View source for Social:Mad scientist

{{short description|Stock character in fiction}}
[[File:Mad scientist.svg|thumb|One popular [[Philosophy:Stereotype|stereotype]] of a mad scientist: male, aging, crooked teeth, messy hair, lab coat, effervescent test tube, goggles, gloves, and striking a dramatic pose while cackling evilly]]
The '''mad scientist''' (also '''mad doctor''' or '''mad professor''') is a [[Social:Stock character|stock character]] of a [[Scientist|scientist]] who is perceived as "mad, bad and dangerous to know"<ref>Frayling, Christopher – ''Mad, Bad and Dangerous?: The Scientist and the Cinema'' (Reaktion Books, 2005) {{ISBN|1-86189-255-1}}</ref> or "insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly ambitious, [[Social:Taboo|taboo]] or [[Philosophy:Hubris|hubris]]tic nature of their experiments. As a motif in fiction, the mad scientist may be [[Social:Villain|villain]]ous ('''evil genius''') or antagonistic, benign, or neutral; may be [[Medicine:Psychosis|insane]], eccentric, or clumsy; and often works with fictional technology or fails to recognise or value common human objections to attempting to [[Philosophy:Playing God (ethics)|play God]]. Some may have benevolent intentions, even if their actions are dangerous or questionable, which can make them accidental antagonists.

==History==
===Prototypes===
[[File:The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957) trailer - Peter Cushing experimenting 2.png|right|thumb|Peter Cushing as Victor Frankenstein in ''The Curse of Frankenstein''  (1957)]]
The prototypical fictional mad scientist was Victor Frankenstein, creator of his eponymous monster,<ref>{{cite web|title=Encyclopædia Britannica - Frankenstein|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Frankenstein|access-date=10 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Clemens|first1=Valdine|title=Return of the Repressed, The: Gothic Horror from The Castle of Otranto to Alien|page=93|publisher=State University of New York Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QwYpYZ7rndMC&q=prototypical+mad+scientist+frankenstein&pg=PA93|access-date=10 November 2015|isbn=9780791499276}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Daniel H.|last2=Long|first2=Anna C.|title=The Mad Scientist Hall of Fame|isbn=978-0806528793|page=100|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UpjV_w7R_roC&q=prototypical+mad+scientist+frankenstein&pg=PA100|access-date=10 November 2015|date=2008-08-01|publisher=Kensington Publishing Corp. }}</ref> who made his first appearance in 1818, in the novel ''Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus'' by Mary Shelley. Though the novel's title character, Victor Frankenstein, is a sympathetic character, the critical element of conducting experiments that cross "boundaries that ought not to be crossed", heedless of the consequences, is present in Shelley's novel. Frankenstein was trained as both an alchemist and a modern scientist, which makes him the bridge between two eras of an evolving archetype. The book is said to be a precursor of a new genre, science fiction,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Abrams |first1=M. H. |last2=Harpham |first2=Geoffrey |title=A Glossary of Literary Terms |page=355 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7-iAgAAQBAJ&q=frankenstein+precursor+of+science+fiction&pg=PA355|access-date=10 November 2015|isbn=9781285974514 |date=2014-01-01 |publisher=Cengage Learning }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Corbett|first1=Robert|title=Romanticism and Science Fictions |journal=Romanticism on the Net|issue=21|pages=0|doi=10.7202/005970ar|year=2001}}</ref> although as an example of gothic horror<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tweg |first1=Sue |last2=Shelley |first2=Mary Wollstonecraft |last3=Edwards|first3=Kim|title=Frankenstein|page=13|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=udZvmYZikfQC&q=frankenstein+gothic+horror&pg=PA13|access-date=10 November 2015|isbn=9781921411397 |date=August 2011 |publisher=Insight Publications }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Jelinek|first1=Kenneth P.|title=Gothic Horror and Scientific Education in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein|date=1997}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Frankenstein as a Gothic Novel|url=http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/f/frankenstein/critical-essays/frankenstein-as-a-gothic-novel|access-date=10 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Frankenstein as a Gothic Fiction|url=http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanfiction/frankenstein-as-a-gothic-fiction.html|website=bachelorandmaster.com|access-date=10 November 2015}}</ref> it is connected with other antecedents as well.

The year 1896 saw the publication of [[Biography:H. G. Wells|H. G. Wells]]'s ''[[Unsolved:The Island of Doctor Moreau|The Island of Doctor Moreau]],'' in which the titular doctor—a controversial [[Biology:Vivisection|vivisection]]ist—has isolated himself entirely from civilisation in order to continue his experiments in surgically reshaping animals into humanoid forms, heedless of the suffering he causes.<ref>{{cite web|title=Novels: The Island of Doctor Moreau|url=http://academic.depauw.edu/aevans_web/HONR101-02/WebPages/Spring2006/Schmid(Todd)/wells.html|access-date=10 November 2015}}</ref>  In 1925, the novelist Alexander Belyaev introduced mad scientists to the Russian people through the novel ''Professor Dowell's Head'', in which the antagonist performs experimental head transplants on bodies stolen from the morgue, and reanimates the corpses.

===Cinema depictions===
[[File:Maniac9.jpg|thumb|Horace B. Carpenter as Dr. Meirschultz, a scientist attempting to bring the dead back to life in the 1934 film ''Maniac'']]
Fritz Lang's movie ''Metropolis'' (1927) brought the [[Social:Archetype|archetypical]] mad scientist to the screen in the form of Rotwang, the evil genius whose machines had originally given life to the [[Philosophy:Dystopia|dystopia]]n city of the title.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Geraghty|first1=Lincoln|title=American Science Fiction Film and Television|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WkILrUVObWQC&q=rotwang+metropolis+mad+scientist&pg=PT26|access-date=10 November 2015|isbn=9780857850768|date=2009-10-01}}</ref> Rotwang's laboratory influenced many subsequent movie sets with its [[Physics:Electric arc#Visual entertainment|electrical arcs]], bubbling apparatus, and bizarrely complicated arrays of dials and controls. Portrayed by actor Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Rotwang himself is the prototypically conflicted mad scientist; though he is master of almost mystical scientific power, he remains a slave to his own desires for power and revenge.{{citation needed|date=August 2015}} Rotwang's appearance was also influential—the character's shock of flyaway hair, wild-eyed demeanor, and his quasi-fascist{{cn|date=February 2019}} laboratory garb have all been adopted as shorthand for the mad scientist "look." Even his mechanical right hand has become a mark of twisted scientific power, echoed notably in Stanley Kubrick's film ''Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'' and in the novel ''The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch'' (1965) by [[Biography:Philip K. Dick|Philip K. Dick]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2015}}

A recent survey of 1,000 horror films distributed in the UK between the 1930s and 1980s reveals mad scientists or their creations have been the villains of 30 percent of the films; scientific research has produced 39 percent of the threats; and, by contrast, scientists have been the heroes of a mere 11 percent.<ref>Christopher Frayling, ''New Scientist'', 24 September 2005.</ref> Boris Karloff played mad scientists in several of his 1930s and 1940s films.

[[File:LugosiDevilBat3.jpg|thumb|Bela Lugosi as Dr. Paul Carruthers, the mad scientist protagonist of the poverty row horror film ''The Devil Bat'' (1940). Slighted at his workplace, the chemist Carruthers breeds giant bats to attack his wealthy employers.|right]]

===Movie serials===
The Mad scientist was a staple of the Republic/Universal/Columbia movie serials of the 1930s and 40s. Examples include:
*"Dr. Zorka" (''The Phantom Creeps'', 1939)
*"Dr. Fu Manchu" (''Drums of Fu Manchu'', Republic, 1940)
*"Dr. Satan" (''Mysterious Doctor Satan'', 1940)
*"Dr. Vulcan" (''King of the Rocket Men'', 1949)
*"Atom Man/Lex Luthor" ''Atom Man vs. Superman'', 1950){{Clear}}

===Post–World War II depictions===
Mad scientists were most conspicuous in [[Social:Popular culture|popular culture]] after [[Social:World War II|World War II]]. The sadistic human experimentation conducted under the auspices of the [[Social:Nazism|Nazis]], especially those of Josef Mengele, and the invention of the atomic bomb, gave rise in this period to genuine fears that science and technology had gone out of control. That the scientific and technological build-up during the [[History:Cold War|Cold War]] brought about increasing threats of unparalleled destruction of the human species did not lessen the impression. Mad scientists frequently figure in science fiction and motion pictures from the period.<ref>{{cite book|last1=G.|first1=Fraser|title=The Particle Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pgasJfizmocC&q=%22mad+scientist%22+%22post-war%22&pg=PA2|access-date=24 January 2017|isbn=9781420050332|date=1998-01-01|publisher=CRC Press }}</ref>

===Animation===
Mad scientists in animation have included Professor Frink, Professor Farnsworth, Rick Sanchez, Rintaro Okabe, and Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz.

Walt Disney Pictures had its mainstay Mickey Mouse trying to save his dog Pluto from ''The Mad Doctor'' (1933).

Depictions of mad scientists in Warner Brothers' ''Merrie Melodies''/''Looney Tunes'' cartoons include:
#''Hair-Raising Hare'' (1946, based on Peter Lorre)
#''Birth of a Notion'' (1947, again based on Lorre)
#''Water, Water Every Hare'' (1952, based on Boris Karloff)

While both Tom and Jerry dabbled in mad science in a few of the Hanna-Barbera cartoons, an actual mad scientist did not appear until ''Switchin' Kitten'' (1961), directed by Gene Deitch.

==See also==
* [[Philosophy:Absent-minded professor|Absent-minded professor]]
* Boffin
* British scientists (meme)
* [[Philosophy:Crank (person)|Crank (person)]]
* [[Creativity techniques]]
* [[Philosophy:Creativity and mental illness|Creativity and mental illness]]
* Edisonade, a similar trope, about a brilliant inventor, but of positive attitudes
* Egghead
* [[Unsolved:Faust|Faust]]
* [[Fringe science]]
* Girl Genius
* List of mad scientists
* Mad scientists of Stanislaw Lem

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Allen, Glen Scott (2009). ''Master Mechanics and Wicked Wizards: Images of the American Scientist from Colonial Times to the Present''. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. {{ISBN|978-1-55849-703-0}}.
* Garboden, Nick (2007). ''Mad Scientist or Angry Lab Tech: How to Spot Insanity''. Portland: Doctored Papers. {{ISBN|1-56363-660-3}}.
* Haynes, Roslynn Doris (1994). ''From Faust to Strangelove: Representations of the Scientist in Western Literature''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. {{ISBN|0-8018-4801-6}}.
* Junge, Torsten; Doerthe Ohlhoff (2004). ''Wahnsinnig genial: Der Mad Scientist Reader''. Aschaffenburg: Alibri. {{ISBN|3-932710-79-7}}.
* Norton, Trevor (2010). ''Smoking Ears and Screaming Teeth. (A witty celebration of the great eccentrics...)''. Century. {{ISBN|978-1-84605-569-0}}.
* Schlesinger, Judith (2012). ''The Insanity Hoax: Exposing the Myth of the Mad Genius''. Ardsley-on-Hudson, N.Y. Shrinktunes Media {{ISBN|978-0-98369-824-1}}.
* {{cite web | author=James T. Webb, Ph.D. | date=September 12, 2012 | title=A Book Review of The Insanity Hoax: Exposing the Myth of the Mad Genius | url=http://nationalpsychologist.com/2012/09/the-insanity-hoax-exposing-the-myth-of-the-mad-genius/101746.html | work=The National Psychologist | access-date=28 May 2015}}
* Schneider, Reto U. (2008). ''The Mad Science Book. 100 Amazing Experiments from the History of Science''. London: Quercus. {{ISBN|978-1-84724-494-9}}.
* Tudor, Andrew (1989). ''Monsters and Mad Scientists: A Cultural History of the Horror Movie''. Oxford: Blackwell. {{ISBN|0-631-15279-2}}.
* Weart, Spencer R. (1988). ''Nuclear Fear: A History of Images''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
* Levi, Pfaff J. (1956). ''Wahnsinnig genial: Der Mad Scientist Reader''. Aschaffenburg: Alibri. {{ISBN|3-932710-79-7}}.

== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040628212818/http://pcasacas.org/SPC/spcissues/22.1/hoppenstand.html Gary Hoppenstand, "Dinosaur Doctors and Jurassic Geniuses: The Changing Image of the Scientist in the Lost World Adventure"]
* [http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/event.asp?month=2&id=2891 The Scarecrow's Brain – images of the scientist in film, Christopher Frayling]
* [http://www.themadscientist.de/ The Mad Scientist Database with links and Looks]

{{Stock characters}}

[[Category:Stock characters]]

{{Sourceattribution|Mad scientist}}