Mad scientist

One popular stereotype of a mad scientist: male, aging, crooked teeth, messy hair, lab coat, effervescent test tube, goggles, gloves and a dramatic pose

Mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a caricature of a scientist who is described as "mad" or "insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly ambitious, taboo and/or hubristic nature of their experiments. As a motif in fiction, the mad scientist may be villainous (evil genius) or antagonistic, benign or neutral; may be insane, eccentric, or clumsy; and often works with fictional technology or fails to recognize or value common human objections to attempting to play God. Some may have benevolent or good-spirited intentions, even if their actions are dangerous or questionable, which can make them accidental villains.

History

Prototypes

The prototypical fictional mad scientist was Victor Frankenstein, creator of his eponymous monster,[1][2][3] who made his first appearance in 1818, in the novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley. Though the novel's title character, Victor Frankenstein, is a sympathetic character, the critical element of conducting experiments that cross "boundaries that ought not to be crossed", heedless of the consequences, is present in Shelley's novel. Frankenstein was trained as both an alchemist and a modern scientist, which makes him the bridge between two eras of an evolving archetype. The book is said to be a precursor of a new genre, science fiction,[4][5] although as an example of gothic horror[6][7][8][9] it is connected with other antecedents as well.

The year 1896 saw the publication of H. G. Wells's The Island of Doctor Moreau, in which the titular doctor—a controversial vivisectionist—has isolated himself entirely from civilisation in order to continue his experiments in surgically reshaping animals into humanoid forms, heedless of the suffering he causes.[10]

Cinema depictions

Horace B. Carpenter as Dr. Meirschultz, a scientist attempting to bring the dead back to life in the 1934 film Maniac.

Fritz Lang's movie Metropolis (1927) brought the archetypical mad scientist to the screen in the form of Rotwang, the evil genius whose machines had originally given life to the dystopian city of the title.[11] Rotwang's laboratory influenced many subsequent movie sets with its electrical arcs, bubbling apparatus, and bizarrely complicated arrays of dials and controls. Portrayed by actor Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Rotwang himself is the prototypically conflicted mad scientist; though he is master of almost mystical scientific power, he remains a slave to his own desires for power and revenge. Rotwang's appearance was also influential—the character's shock of flyaway hair, wild-eyed demeanor, and his quasi-fascist laboratory garb have all been adopted as shorthand for the mad scientist "look." Even his mechanical right hand has become a mark of twisted scientific power, echoed notably in Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove, Or--How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb and in the novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965) by Philip K. Dick.

Bela Lugosi as Dr. Paul Carruthers, the mad scientist protagonist of the poverty row horror film The Devil Bat (1940). Slighted at his workplace, the chemist Carruthers breeds giant bats to attack his wealthy employers.

A recent survey of 1,000 horror films distributed in the UK between the 1930s and 1980s reveals mad scientists or their creations have been the villains of 30 percent of the films; scientific research has produced 39 percent of the threats; and, by contrast, scientists have been the heroes of a mere 11 percent.[12]

Post–World War II depictions

Mad scientists were most conspicuous in popular culture after World War II. The sadistic "medical experiments" conducted under the auspices of the Nazis, especially those of Josef Mengele, and the invention of the atomic bomb, gave rise in this period to genuine fears that science and technology had gone out of control. That the scientific and technological build-up during the Cold War brought about increasing threats of unparalleled destruction of the human species did not lessen the impression. Mad scientists frequently figure in science fiction and motion pictures from the period.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Encyclopædia Britannica - Frankenstein". Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  2. ↑ Clemens, Valdine. Return of the Repressed, The: Gothic Horror from The Castle of Otranto to Alien. p. 93. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  3. ↑ Wilson, Daniel H.; Long, Anna C. The Mad Scientist Hall of Fame. p. 100. ISBN 978-0806528793. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  4. ↑ Abrams, M. H.; Harpham, Geoffrey. A Glossary of Literary Terms. p. 355. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  5. ↑ Corbett, Robert. "Romanticism and Science Fictions". Romanticism On the Net. doi:10.7202/005970ar.
  6. ↑ Tweg, Sue; Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft; Edwards, Kim. Frankenstein. p. 13. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  7. ↑ Jelinek, Kenneth P. (1997). Gothic Horror and Scientific Education in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
  8. ↑ "Frankenstein as a Gothic Novel". Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  9. ↑ "Frankenstein as a Gothic Fiction". bachelorandmaster.com. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  10. ↑ "Novels: The Island of Doctor Moreau". Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  11. ↑ Geraghty, Lincoln. American Science Fiction Film and Television. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  12. ↑ Christopher Frayling, New Scientist, 24 September 2005.
  13. ↑ G., Fraser. The Particle Century. Retrieved 24 January 2017.

Bibliography

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