Introduction

Elephant Man is the true story of the life of Joseph Merrick who lived in England. He was
born on August 5, 1862 and died in April 1890. He is remembered for two things: the
disease, now known as multiple neurofibromatosis, which made his appearance repulsive to
most people; and secondly, his gentle and kind personality which won him many friends and
made the last years of his life happy.

Early Days

Joseph seemed to be a normal baby, but around the age of 21 months, strange growths
appeared on his head, face, lips, and right hand. No one knew why this happened. His
mother thought it was because she had been frightened and knocked down by an elephant,
that had escaped from the fair, when she was pregnant. Somehow, she thought, her fear
had caused her young boy to grow ugly, big and wrinkled, like an elephant.

Joseph's mother loved him very much. She didn't care about his looks. She sent him to
school and tried to treat him like other children. She had another baby, William Arthur, and
finally, a daughter, Marion Eliza. Joseph's mother got sick when she was 36 years old, and
she died soon after. Joseph was just 10 years old.

His father remarried - this time to a young widow, named Emma, who had children of her
own. She didn't like Joseph because of his appearance, and treated him badly. He began to
run away to his uncle's place, but usually his father would come to take him home again.
Joseph was very unhappy, and one day when he was 15, he ran away, never to return to his
father's house. He never saw his father again.

Joseph lived with his uncle for two years. He was happy. To earn money, he sold gloves and
stockings to people in the street. But Joseph became more and more repulsive, and the
growths on his body got larger and more grotesque. He quit his work of selling gloves and
stockings because people in the street were afraid of him. His uncle couldn't keep him any
longer. And so, just after Christmas in 1879, Joseph moved into a workhouse for poor
people.

Physical Characteristics

Joseph grew more and more unsightly as he grew older. Although he was only 5'2" tall, parts
of his body were very big. The circumference of his huge head was 36". His enormous skull
was irregular in shape. There were growths the size of oranges popping out of his skull. He
had little hair, and kept losing it until he was almost bald. Although his left arm and hand
were of normal size and had smooth skin, his right wrist was 12" in circumference, and it
was clumsy and useless to Joseph. His biggest finger was 5" around.

Strangely, however, his fingernails were perfect. His skin hung in loose folds, or wrinkles,
over his body and it was rough. Growths like cauliflowers covered his body. It was hard to
keep himself clean, so Joseph wreaked of a foul odor.
Because his lips were so twisted, it was hard to understand Joseph's speech. Many people
thought he was an imbecile, or very stupid. But in fact, Joseph was very intelligent.

The Days of Vanity Fair

Mr. Sam Torr was a comedian and a showman. He sang funny songs and played tricks. He
was also interested in exhibiting freaks and monsters such as "The Electric Lady", midgets,
and now, "The Elephant Man". People would pay a few pennies to see Joseph, nearly
naked. They could see his huge right hand, the ugly lumps on his head, and his twisted lips
and mouth. The show moved from one town to the next.

When the show reached London a young doctor named Frederick Treves went to see
Joseph. He was very interested in Joseph's sickness and he examined Joseph carefully. He
wanted to tell other doctors about this strange human being, hoping they would help in
diagnosing Joseph's problems. Treves' colleagues, however, were not interested.

The show moved on to other towns and cities. Joseph was cared for and he was earning
money. He was content. But then, people stopped coming to the freak shows. They did not
think it was funny to see human beings like the Elephant Man. Instead, they felt sorry for him
and many people asked the police to close down the show.

Once again, Joseph was alone and poor. He took the train back to London, and having no
money, no job, no friends, and nowhere to go, he took a chance on asking Dr. Treves for
help. It was Joseph's saddest moment.

Happy Days

Dr. Treves remembered Joseph immediately, and went to help him. He brought him to the
hospital where he gave Joseph a room to himself. The nurses bathed him and fed him.

Soon Joseph was happy again. Although he could not easily leave the hospital because he
would frighten people on the street, Dr. Treves found interesting people who came to the
hospital to befriend Joseph. These friends didn't care that Joseph was ugly. They took him to
the theatre, on holidays in the country, and came often to his room to visit him. They gave
money to the hospital to help take care of Joseph for the rest of his life.

Joseph became famous, and famous people such as the Princess of Wales wanted to be his
friend. Dr. Treves was probably Joseph's best friend. They visited everyday: they talked,
looked at pictures and enjoyed each other's company. Joseph loved to spend time making
models of the beautiful cathedral he could see from his window.

The End

Joseph became weaker and sicker. When he was only 27 he was like an old man. His head
was enormous, and he was in danger of choking in his sleep from the weight of his head. Dr.
Treves knew there was no cure or treatment for the disease. Still, Joseph was happy with
the visits of his friends, his few trips out of the hospital, his reading, and writing letters.
The end came on April 11, 1890. Joseph died gently and peacefully in his sleep.

Adapted from Howell, M. and Ford, P. 1980: The true story of the Elephant Man.
London, England: Allison and Busby Ltd., Adapted by Hetty Roessingh.
The picture appears on p. 98 of the book.

Elephant Man
1. What is the medical name for Joseph's disease?

2. Where did the name Elephant Man come from?

3. How many children were there in Joseph's family?

4. After Joseph quit school, he had to earn money. What did he do to earn money?

5. Why did Joseph want to quit his job?

6. Joseph had many unusual physical characteristics. In the chart below, compare your
physical characteristics to Joseph's.

Joseph
Physical Characteristics Me

Height

Circumference of skull

Circumference of right wrist

Circumference of thumb

Texture of skin

Fingernails

7. Measure the height of everyone in the class. Chart the information on the blackboard,
remembering to give the chart a title, noting the total N (number of people you
measured), and labelling the x and y axis of the chart. Write a short report about your
findings. Use the following vocabulary in your report:
 tallest shortest range average

mean mode median data

Use these questions to guide your writing:

What did we do?
What did we find?
What does it mean?

8. After the job of selling things on the street, what work did Joseph do to earn money?

9. People stopped coming to the freak shows. Why?

10. Who did Joseph go to when he was poor, alone and had nowhere to go?

11. Where did Joseph go to live for the rest of his life?

12. Why was it so hard to visit with Joseph?

13. Do you remember ever feeling different from other people? _______

How did you feel?

Tell the class about a time you really wanted to be like others, but you couldn't be.
What stopped you from doing what you wanted to do?

14. Joseph's days in the hospital were happy ones. Give three reasons why:

15. In English we sometimes say, "never judge a book by its cover", or "beauty is only skin
deep". What do you think these expressions mean?
 How do these expressions relate to the story?

Do you have an expression in your language that conveys the same thought?
Write it in your language on the line below:
_____________________________________________________
Now translate it back into English:
_____________________________________________________
NOTE: These idiomatic expressions sometimes express an idea that is universally
understood, but each culture has its own way of putting it in words.

16. Vocabulary development:

Without looking in the dictionary tell what these words mean (give an example, give another
word that means the same thing, or use the word in a sentence to show you
understand)

 repulsive:

 frightened:

 remarried:

 widow:

 appearance:

 grotesque:

 unsightly:

 circumference:

 enormous:

 bald:

 clumsy:

 wrinkles:

 wreaked:

 odor:

 imbecile:

 exhibiting:

 freaks:

 examined:
  diagnosing:

 colleagues:

 befriend:

 choking:

 cure:

 treatment:

 peacefully:

17. Work with verbs: give the present tense of these verbs.

Past: Present:
 sent
 won
 knew
 remarried
 ran
 sold
 grew
 thought
 gave
 found
 took
 wreaked
18. Comparative and superlative forms: fill in the chart with the correct forms.

Comparative Superlative

short shorter shortest

ugly

unhappy

gentle

kind
 repulsive

bad

good

intelligent

funny

sad

Write the rules for spelling/making the comparative and superlative forms:

 When the word ends in "y" __________________________________________.

 When the word is three or more syllables _______________________________.


19. Pretend you are Dr. Treves and Joseph Merrick is your patient. You have examined him.
Write a short report about what you noticed in your examination.

20. More vocabulary work. You can often tell the meaning of a word by analysing the word.
In the words below, identify the root word, then tell what the word means. The first one
has been done for you.
Word Root Meaning
incurable cur(e) cannot cure or fix
1. unsightly
2. irregular
3. useless
4. newborn
5. disfigured
 6. cauliflowerlike
7. disorder
8. treatable
9. unpredictable
10. remarry

21. Stop the film in the last 8-10 minutes. Treves has just said good night to John after
having spent the evening at the ballet. John tells him he had a wonderful time. Treves
goes home. We see John getting ready for bed, and removing the pillows.

 What is John going to do?

 Why do you think he chooses this night to be his last/

 How do you think Treves will feel when he finds out John has died?

 How do you feel about John choosing to end his life in this way?
22. Show the film to the end. Talk about the images in the last few minutes that represent
death and dying. How do these images make you feel?
 Completing Familiar Structures
Circle the best answer:

1. Lihn is _________ than Lan.

 short shortest very short shorter

2. Rami is the _________ person in the class.

very tall tallest tall taller

3. The Elephant Man was __________________ .

most intelligent more intelligent less intelligent very intelligent

4. We _________ the height of everyone in the class yesterday.

will measure measure measured are measuring

5. The _________ movie I have ever seen is Three Men and a Baby.

funny funnier very funny funniest

6. The Elephant Man looked at _________ in the mirror.

him his himself he

7. Many people _________ money to the hospital to keep the Elephant Man.

gave give will give are giving

8. The Elephant Man _________ his job of selling gloves on the street because people were
afraid of him.

was quitting is quitting had to quit has to quit

9. In the story of the Elephant Man, John's mother _________ him to school, like other
children.

sent send will send has sent

10. _________ wanted to help the Elephant Man.

Dr. Treves Dr. Treve's Dr. Treves' Treve's

11. The story of the Elephant man took place in London, England _________ .

for 100 years in 100 years 100 years ago 100 years

12. The _________ washed and fed Joseph.

nurses nurse's nurses' nursed

13. _________ mother died when he was ten years old.

John John's Johns' Johns

14. At the hospital, John had a room to _________ .

him his self himself

15. John Merrick _________ for the disease which made him ugly.

was remembered remembered remember is remembered

16. John did not have _________ hair.

much few some little

17. John _________ peacefully in his sleep.

dyed die died is dying

18. Tuan is the _________ student I know.

intelligent very intelligent more intelligent most intelligent

19. He is _________ than his math teacher!

intelligent very intelligent most intelligent more intelligent

20. In the story of the Elephant Man, John's friends _________ that he was ugly.

don't care haven't cared didn't care hasn't

cared

21. In the story of the Elephant Man, John's friends _________ him to the theatre.

took take have taken will take

22. The Elephant Man _________ a disease that made him ugly.

have has had is

23. People _________ coming to the freak shows because they did not find them funny.

stop stopped stopping were stopping

24. The Elephant Man _________ living in the hospital.

happy happier happiest was happy

25. The Elephant Man asked the doctor if he _________ him.

could cure cured cure incurable