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The elephant man
Joseph Merrick was born as a normal baby on August 5, 1862.
Around the age of five he began to grow abnormal deformations.
Six years later, his mother died.
His father soon remarried, and Joseph was consequently rejected by his own father and stepmother. They never showed any affectionate feelings towards him whatsoever.
From the age of thirteen on (when he left school just like any other kid at the time) he worked in a cigar factory. At the age of sixteen he had to stop since he did not have the dexterity anymore to roll cigars, due to the worsened deformity in his right hand.
He then worked as a “hawker,” selling stuff from a haberdashery store, door to door. His changing physique interfered more and more with his tries to lead a normal life:
After a severe beating by his father in 1877 he ran away from home for good, and went to live with his uncle Charles.
The extra mouth in Charles’s family was hard to feed, and at the age of seventeen, Joseph moved to a workhouse — also known as “poorhouse
Merrick soon realized and concluded that the only way to escape the workhouse was to “perform” on carnivales and sideshows, as a frea
And that is exactly what he did
He then became known as the “Elephant man,” working for a number of people. Here is a small excerpt on his working for Tom Norman
The shop on Whitechapel road was directly across the road from the London Hospital, and through a visitor of the show who was working as a surgeon in the hospital, Joseph became acquainted with a doctor named Frederick Treves.
It would change his life.
Joseph continued to perform as a freak, but his entire life savings were eventually stolen by his then-manager, and then he was abandoned.
In dire circumstances, he returned to London again:
He moved to the London Hospital, and stayed there for the rest of his life, in a furnished room without mirrors (at his request), only leaving on three occasions for some time off.
(Treves might have been the only friend of Joseph Merrick in his life, but Treves also said that Merrick never confided in him.)
Joseph always carried a photograph of his mother on him.
There is much to say about his hospital years, but the very essence is that he wanted to live a normal life, sometimes becoming depressed and always very lonely.
Famously, when he met a young and pretty woman called Leila Maturin through Treves, Joseph became overcome with emotions because Maturin had been the first woman to ever smile at him, and to shake his hand.
Joseph Merrick died on April 11, 1890.
He was found lying dead across his bed.
An autopsy (performed by Treves) showed that Joseph died from a dislocated neck. Knowing how Joseph slept at night, Treves concluded that Joseph “made the experiment.”
From what I have read about Joseph Merrick, I understand that he was a very kind and intelligent man, locked in a tortured body which never stopped deforming.
An extremely lonely and melancholic man.
But in the end he died just as he wished. Like a normal human in his sleep
Joseph Merrick was born as a normal baby on August 5, 1862.
Around the age of five he began to grow abnormal deformations.
Six years later, his mother died.
His father soon remarried, and Joseph was consequently rejected by his own father and stepmother. They never showed any affectionate feelings towards him whatsoever.
From the age of thirteen on (when he left school just like any other kid at the time) he worked in a cigar factory. At the age of sixteen he had to stop since he did not have the dexterity anymore to roll cigars, due to the worsened deformity in his right hand.
He then worked as a “hawker,” selling stuff from a haberdashery store, door to door. His changing physique interfered more and more with his tries to lead a normal life:
After a severe beating by his father in 1877 he ran away from home for good, and went to live with his uncle Charles.
The extra mouth in Charles’s family was hard to feed, and at the age of seventeen, Joseph moved to a workhouse — also known as “poorhouse
Merrick soon realized and concluded that the only way to escape the workhouse was to “perform” on carnivales and sideshows, as a frea
And that is exactly what he did
He then became known as the “Elephant man,” working for a number of people. Here is a small excerpt on his working for Tom Norman
Four years later, that area would be haunted by the ghost of Jack The Ripper.
The shop on Whitechapel road was directly across the road from the London Hospital, and through a visitor of the show who was working as a surgeon in the hospital, Joseph became acquainted with a doctor named Frederick Treves.
It would change his life.
Joseph continued to perform as a freak, but his entire life savings were eventually stolen by his then-manager, and then he was abandoned.
In dire circumstances, he returned to London again:
He moved to the London Hospital, and stayed there for the rest of his life, in a furnished room without mirrors (at his request), only leaving on three occasions for some time off.
(Treves might have been the only friend of Joseph Merrick in his life, but Treves also said that Merrick never confided in him.)
Joseph always carried a photograph of his mother on him.
There is much to say about his hospital years, but the very essence is that he wanted to live a normal life, sometimes becoming depressed and always very lonely.
Famously, when he met a young and pretty woman called Leila Maturin through Treves, Joseph became overcome with emotions because Maturin had been the first woman to ever smile at him, and to shake his hand.
Joseph Merrick died on April 11, 1890.
He was found lying dead across his bed.
An autopsy (performed by Treves) showed that Joseph died from a dislocated neck. Knowing how Joseph slept at night, Treves concluded that Joseph “made the experiment.”
From what I have read about Joseph Merrick, I understand that he was a very kind and intelligent man, locked in a tortured body which never stopped deforming.
An extremely lonely and melancholic man.
But in the end he died just as he wished. Like a normal human in his sleep
Ooggaaa boooga money booobaaaa nigggaaaa shieeet
