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Mad scientist

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"They LAUGHED at my theories at the institute! Fools! I'll destroy them all!" — A stereotypical mad scientist.

A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, either villainous, or benignly unconscious and scatter-brained. Whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, the mad scientists are usually working with some utterly fictional technology in order to forward his evil schemes. Alternatively, he (female mad scientists are very rare) doesn't see the evil that will ensue from his hubris in "playing God". Recent mad scientist depictions are often satirical and humorous, and some are actually protagonists, such as Dexter in the cartoon series Dexter's Laboratory.

Defining characteristics

Mad scientists are typically characterized by obsessive behaviour and the employment of extremely dangerous or unorthodox methods. They often are motivated by revenge, seeking to settle real or imagined slights, typically related to their unorthodox studies.

Their laboratories often hum with Tesla coils, Van de Graaff generators, Jacob's ladders, perpetual motion machines, and other visually impressive electrical oddments, or are decorated with test tubes and complicated distillation apparatus containing strangely-colored liquids with no obvious purpose.

Other traits include:

  • Pursuit of science without regard to its ethical implications (such as violating the Nuremberg Code)
  • Self-experimentation
  • Playing God, tinkering with Nature, often with analogies to young boys
  • Lack of normal relationships
  • Perpetually unkempt appearance or physical deformity
  • Speaking with a German or Eastern European accent. (This was in large part the result of many scientists from Germany and Eastern Europe emigrating to the United States in two waves: one before World War II comprised of refugees from Nazism, and one after the war comprised of refugees from the Soviet Union)
  • In villains, maniacal laughter, especially pronounced when their experiments reach their climax

It is notable that most of these traits are little more than exaggerations of typical stereotypes of normal scientist behavior: Scientists are often obsessive about their work, take a dim view of societal considerations that interfere with it, are perpetually adopting a "disinterested" worldview for the purposes of objectivity, etc. There is no firm dividing line between sane scientists and mad scientists, and the ones mentioned in the rest of this article cover the entire spectrum.

For a contrasting view of scientific exploration, see the List of heroic fictional scientists.

History

Template:Spoiler

Before 1945

Since the 19th century, fictitious depictions of science have vacillated between notions of science as the salvation of society, and science as the doom of society. Consequently, depictions of scientists in fiction ranged between the virtuous and the depraved, the sober and the insane. Until the 20th century, optimism about progress was the most common attitude towards science, but there were latent anxieties about disturbing "the secrets of nature" which would surface following the increasing role of science in wartime affairs.

The prototypical mad scientist was Dr. Frankenstein, creator of Frankenstein's monster, who made his first appearance in 1818, in the novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley. Though Dr. Frankenstein is a sympathetic character, the critical element of conducting forbidden experiments that cross "boundaries that ought not to be crossed", heedless of the consequences, is present in Shelley's novel.

Other early mad scientists include:

  • Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his short story "The Birthmark" (1843), shows a scientist who, while perhaps not mad, is certainly overconfident, and whose meddling with nature brings about tragedy.
  • Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) portrays the essentially humane experimenter driven to madness and suicide by the nature of his science.
  • Jules Verne's Carpathian Castle (1892) has a mad scientist named "Orfanik".
  • H. G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) carried Frankensteinian experimentation a step further, contrasting it with an idyllic 'natural' South Sea island setting. A film version was made, The Island of Lost Souls (1933) ("From his house of pain they came remade... "What is the law? Not to spill blood; not to chase other men; not to go on all fours; not to eat flesh. This is the law. Are we not men?").
  • The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) is a silent film featuring the mad hypnotic doctor and his sleepwalking assistant.
  • C.A. Rotwang in Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927).
  • Dr. Frankenstein in several movie versions.
  • Dr. Jack Griffin, in the film The Invisible Man (1933). Dr. Griffin makes a discovery on how to become invisible but in the process is sent into murderous insanity.
  • Dr. Janos Rukh, in the film The Invisible Ray (1936). Dr. Rukh discovers a radioactive ray that cures blindness but causes him to develop a murderous paranoid rage against other scientists, whom he accuses of stealing his discovery.
  • Dr. Throkel, in the film Dr. Cyclops (1940). Dr. Throkel shrinks opponents of his unorthodox experimentation with radium.
  • Phor Tak, the discoverer of invisibility in Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1930 science-fiction novel, A Fighting Man of Mars.

Nevertheless, the essentially benign and progressive impression of science in the public mind continued unchecked, exemplified by the optimistic "Century of Progress" exhibition in Chicago, 1933, and the "World of Tomorrow" at the New York World's Fair of 1939. However after the first World War, public attitudes began to shift, if only subtly, when chemical warfare and the airplane were the terror weapons of the day. As an example, of all science fiction before 1914 which dealt with the end of the world, two-thirds were about naturalistic endings (such as collision with an asteroid), and the other third was devoted to endings caused by humans (about half were accidental, half purposeful). After 1914, the idea of any human actually killing the remainder of humanity became a more imaginable fantasy (even if it was still yet impossible), and the ratio switched to two-thirds of all end-of-the-world scenarios being the product of human maliciousness or error. Though still drowned out by feelings of optimism, the seeds of anxiety had been thoroughly sown.

Since 1945

Mad scientists had their heyday in popular culture in the period after World War II. The sadistic medical experiments of the Nazis and the invention of the atomic bomb gave rise in this period to genuine fears that science and technology had gone out of control. The scientific and technological build up during the Cold War, with its increasing threats of unparallelled destruction, did not lessen the impression. Mad scientists frequently figure in science fiction and motion pictures from the period. The movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, in which Peter Sellers plays the eponymous Dr. Strangelove, is perhaps the ultimate expression of this fear of the power of science.

In more recent years, the mad scientist as a lone investigator of the forbidden unknown has tended to be replaced by mad corporate executives who plan to profit from defying the laws of nature and humanity regardless of who suffers; these people hire a salaried scientific staff to pursue their twisted dreams. This shift is typified by the revised history of Superman's archenemy, Lex Luthor: originally conceived in the 1930s as a typically solitary mad scientist, a major retcon of the character's origins in the early 1980s made him the head of a mega corporation who also plays a leading role in his R & D department. Still, the pose has been used whimsically by popular science writers to attract readers.

Fictional mad scientists since 1945

See also: Cranks

Fields of research

Untouched fields

Fields that are largely untapped by mad scientists include:

Real-life prototypes

The scientists of literature and popular imagination have better defined our image of "mad science" than have actual scientists, because that is their function: to reflect back our own prejudices. "Popular belief and behavior are influenced more by images than by demonstrable facts" (Roslynn Doris Haynes, 1994). Some real-life scientists, not necessarily madmen, whose personalities (and sometimes, appearances) have contributed to the stereotype:

Related: List of notable eccentrics

References analyzing the cultural motif

  • Haynes, Roslynn Doris (1994). From Faust to Strangelove: Representations of the Scientist in Western Literature. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-4801-6.
  • Tudor, Andrew (1989). Monsters and Mad Scientists: A Cultural History of the Horror Movie. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-15279-2.
  • Weart, Spencer R. (1988). Nuclear Fear: A History of Images. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

External links: analyzing the culture motif

External links: within the genre

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