John Treves Character Analysis

1. Despite having extreme physical deformities, John Merrick’s character is always portrayed in a positive way to a reader. John is also an intelligent person, when treves is learning about John after discovering him he not only finds that he can speak but also can read. John had read the Bible and memorized verses. John seems to even exceed the average human's ability to understand people even though multiple times he himself is viewed as an inhuman creature. “People seem to think that I do not understand their feelings when they first see me. Their horror, their… outrage,” said John. John is incredibly sensitive to the way people view him. He tries harder than anyone to gain friends; kindness and humbleness always leak from his character, …show more content…
Treves realizes the pain that exists in John more than anyone, but not until he talks with and observes him. He states in the play, “It was not until I came to know that Merrick was highly intelligent, that he possessed an acute sensibility, and- worse than all- a romantic imagination, that I realized the overwhelming tragedy of his life.” Treves finds out how aware John is of his surroundings. Not only does he realize that other people see him as a deformed freak, but he also sees himself as a freak. Treves realizes that despite being treated in such an inhuman way John desperately wishes to be seen like other people. I don’t think there is any real black or white answer to why John was “born into such such pain”, but I do think he helped people gain perspective on how it feels to be treated differently for a reason you can’t help. John’s life served as an example to many people to show that people are more than just a face and body, which on John was hard to distinguish. A human is a human despite any discrepancies they …show more content…
This story has let me see the life of John Merrick. You can try to make assumptions of people based on external factors such as looks, actions, etc, but these assumption are often an unfair representations of someone's personality as shown in this account of John’s life. This story has helped me to not only see but understand how little control people have over many of these things. “Tis true my form is something odd, but blaming me is blaming God; Could I create myself anew I would not fail in pleasing you.” John’s usage of this quote in his autobiography hit me hard. John did not chose the life he was given, and couldn’t control his disease, he could only choose how he reacted to his deformity. If John was only judged by what he chose he would be looked to not as a monster but a great friend and human. I believe being introduced to this story will help me judge better who people choose to be and put less value on the shallow qualities they were