The Elephant Man

Viewing human oddities and abnormalities of nature as entertainment has been present throughout the history of human society. But in the Victorian era (mid to late 19th century), this interest in prominent differences coincided with a widespread fascination with science. “Freak shows” became wildly popular in England and throughout Europe as well as in the United States. The idea of “freakishness” was rooted in ableism, exotification, and imperialism. These spectacles of difference, bolstered by scientific claims, solidified general conceptions of the limits of normalcy as white, able-bodied, and conforming to European-centric cultural and physical standards. Alongside objects, animals, and scientific specimens, these shows displayed people who were considered racially or ethnologically different, as well as people with rare and visible disabilities. Many of these exhibits, human and otherwise, were faked, or sometimes real but with wildly fabricated stories of exotic origins. For instance, the real-life Joseph Merrick was billed as half man/half elephant, just as many other human exhibits were advertised as human/animal hybrids.

As the play demonstrates, the nature of these shows was to dehumanize difference. When Ross is attracting an audience for Merrick, he promises not only the visual of “physical deformities” but a show of animalistic anguish and rage.