness be rewritten as a standard for human health in a way that is sounded like a clarion call throughout the film "The Elephant Man." Merrick's unique plight is not simply tragic, rather his presence elevates the lives of others, and shows the valuable moral contribution that persons with so-called disabilities can make to society. Because of Merrick's unique presence in their lives, the cold medical professionals gain insight into the need to view human subjects and illness in a mode that is not simply mechanical, but humane and compassionate. The concept of how health is understood in moral terms becomes destabilized because of Merrick's overwhelming, instinctive morality, based upon his skillful perception of his situation.