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Shelby Turner

ENG 4UA-06

Mr. Kralt

July 23, 2017

Minor Details

The insane, schizophrenic and even the murderous all have a role in this nonfiction novel.

During The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester, the main character Minor,

murders a man named George Merrett early one saturday morning in 1872. Minor is prosecuted

for his crime and then it is found that he is an American living in England and has a mental

illness. When examining the novel from an archetypal perspective, it provides insight into the

two main characters; the professor, James Murray and the madman, Dr. William Minor. He

shows three different kinds of archetypal characters simultaneously through the novel; the hero,

the villain and the wise old man.

The hero in this novel is Dr. William Minor. He shows many characteristics that prove this

through his lifes journey. Minors journey truly begins when he moves to Lambeth where he

lives alone with his constant paranoia. Firstly, Minor is sent to an inmate asylum for criminals

because of the murder he had committed where he begins his heroic journey. This asylum

impacts him greatly. This is where he spends the last forty years of his life (32). Secondly, due

to the fact that Minor is going to spend the majority, if not his whole life, in the asylum, he needs

something to occupy his time. Minor finds an advertisement in one of his books that would go on

to influence the rest of his stay at the Broadmoor institute. This is the
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adventure that Minor craves. He writes meticulous lists of words that he finds intriguing. The

editor of the Oxford English Dictionary is pleased with Minors work and they begin chatting.

Minor creates lists upon lists of words and all that the editor, James Murray, can see is that his

writing takes an unprecedented approach- the kind of technique that only someone with

immense amounts of energy and disposable time could contemplate. (143). Murray first

believes this man to be a doctor at the asylum before realizing he is a patient. This is important

to Minors heroic journey. Finally, as Minor and Murray grow old, they begin separating. Murray

eventually dies and Minor is moved into a new home. This time, it is a home for the elderly

whom have various mental illnesses. Minor became pleasantly fixed in the St. Elizabeths

Asylum in Washington DC (203). These two men live their lives to the end, adding to the

masses of the Oxford English Dictionary for the entirety of their lives. Dr.William Minor displays

himself as a hero through his life's journey, from his entry into his new life and his call to

adventure all the way to Minors move.

The villain of this novel is William Minor. Throughout the beginning and middle of this

novel, he displays qualities that make him the villain in this story while simultaneously being the

hero and the wise old man. Minors malicious behaviour is shown through murder, self harm and

violence towards others. Firstly, after graduating from Yale University, Minor goes to war. After

the end of the war, Minor returns home with a lesion on the brain (15) causing him to show

symptoms of schizophrenia, paranoia and post traumatic stress disorder. These mental

illnesses that he has, effect his life and pushes him into insanity. Minor continues to use his

knowledge from his studies at Yale for the entire novel. This traumatic point in Minor's life

causes him to commit a murder and he is held in permanent custody as a certified

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criminal lunatic. (21). This is because his schizophrenia takes control and causes him to

believe that he is being stalked. The murder may have been caused by a mental illness.

However, killing an innocent man is never condoned. Therefore, the villain is punished, just as

archetypal villains are punished through pain or death. Secondly, after beginning his journey

from book to book, collecting words for the Oxford English Dictionary, he asks for a knife to cut

the unfinished pages of first additions (193). Minor is not one to disregard his thoughts and he

truly believes he was doing the right thing. He completed a surgical removal of the penis (192).

He did this because he felt that his lust was too controlling. This is a villainous act because he is

harming himself for a natural occurance that he felt became to controlling and took up too much

of his time. Minors mental illness created this picture in his mind that made him create an urge

to use the knife that he had borrowed. He uses previous surgical knowledge to remove an organ

and reduce it to a one inch nub that he could use to urinate. Finally, Minor brands a man with

the letter D because the man was An Irish deserter (60). He pressed the glowing metal onto

the Irishmans cheek. The flesh sizzled (61). This demonstrates that not only is Minor a villain in

his own life, but he also brands and murders these two men. Minor is clearly a madman and

obviously shows horrific signs of being a villain in this novel.

Minor provides insight, hope and detail in everything he does making him the wise old

man, while also being the hero and the villain at the same time during this novel. Firstly, he

shows that he has insightful information about books and words while he is reading. Minor has a

vast knowledge about the words he writes and ends up submitting over ten thousand words to

the publishers and editors of the Oxford English Dictionary. Minor has accumulated
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over the previous ten years (137); a collection of books that he would use as a basis of his

search for new and interesting words. Minor proves his limitless knowledge of books when he

collects the words from them to create descriptions that show everything that the editor, James

Murray, asks for. Secondly, William Minor obtains a war pension and gives the majority of it to

Eliza Merrett. Eliza Merrett is George Merretts wife; the man that Minor had killed. Minor

explains to Eliza that he is immeasurably sorry [for what] he had done, and he offered to try to

help in anyway he could(126). Minor gives the family money to support themselves. This

demonstrates the archetypal wise old man because he is caring for others and helping them in

their time of need. Finally, William Minor provides an astounding amount of detail in all of his

work. He writes everything he finds as he encounters it and each and every time he found a

word that piqued his interest he wrote it down, in tiny, almost microscopic letters, in it's proper

position in the quire he had made(139). Minors attention to detail is what keeps him going in

the institution. This shows that knowledge is power and that the wise old man can take writing

and make it into something interesting. During this novel, Dr.William Minor shows that he is the

wise old man through his insight into books, the way that he instills hope onto the Merrett family

and the detail in which he does everything.

The real character Dr. William C. Minor, shows three different types of archetypal

characters as displayed throughout the book. Considering that Minor is a main character, there

is a lot of information surrounding him about his past, present and future. Minor shows that he is

simultaneously the hero, the villain, and the wise old man in this novel.