Title: The Dead Man
Author: Fritz Leiber
Date of First Publication: November 1950
Place of Publication: Weird Tales
Type: Short Story
Characters: None
Themes: ANDROID; POSTHUMAN; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER
Critical Summary: This tale follows a renowned medical professor named Max Redford and his long-time friend, Fred Alexander, a popular science journalist and the story’s narrator. Redford invites Fred to his research facility to observe the examination of a body. Fred thinks he recognizes the man as Redford’s wife’s lover. Redford begins tapping his pencil, then asks Fred to diagnose the man’s cause of death based on the visible symptoms of a disease. Fred thinks the body shows signs of tuberculosis, then begins to wonder if Redford knew about his wife’s affair and had intentionally infected the man with a deadly disease. Redford asks Fred to take another look at the body, but this time the man has a different affliction, and Fred begins to suspect that Redford is playing some practical joke on him.
The man wakes up and appears to be perfectly healthy. His name is John Fearing, and he is in the best physical condition of anyone Fred has ever seen. John Fearing spent years suffering from a psychosomatic illness that had escalated in severity. Redford came up with a treatment for Fearing’s psychosomatic disease using hypnosis, which allows for Fearing’s subconscious to take over. Fred learns that Fearing’s subconscious is responsible for his abnormally developed physique. Then, in Redford’s next experiment, he hypnotizes Fearing with his pencil taps and brings his patient to the edge of death. Unfortunately, Redford is unable to bring him out of the hypnosis and Fearing dies; soon after there are a funeral and burial for Fearing. Redford and his research is ostracized by the medical community.
Months later, as Fred is consoling the broken Redford over drinks, Redford suddenly realizes he merely had the hypnotizing pencil taps in the wrong order. As he is tapping out the correct order, the eavesdropping Velda runs out of the house. They follow her to the cemetery where they get separated. When Fred finds Fearing’s grave, he sees that the casket is broken open, Velda is torn and bloodied, and Redford is dead. Around his broken neck, is a putrid, half-decayed hand.
Compared to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Max Redford is the iconic Mad Scientist, and John Fearing is his Monster. Redford’s becomes a mad scientist figure when his revolutionary treatment is discredited by the rest of the scientific community because of his irresponsible methodology that results in the death of his patient. Instead of treating Fearing’s disease, he uses experimental techniques on his subject, which backfires, resulting in the creation of a monster. Fearing exhibits the theme of the Sympathetic Monster, and though he kills his creator, is understood by the reader because of the circumstances in which he was made, and how his mistreatment led to the destruction of his creator.
Administrative Notes: David Marshel, CSUF; Adam Shelley (editing)