The Doctor and the Devils (Play) Literary Elements

Play

English

Nineteenth Century, in the context of pushing forward the frontiers of medical research

The point of view is that of the "good" doctors for most of the play.

The tone is optimistic and upbeat, as the doctor discuss how to further the field of medicine and research; however, it becomes darker and more macabre.

The protagonist is Dr Rock, while the antagonists are Fallon and Broom

Dr Rock experiences internal conflict when he realizes that he is complicit in the murders, having known what was going on.

Broom gives evidence against Fallon, who is hanged.

When Fallon and Broom overhear the conversation between Rock and Murray, it foreshadows their plan to commit a series of murders in order to sell the bodies for a great deal of money.

Calling Dr Rock complicit is in many ways an understatement because he came up with the idea of hiring grave robbers at the beginning; although he did not ask them to commit murder, he did willingly participate in receiving corpses illegally.

The play alludes to the nineteenth century as the dawn of medical research and also alludes to the common practice amongst doctors of getting corpses from the graveyard to use as medical cadavers.

The imagery is very dark, and not just murderous; the visual imagery creates a picture in the audience's minds of men digging up graves and also suggests what the corpses must now smell like.

Rock at first believes that he is working for the greater good and in this way finds it easy to justify using grave robbers to provide him with corpses, but when he actually thinks about what he has done he realizes that he has actually be part of the crime by looking the other way.

There is a parallel between the knowledge that he willingly received stolen corpses and the public's disillusionment with Dr Rock.

N/A

Rock addresses the audience as much as his own conscience when he admits that he is partly to blame because he knew what they were doing and looked the other way.