The Elephant Man

Perhaps the most striking symbol in the play is the model of St. Phillip’s church, which Merrick builds throughout the second half of the play and completes right before he dies. In his introductory note to the play, Pomerance refers to the church model as a “central metaphor, and the groping toward conditions where it can be built and the building of it are the action of the play” (v). At the start of the play, Merrick can barely communicate and certainly cannot communicate with eloquence. In his most desperate moments, he resorts to one-word statements that are still misunderstood. The world takes his outer form as communication in and of itself, a provocation to violence, without considering that Merrick might have a self, an inner life, or a sense of beauty. Merrick’s visitors see the church project and show how much they underestimate Merrick by marveling at his ability to work with only one functional hand. Merrick sees the church not as a structure made of building materials, but as “an imitation of grace flying up and up from the mud” and his model as an “imitation of an imitation” of grace (38). The model of the church is an act of creativity and beauty, one that rises out of the mud of Merrick’s painful life and uncooperative body.