The Dilemma of John Merrick
from The Elephant Man
Written by Christopher De Vore, Eric Bergren, David Lynch
Dr. Frederick Treves confesses his moral uncertainty to his wife, Anne, regarding his patient John Merrick. He struggles with whether he is truly helping a sentient man or simply projecting intelligence onto someone to ease his own professional conscience before a high-stakes evaluation.
ANNE: Freddie? Freddie, don't look so discouraged.
TREVES: I shouldn't be. We made great progress today. I taught him to repeat a few basic phrases. He did rather well, too, but I had to lead him every step of the way. Though frankly, at times I was unsure of who was leading whom.
ANNE: What do you
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