The Pox Party (pg 309-353): Comparing "Mad Doctors"

    Earlier in class we compared some of the events in this novel to Frankenstein, however, after finishing the book, I think that Mr. Sharpe has much more in common with a different mad doctor. I felt like his "madness," actions, and consequences most closely related to Dr. Knox, from Burke and Hare. I think one of the biggest similarities is that the actions that they took, which seem very controversial and morally wrong from today's perspective, were much more acceptable within the context of the time periods in which their stories take place. In society today people would easily agree that slavery and subjecting slaves to experimentation and doing anatomical studies on graverobbed and murdered bodies is very reprehensible and wrong, but in the time periods in which these stories take place, people tended to look the other way or openly accept these practices. This differs from Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Frankenstein's experiments, which were much more fictional and shocking regardless of the time periods.

     Another connection between Sharpe and Knox was the severity of their consequences. Whereas Jekyll and Frankenstein were tormented by their creations to an extreme that caused them to go crazy, Sharpe and Knox seem to have gotten away with their actions. Knox and Sharpe may have ended up with tarnished reputations, and Sharpe gets drugged, they avoid jail time and more serious consequences. Both stories also ended with me questioning what happens next for these characters. Would they ever attempt similar experiments again? Would they ever truly have to pay for their awful actions?

Emily Smith