Mad Scientists: The Pursuit of Perfection

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Mad Scientists The Pursuit of Perfection

• By Lauren Mamer

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Defining the Mad Scientist

• Crossing a line defined by society
• Obsession
• Confusion of Priorities

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• Our great creative Mother Nature, permits
  us, indeed, to mar, but seldom to mend, and,
  like a jealous patentee, on no account to make.
  
• --The Birthmark, Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1843

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The Birthmark

• Hallmarks of a mad scientist
• Attempting perfection
• Obsessed with the birthmark
• Makes perfecting wife more important than being
  with her
  
• Trying to make her better than nature

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

• Trying to isolate his pure self
• Creates pure evil as well in Hyde
• In the end it is Hyde, physical desires that win
  out
  

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SpidermanGreen Goblin

• Enhancing human performance
• Also enhances impulsiveness, greed
• Obsession leads him to try his experiment on
  himself
  
• Loses priorities, ignores his son to terrorize
  city

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What does it all mean?

• Much has been written about the negative
  portrayal of science and mad scientists in horror
  films
  
• Fears tied recent developments in science
• Fear of perfection not related to developments in
  technology and science

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Why cant humans achieve perfection?

• Two outcomes seen
• Physical improvement comes with a mental price
• Perfection only comes with death

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Concluding Thoughts

• Fear of perfection because of competition
• Fear of failure
• Need flaws because they define us
• Evidence results of perfection experiments in
  fiction and cinema
  

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Final Question

• for his spirit was ever on the march, ever
  ascending, and each instant required something
  beyond the scope of the instant before.
  
• --Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Birthmark