Gibran Sheikh
Professor Mandy
Macklin
English 115
10 September
2012
Dear Mr. Pomerance,
Hello, I am a freshman at California State University
Northridge and I am writing this letter to you in regards to your play The Elephant Man. It is a wonderful play
that deals with the social views of certain people in the nineteenth century;
particularly those deemed “freaks”. Upon further reading of your play I have found
many more messages conveyed throughout certain parts of the play that had stood
out. I have found many scenes of the play that convey these hidden messages to
generate an overall theme, but when looked at separately there seems to be many
themes at once.
A scene in particular is scene two, which
seems to convey the message that one’s appearance is only nature at its best. Due
to the fact that Merrick was treated as more of a display of art than that of a
human tells me that this scene must explain how one had to deal with society in
the nineteenth century. Mr. Pomerance, you have titled this scene “Art is as
Nothing to Nature” which tells me that the beauty of an individual is not the
appearance it gives, but more of the intellect it radiates. This has made me
understand a few other themes that you have presented in this play as well as a
few characters that are met throughout the rest of the play, but it still
puzzles me as to why these characters are used to deliver this particular
message.
Another scene that has come to my attention is scene
seventeen. Mr. Pomerance, you have titled this play “Cruelty is as Nothing to
Kindness”. This scene seems to convey a similar message as to that of scene two
at first glance; however, this scene is quite different. In this scene you, Mr.
Pomerance, chose to portray Treves as Merrick, and this is quite puzzling
because it was not noticed by me until my second read. It seems that this scene
is just a dream of Treves, and in this dream he himself is the one being
examined, as Merrick was. Throughout the end of the scene is when the hidden
message seems to bounce out at me. I can see that you, Mr. Pomerance are
explaining the difference in people emotional behavior and how it affects those
around them.
Another scene that seems to convey a hidden message is
scene twenty, the second to last scene of the entire play. I have always
wondered why you chose the pinheads to bring upon the death of Merrick. It
seems to me that you chose to convey it this way, Mr. Pomerance, to protrude
two different meanings within the same scene. On one hand, the scene could be
about Merrick’s dreams crushing him to death, and on the other, it could
explain the cause of the pinheads to lead Merrick to his death, literally. This
scene is my favorite of the play and I have enjoyed reading over it a couple of
times to simply find an answer, but I have come to conclude that finding just
one answer will not suffice. Mr. Pomerance, you chose to title this scene “The
Weight of Dreams”, and in my opinion it is a beautiful way to title such a puzzling
scene.
Thank you for your time in reading this letter, I hope my
thoughts and opinions on your play were supporting and in no way harmful.
Sincerely,
Gibran
Sheikh
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