Joseph Carey Merrick

Today in lecture we watched a film called "The Elephant Man" which was directed by "David Lynch" in 1980. The film was about a tragically deformed man by the name of "John Merrick". The film stars Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt.

John Merrick suffered from a disease called Proteus Syndrome which even to this day is still in-curable. This film truley touched me because even through his extreme physical and mental suffering he still remained courageous and cheerfull.

Seeing his courage under these circumstances made me feel extremely sad. It made me feel so much hatred towards the people who mistreated him so poorly. I was absoloutley disguisted by the way in which people mocked him and beat him. It proves how cruel society can be even when he was a good man inside.

I really find it hard to become emotional when watching a movie, but this is one of my two exceptions. I did'nt want too but it made me feel like i needed to cry. It showed me strength and how lucky some of us really are.

The killer line for me was when he collapses in the train station and shouts, "I am not an animal, I am a human being". A very powerfull moving line.