Title: The Moorehead Maze Experiment
Author: Tim Lieder
Date of First Publication: 2015
Place of Publication: Daughters of Frankenstein
Characters: No Characters
Themes: MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; BYRONIC HERO; WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS; QUEER FRANKENSTEIN; RACE/POLITICS
Critical Summary: The Moorehead Maze Experiment is written in an interview style that reflects the traumatizing experiences that University students endured during a psychological study that was conducted during the seventies. After the infamous Stanford prison experiment a lesbian scientist, Dr. Adler, becomes infatuated with the result and conducts her own experiment that involves two groups, one group as minotaurs and the other as Thebans. They picked twenty-four healthy volunteers, eight who would wear a minotaur mask and sixteen who would be the “Thebans.” The minotaurs are the ones overseeing the Thebans as they make their way through the maze. The experiment intensifies when it is revealed that the minotaur subjects were given phencyclidine in their drinks. This causes the minotaur subjects to become violent towards the Theban subjects. Reality and the illusion of the experiment become blurred turning the study into a violent and traumatizing event.
The Moorehead Maze Experiment is a reflection of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein as they both share a similar theme of the mad scientist. Dr. Adler learns of the Stanford experiment and becomes consumed with the psychology of the human mind and its capability. Similar in the way Victor Frankenstein becomes obsessed with his need to create life, Dr. Adler becomes obsessed with her own experiment that she ignores when things go over the edge. She even goes as far to drug the subjects when the experiment is not going the way she wants. Dr. Adler and Victor share character traits that ultimately lead to their own demise. Victor creates a monster to satisfy his infatuation of creating life and playing god that ends up killing the people he loves. Dr. Adler was unable to accept that her experiment was failing, so she took matters into her own hands and began manipulating the course of her study. Even when people were getting hurt and blood began to appear on the walls, Dr. Adler refused to put an end to the experiment. The characters that surround Dr. Adler are unable to stop her, due to her power over them as a professor who has tenure and as overseer to the experiment. Her position as a professor gave her the power to continue the study even though those around her knew that the experiment was getting violent. Like Victor, whose family thought he was severely ill and losing his mind, they were unable to see and confront her madness. The characters surrounding Victor and Dr. Adler were in denial that made them unaware and turn a blind eye to the terrible experiences that were happening around them due to the scientists. Though it is unclear what happens to Dr. Adler, at the end of the story it is clear that she is in trouble with the law because the style of reading is set as though the people involved are being interviewed by law enforcement of some sort about the events that happened in the experiment. Victor and Dr. Adler are characters that create their own downfall and hurt the people around them in the process. All for the sake of science.
Administrative Notes: Klaritza Rico, CSUF; Matthew Vu (editing)