The Elephant Man: A Play

MERRICK: So.
TREVES: So what?
MERRICK: Did you see her? Naked?
TREVES: When I was operating. Of course—
MERRICK: Oh.
TREVES: Oh what?
MERRICK: Is it okay to see them naked if you cut them up afterwards?TREVES: Good Lord. I’m a surgeon. That is science.
MERRICK: She died. Mrs. Kendal didn’t.
TREVES: Well, she came back too.
MERRICK: And Mrs. Kendal didn’t. If you mean that.
TREVES: I am trying to read about anesthetics. There is simply no comparison.MERRICK: Oh.
TREVES: Science is a different thing. This woman came to me to be. I mean, it is not, well, love, you know.MERRICK: Is that why you’re looking for an anesthetic.
TREVES: It would be a boon to surgery.
MERRICK: Because you don’t love them.

MERRICK: The Prince has a mistress. (Silence.) The Irishman had one. Everyone seems to. Or a wife. Some have both. I have concluded I need a mistress. It is bad enough not to sleep like others.
MRS. KENDAL: Sitting up, you mean. Couldn’t be very restful.
MERRICK: I have to. Too heavy to lay down. My head. But to sleep alone; that is worst of all.MRS. KENDAL: The artist expresses his love through his works. That is civilization.MERRICK: Are you very shocked?
MRS. KENDAL: Why should I be?
MERRICK: Others would be.
MRS. KENDAL: I am not others.
MERRICK: I suppose it is hopeless.

MERRICK: I would not have held the mirror to her breath.

MRS. KENDAL: You mean the scene where Juliet appears to be dead and he holds a mirror to her breath and sees —

MERRICK: Nothing. How does it feel when he kills himself because he just sees nothing?

MRS. KENDAL: Well. My experience as Juliet has been — particularly with an actor I will not name — that while I’m laying there dead dead dead, and he is lamenting excessively, I get to thinking that if this slab of ham does not part from the hamhock of his life toute suite, I am going to scream, pop off the tomb, and plunge a dagger into his scene-stealing heart. Romeos are very undependable.

MERRICK: Because he does not care for Juliet.

MRS. KENDAL: Not care?

MERRICK: Does he take her pulse? Does he get a doctor?

Does he make sure? No. He kills himself. The illusion fools him because he does not care for her. He only cares about himself. If I had been Romeo, we would have got away.

MRS. KENDAL: But then there would be no play, Mr. Merrick.

MERRICK: If he did not love her, why should there be a play? Looking in a mirror and seeing nothing. That is not love. It was all an illusion. When the illusion ended he had to kill himself.

MRS. KENDAL: Why. That is extraordinary.

TREVES: I will bet you don’t know what to call this.
MERRICK: No, sir, I don’t know.
TREVES: You call it, Home.
MERRICK: Never had a home before.
TREVES: You have one now. Say it, John: Home.
MERRICK: Home.
TREVES: No, no, really say it. I have a home. This is my. Go on.
MERRICK: I have a home. This is my home. This is my
home. I have a home. As long as I like?
TREVES: That is what home is.
MERRICK: That is what is home.
TREVES: If I abide by the rules, I will be happy.
MERRICK: Yes, sir.
TREVES: Don’t be shy.
MERRICK: If I abide by the rules I will be happy.
TREVES: Very good. Why?
MERRICK: Why what?
TREVES: Will you be happy?
MERRICK: Because it is my home?
TREVES: No, no. Why do rules make you happy?
MERRICK: I don’t know.
TREVES: Of course you do.
MERRICK: No, I really don’t.
TREVES: Why does anything make you happy?
MERRICK: Like what? Like what?
TREVES: Don’t be upset. Rules make us happy because they are for our own good.
MERRICK: Okay.
TREVES: Don’t be shy, John. You can say it.
MERRICK: This is my home?
TREVES: No. About rules making us happy.
MERRICK: They make us happy because they are for our own good.
TREVES: Excellent. Now: I am submitting a follow-up paper on you to the London Pathological Society. It would help if you told me what you recall about your first years, John. To fill in gaps.
MERRICK: To fill in gaps. The workhouse where they put me. They beat you there like a drum. Boom boom: scrape the floor white. Shine the pan, boom boom. It never ends. The is always dirty. The pan is always tarnished. There is nothing you can do about it.