130 years since the departure of the "Elephant Man" .. Joseph Merrick .. A story of torture and suffering

Today marks the 130th anniversary of the departure of Joseph Merrick, nicknamed "The Elephant Man." An Englishman, born on August 5, 1862, who died on April 11, 1890, was suffering from severe birth defects caused by a syndrome called "Proteus", which is a form of gene disorder.

Merrick was born to a natural father and mother and had a brother and sister, and at the age of two years, he began showing symptoms of deformations and protrusions in the body, face, neck, swollen mouth, lip, and tongue that he was difficult to speak, and of their magnitude, and his features began to change strangely until people around him dubbed him the nickname " Elephant Man. "

His head was 91 centimeters in size, his right forearm was 30 centimeters, and the circumference of one of his fingers reached 13 centimeters. , And cries on her lap.

His mother died when he reached the age of 11, leaving him in the custody of a father who did not care about him, and he expelled him from the house when he reached the age of twelve, which compelled him to search for work everywhere, but the irony and mockery of him were harassing him everywhere he went to.

At the age of seventeen, Merrick was placed in a homeless shelter, but he escaped from him after years after his life in him became worse than it was before, then he found no refuge except in the circus of mutants, which is a type of circus that displays people with strange shapes and deformities to come People watching and amusing them.

Merrick lived a difficult teenager, and he spent his life traveling to perform shows, and the owner of the bad circus called "Peretz" was using it in the most horrific ways, so he took him and put him in a cage in one of the circus houses and took advantage of his strange form to display it to people on the grounds that it was similar to the elephant and called it The name "elephant man", and he started wrapping cities with him, and earning terrible sums from the greedy to see him, and during the show, people laughed at him, cursed him, threw stones and tomatoes and called him a "monster".

After that, Britain stopped the circus of mutants and returned to the street again, until accidentally met a doctor named Travis and sympathized with him and offered to help him, but Joseph refused at first, and after that he agreed after suffering from displacement.

Queen Victoria heard of Joseph's suffering. Dr. Treves was given all the powers to house him in a hospital in Britain. With all his comforts, they provided him with a warm bed, hot meals, health care and all his requirements. And all the hospital staff became close to him and loved him. He was also able to read and write at a time when Britain was mired in illiteracy. He was a highly educated reader and excellent analyst for Shakespeare's novels, and he wrote novels and poetry and made elaborate engineering figures.

And with the days began to come to him visits from high-end English families to sit with him and exchange conversation, until one of the stars of that time called Mrs. Candle met Joseph Merrick and talked to him about the theater and Shakespeare, and the realistic and romantic direction in art, so he showed the feelings, ideas and visions inside him. Towards art.

Merrick used to wish one wish, and he used to say, "I would have liked a woman to love me even if blind," but he died thirsting for a woman who exchanged love.

Merrick died at the age of 27 years, and his ending was sad, as hospital workers were surprised by his death, when the nurse entered to help him to turn on his sides, because because of his heavy weight he could not do so, and found him lying on his back, and his death was due to suffocation, as he was used to He had to sleep on his side because of the large size of his head, but he suffocated after turning on his back and could not breathe due to the large size of the tongue and throat.

After his death, doctors explained Merik's body, and kept his skeleton as an anatomical model at the Royal London Hospital.

His story inspired a number of book authors and plays, and in the year 1980 the movie "The Elephant Man" was produced, which tells the story of Merrick's life, and was a great success, as he was nominated for 8 Academy Awards.