Motifs In The Elephant Man

The movie The Elephant Man is about a man born with massive deformities on his body and face. They call him “The Elephant Man”, but his real name is John Merrick. A doctor named Frederick Treves, wanted to examine him so he removed him from the freak show and took him to the hospital. As the movie goes on, he takes care of John and learns that he is much more than just a freak show. Throughout the film, the director, David Lynch, conveys a theme of inner and outer self and uses motifs to reinforce this theme.
A motif we see occur in the film to help reinforce this theme of inner and outer self is the cathedral John makes. He becomes inspired from the cathedral he sees outside the window of his room. To gather materials to construct the cathedral, we watch John scavenging through the

Mr. Porter is the complete opposite of John Merrick. The reason is that if a person were to only look at Mr. Porter, he would resemble any other normal person, but where John’s appearance is unbearable. Although Mr. Porter may look like a normal person however, he is a repulsive man on the inside. This is because of what he did to dehumanize John. He sold tickets to bring a crowd to abuse John by pouring alcohol on him and forcing girls to kiss him. Because of this, he is the true freak and not John. John may look like an ugly elephant on the outside, but he is a true gentleman on the inside if people got to know him more. Overall, Night Porter is normal on the outside, but a freak on the inside. Where John may be a freak on the outside, but is a normal person on the inside.
In conclusion, the movie The Elephant Man uses the motifs the cathedral and Night Porter to build on a theme of inner and outer self. We can learn from this film by evaluating ourselves and ask if we are the true freaks. We must learn to look inward towards people and not judge on outward