User:Atcovi/Summer Reading 2018-19/The Professor and the Madman

Work: Non-fiction

Genre (novel, play, memoir, etc): Memoir

Author:	Simon Winchester

Time period(s) of the setting of the work: Various situations have their own time periods, but mostly centered to the late 1800s-early 1900s.

Research and cite important information (in an ample paragraph) regarding the time period(s): Although Winchester has created various situations in the book, the time period of these situations are centered in or about the birth and death dates of William C. Minor (June 1834 and March 26, 1920). This time period consist of Mr. Minor's birth in the small island of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) ("William Minor was born on the island in June 1834" (Winchester 49)), move to America due to his attraction to the Sri Lankan girls ("But by the time he was 14, his parents (who were perhaps aware of his pubescent longings) decided to send him back to the United States, well away from the temptations of the tropics" (Winchester 53)), service in the American Civil War ("When Minor signed his first contract with the army..." (Winchester 55)), formation of his mental illness from his work in the war ("And although it is never quite possible to pinpoint what causes the eruption of madness in a man, there is at least some circumstantial suggestion in this case that it was an event, or a coincidence of events, that finally did unhinge Doctor Minor and pitch him over the edge into what in those unforgiving times was regarded as total lunacy." (Winchester 58), transfer to the UK ("In October, with the red-and-gold leaves of the New England trees already beginning to fall, William Minor boarded a steamer in Boston, with a single ticket to the Port of London" (Winchester 81)); ("But while Doctor Minor arrived in London on a wintry November morning..." (Winchester 85)), the murder of George Merrett ("But that night George Merrett never reached his destination. As he passed the entrance to Tennison Street, between where the south side of the Lambeth Lead Works abutted onto the north wall of the brewery, there came a sudden cry. A man [later to be identified by police to be William Chester Minor] shouted at him, appeared to be chasing him, was yellowing furiously. Merrett was frightened: This was something more than a mere footpad--that silent and menacing figure who lurked in the dark carrying a lead-tipped cosh and wearing a mask; this was something quite out of the ordinary, and Merrett began to run in terror, slipping and sliding on the frost-slick cobbles. He looked back: The man was still there, still chasing after him, still shouting angrily. Then, quite incredibly, he stopped and raised a gun, took aim, and fired" (Winchester 12)), his transfer to the Surrey to the Asylum for the Criminally Insane ("Doctor Minor was to be transported as soon as was convenient from his temporary prison in Surrey to the Asylum for the Criminally Insane" (Winchester 24)) where he extensively worked on the Oxford Dictionary ("...the unflagged services of Dr. W. C. Minor, which have week by week supplied additional quotations for the words..." (Winchester 188)), his transfer to the Government Hospital for the Insane in 1910 (his move back to the US) ("...on Wednesday, April 6, 1910, Winston S. Churchill duly signed, in blue ink, a Warrant of Conditional Discharge, subject only to the condition that Minor "shall on his discharge leave the United Kingdom and not return thereto"") (Winchester 223)); ("Two weeks later Doctor Bryan received a note from New Haven [from Dr. Minor's brother, Alfred Minor]: "I am glad to say that my brother [William Minor] safely made the trip, and is now pleasantly fixed in the St. Elizabeth's Asylum in Washington DC."" (Winchester 227)) and his death in the US ("...he [George Minor] caught a cold that turned into bronchopneumonia, and died peacefully in his sleep. It was Friday, March 26, 1920" (Winchester 243)). Some updates regarding Mr. Minor's project, the Oxford Dictionary, were noted after 1920 (in the book), such as the completion of the humongous project in 1927 ("The Oxford English Dictionary itself took another eight years to finish, the announcement of its completion made on New Year's Eve, 1927" (Winchester 245)).

Give a 2-3 sentence plot summary: Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman depicts the life of William C. Minor, who in 1872, murdered an innocent worker under the pretense that "he was defending himself". This book looks into Mr. Minor's way of life, from the day he was born to the day he died, and his fall into mental illness that he was to never recover from. Although insane, he was to help the world with his contributions to a huge project, the Oxford Dictionary, which became his life purpose until the day he was transported to the US and soon passed away.

List the key characters and give a brief description of each:
 * 1) William Chester Minor - An American doctor who was convicted of murder of George Merrett in Lambeth Marsh, Victorian London, London, England, but was sent to a mental asylum as he was found to be insane during his trial. He, while incarcerated into the Surrey to the Asylum for the Criminally Insane, turned out to be one of the most influential people in the history of English literature due to his continuous work in improving the Oxford English Dictionary.
 * 2) James Murray - An English editor of the Oxford English Dictionary who worked with W. C. Minor while Mr. Minor was incarcerated in a mental asylum.
 * 3) George Merrett - A stoker at the Red Lion Brewery from Wiltshire, England who was murdered on Saturday, February 17, 1872, by a mental American doctor named William Minor. He was survived by his wife, Eliza, and their six children.
 * 4) Eliza Merrett - The wife of George Merrett, a murder victim from Wiltshire. She is hinted in the book to have a possible sexual affair with W. C. Minor after the killing of her former husband, which, along with sexual hallucinations, caused Mr. Minor to cut his penis off (auto-penectomy).
 * 5) Doctor Brayn - A doctor who replaced previous-doctor Mr. Nicholson to take care of W. C. Minor. He is reported to be harsh towards W. C. Minor.
 * 6) Alfred Minor - W. C. Minor's brother who took W. C. Minor into the St. Elizabeth's Asylum in Washington D.C (USA) in 1910.

Describe the author’s style, noting any distinctive features (plural):
 * 1) Every chapter begins with a word that relates to the connotation of the chapter. Example being the word "murder" is used at the beginning of the first chapter, since the first chapter is discussing about the murder of George Merret.
 * 2) He begins the book with the murder of George Merret, without any explanation. He goes ahead and reveals who the murder of George Merret is (W. C. Minor) on page 15. The author uses this way of writing in order to intrigue the reader, each page (up until page 15) installs a mind-boggling feeling of anxiousness in the reader, wondering, "Who is the murder? Why was he murdered? Who did this?". He also adds that the setting of the murder finds gun violence a "rare event", adding more suspensefulness and curiosity in the reader's mind.
 * 3) The author uses graphic content in his book. This graphic content is found in chapter 10, "The Unkindest Cut". The word that starts off the chapter is the word, "masturbate". "Masturbate" is defined, in this book, as practicing self-harm. It then goes on to talk about how W. C. Minor cut off his penis and why he decided to cut off his penis. This style of using sensitive topics to increase the richness of the book causes the readers to be more intrigued and interested in the book.

'''Explain the author’s distinctive word choices. Furnish at least 2 examples per chapter.''' (Also, be prepared to defend your explanation in class).

Chapter 1

 * 1) "In Victorian London, even in a place as louche and notoriously crime-ridden as Lambeth Marsh, the sound of gunshots was a rare event indeed." (Winchester 3)
 * 2) *Simon Winchester uses a contradiction to throw the reader into a state of suspense. The fact that the Lambeth Marsh is crime-ridden but gunfights do not have an occurrence on the place makes readers ask, "How?" and "Why is this being mentioned?".
 * 3) "So when a brief fusillade of three revolver shots rang out shortly after two o'clock on the moonlit Saturday morning of February 17, 1872, the sound was unimagined, unprecedented, and shocking. The three cracks---perhaps there were four---were loud, very loud, and they echoed through the cold and smokily damp night air." (Winchester 4)
 * 4) *The author, knowing that the reader is anxious and confused about the state of gun-related crime in Victorian London, introduces the murder of George Merrett in descriptive, well-articulated words, which bring the reader closer and closer to the book, asking, "What happened?", "Who got shot?", and many more suspenseful questions.

Chapter 2

 * 1) "The book [OED] remains in all senses a truly monumental work---and with very little serious argument is still regarded as a paragon, the most definitive of all guides to the language that, for good or ill, has become the lingua franca of the civilized modern world." (Winchester 27)
 * 2) *The author uses an Italian term, "lingua franca", to explain that the English used in the OED is spoken widely across native and non-native speakers of English. This enhances the author's vocabulary, making reading more intriguing.
 * 3) "...and to alcohol and tobacco he [James Murray] was a stranger all his life." (Winchester 43)
 * 4) *The figurative language here allows the reader to pick up more reading skills for their own daily lives. This statement means that James Murray never drank alcohol and never smoked tobacco, hence being a "stranger" towards it.

Chapter 3

 * 1) "And there are the girls--young, chocolate-skinned, ever-giggling naked girls with sleek wet bodies, rosebud nipples, long hair, coltish legs, and scarlet and purple petals folded behind their ears." (Winchester 48)
 * 2) *This description shows the insight of William Minor's views on the Ceylonese girls he used to lust to when he was a teenager. The strong language used by the authors tempts even the readers [about the Ceylonese girls].
 * 3) "But down in northern Virginia where he was first sent, all was very different." (Winchester 57)
 * 4) *The author's choice of words, here known as "foreshadowing", gives a small preview to the readers on what's life like for William Minor in Virginia.

Chapter 4

 * 1) "The more English there was in the world, the more God-fearing its people would be." (Winchester 87)
 * 2) *Winchester provides a historical statement: showing the reader the mentality of the European explorers/colonizers.
 * 3) ""...certainly not at the time when Shakespeare was writing---a time when writers were writing furiously, and thinkers thinking as they rarely had before." (Winchester 89)
 * 4) *The author gives readers an insight into how the idea of the dictionary was formed.

Chapter 5

 * 1) "The achievements of the great dictionary makers of England's seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were prodigious indeed. Their learning was unrivaled, their scholarship sheer genius, their contributions to literary history profound. All this is undeniable---and yet, cruel though it seems even to venture to inquire: Who now really remembers their dictionaries, and who today makes use of all that they achieved?" (Winchester 112)
 * 2) *The author poses a thought-provoking question in terms of the dictionary's work/progress in order to enhance the learning experience that is associated with reading this book.
 * 3) "And even if someone outside did know the word asylum, the sole definition that was available at the time was quite innocent in its explanation. The meaning was to be found in Johnson's dictionary, naturally: "A place out of which he that has fled to it, may not be taken." An asylum was to Doctor Johnson no more than a sanctuary, a refuge. William Chester Minor was quite content to be seen to write from inside such a place---just so long as no one looked too closely for the deeper and more sinister meaning that the word was then gathering to itself in the hard times of Victorian England." (Winchester 126)
 * 4) *Foreshadowing is seen at the end of the quote, suggesting that people's knowledge of what an "asylum" was (Mr. Minor's refuge) not much compared to what we, present people of the 21st century, know about an asylum. This would matter later on when Mr. Murray questions as to why he has never met Mr. W. C. Minor in person.

Chapter 6

 * 1) "He [W. C. Minor] was taken as far afield as Constantinople, he told an attendant once, where he is made to perform lewd acts in public. "They are," he declared, "trying to make a pimp of me!"." (Winchester 139)
 * 2) *The author makes it clear that Mr. Minor is still very much insane, and there seems to be no cure to his madness.
 * 3) "But through all this, James Murray explained some years later, "I never gave a thought to who Minor might be. I thought he was either a practicing medical man of literary tastes with a good deal of leisure, or perhaps a retired medical man or surgeon who had no other work." The truth about his new American correspondent was a great deal stranger than this detached, innocent, and other worldly Scotsman could have ever imagined." (Winchester 145)
 * 4) *The author, through the use of foreshadowing, introduces Chapter 7 to the readers, where Mr. Murray will meet W. C. Minor and finally realize who this mystery man is.

Chapter 7

 * 1) "The letter from James Murray represented, in Minor's view, a token of the further forgiveness and understanding that Eliza Merrett' visits to him had already suggested. The invitation seemed a long-sought badge of renewed membership in the society from which he had been so long estranged." (Winchester 149)
 * 2) *This statement rips suspense out of the reader's feelings and allows the reader into an endless pit of curiosity and questioning. The reader wonders, "How does this new so-called "renewed membership in the society" affect him and his well-being? How will W. C. Minor do in accordance with his work rate in forming the dictionary?".
 * 3) "Murray's papers had explained that the dictionary was all about the gathering of hundreds of thousands of quotations. It was a task that was almost unimaginably vast. Could it be done, from an asylum cell?"
 * 4) *The author proposes to the reader a daunting question, questioning the ability of W. C. Minor's contributions to the dictionary and its upbringing. This also provokes anxiousness and curiosity from the reader, wondering if W. C. Minor is unable to contribute from his cell, what does this mean for his life and his well-being?

Chapter 8

 * 1) "Before long the gentle shower of paper had turned into a raging blizzard." (Winchester 165)
 * 2) *Mr. Winchester enhances his book with rich vocabulary/figurative language (in this case, with a metaphor).
 * 3) "In comparison with all other readers, who had offered merely one sentence or two, the unsung Doctor Minor had enclosed no fewer than twenty-seven. He struck his subeditors in Oxford as not only a meticulous man; he was also very prolific, and able to tap deep into wells of knowledge and research. The dictionary team had made a rare find." (Winchester 174)
 * 4) *The author shows the readers how much W. C. Minor means to the OED team, describing him as a "rare find". This also adds more curiosity and questioning to an avid and intelligent reader, asking him or herself, "Is this having a good impact on W. C. Minor's mental illness?".

Chapter 9

 * 1) "It is said that he [Murray] vowed, out of all his lexicographic knowledge, to take a leaf from Francis Bacon, who in 1624 had written in English the axiom from the collection of the Prophet's sayings known as the hadith, to the effect that "If the mountain will not come to Mahomet, then Mahomet must go to the mountain."" (Winchester 188)
 * 2) *The author is providing a historical tone to his book, enlightening and teaching readers as well as allowing readers to make connections to the book.
 * 3) "The horses clip-clopped through the fog-damp lanes." (Winchester 190)
 * 4) *Mr. Simon Winchester widens the figurative language used in his book through an onomatopoeia (used here).

Chapter 10

 * "Since the laws of nature could quite satisfactorily explain all natural phenomena, he could write, he [William Minor] could not find any logical need for the existence of a God" (Winchester 213)
 * The author points out a sensitive opinion of Mr. Minor on the topic of God and religion. This appeals to the reader and, depending on the reader, could either provoke a feeling of agreement and satisfaction or a feeling of disagreement and hatred. This causes the reader to be even more sucked into the book.


 * "He was so desperately certain that it was his penis that had led him to commit all the unsavory deeds and that had so dominated his life. His continuing sexual desires, if not born in his penis, were at least carried out by it." (Winchester 216)
 * This sentence mixes in humor, due to the sensitive and graphic topic (male's private part), and a thoughtful peek in the mind of Mr. Minor. The sentence also seems to show how lost Mr. Minor is, in terms of his mental state, and it truly shows the readers that there is nothing much that can be done for Mr. Minor.

Chapter 11

 * "For days at a time he [Mr. Minor] would stay in bed, saying he needed "a good rest": He would barricade the door with chairs, still certain he was being persecuted. It was more than 45 years since the murder, fully half a century since the first signs of madness had been noticed, back at the Florida army fort. And yet still the symptoms remained the same, persistent, uncured, incurable." (Winchester 241)
 * Another look, provided by Mr. Winchester, on Mr. Minor's mental health and the graveness of it. Simon Winchester points out the severity of his illness by looking at time (how long he's had the illness and the status of this illness over the period of time he has had it [illness]).
 * "...of course, that Minor had his dictionary work. And there is a cruel irony in this--that if he had been so treated, he might never have felt impelled to work on it as he did. By offering him mood-altering sedatives, as they would have done in Edwardian times, or treating him as today with such antipsychotic drugs as quetiapine or risperidone, many of his symptoms of madness might have gone away--but he might well have felt disinclined or unable to perform his work for Doctor Murray. In a sense doing all those dictionary slips was his medication; in a way they became his therapy" (Winchester 239)
 * This provides a good, curiosity-ridden reader on how Mr. Minor was dealing with his grave illness which sought no help. It turns out that the actual medicine wasn't his cure to his illness, but rather it was his dictionary work that caused him to stay stable in the life he had to live. This also brings up another question, "Is this mental illness of Mr. Minor's a beneficial thing or a harmful thing?".

State (below) two ideas that you believe are important to the author regarding the Essential Questions* and give a specific textual example to prove each from the work.


 * 1) How are justice and freedom revealed through the major conflicts in the selections?
 * 2) Explore the ways the author demonstrates unity versus isolation through characterization in the selections.  In this context, how does the character gain strength or purpose?

Idea related to first Essential Question:
Example from the text to support that idea:
 * 1) W. C. Minor not going to jail but rather a mental asylum is a justice towards W. C. Minor. The text to support this is from page 23-24: "For thirty years the law in such cases had been guided by what were known as the McNaughton rules---named for the man who, in 1843, shot dead Sir Robert Peel's secretary, and who was acquitted on the grounds that he was so mad he could not tell right from wrong. The rules, which judged criminal responsibility rather than guilt, were to be applied in this case, he [the lord chief justice] told the jury. If they were convinced that the prisoner was "of unsound mind" and had killed George Merrett while under some delusion of the kind that they had just heard about, then they must do as juries were wont to do in this extraordinarily lenient time in British justice: They were to find William Chester Minor not guilty, on grounds of insanity, and leave the judge to apply such custodial sanction as he felt prudent and necessary. And this is what the jury did, without deliberation, late on the afternoon of April 6, 1872. They found Doctor Minor legally innocent of a murder that all--including him [W. C. Minor]--knew that he had committed". I felt like Mr. Minor did not deserve to be paired up with true, wicked criminals for a crime that he had no control over (he was mentally ill). Putting W. C. Minor in an asylum rather than a jail led to the formation of the Oxford Dictionary, one of the best pieces of English literature to date.
 * 2) Freedom is demonstrated in terms of the freedom Mr. Minor got when he was going through the mental asylum (major conflict). He was given several items, such as "...a cheap deal drawing box and its contents, a paintbox and a collection of pens, a drawing board, sketchbooks, and painting cards" (Winchester 135), in order to occupy his time. He also seemed to be enjoying his stay at the mental asylum (for at least that time), which must've definitely had a positive impact on his mental health: "Life, which in those first months had been at least tolerable, now started to become really quite agreeable: William Minor was able to live a life of total leisure and security, he was warm and reasonably well fed, his health was attended to, he could stroll along the long gravel pathway known as the Terrace, he could take his ease on one of the benches by the lawn and gaze at the shrubbery, or he could read and paint to his heart's content" (Winchester 136). He was given the freedom by Murray to work on the project of the formation of the Oxford English Dictionary, replying to Minor's letter to volunteer asking to be a part of this extravagant project, saying "...that on the basis of his apparent qualifications, enthusiasm, and interest he should start reading immediately, going through any of the volumes he might already have, or else looking to the dictionary office for copies of books he might require." (Winchester 145). The freedom to have an easy life at the mental asylum and to work on the dictionary did have a positive impact on his otherwise painful mental illness, as it is later described his vigorous work on the OED was a form of medicine for him.

Idea related to the second Essential Question

 * 1) In the Broadmoor Asylum, he was isolated from the outside world due to his criminal killing of George Merrett. Unity was displayed when James Murray's letter of acceptance was sent as a response to W. C. Minor's letter to volunteer for the OED. W. C Minor's unity with James Murray had a positive impact on Mr. Minor: "The invitation [Mr. Murray's letter] seemed a long-sought badge of renewed membership in the society from which he had been so long estranged. By being sent these sheets of rules he was, he felt, being received back into a corner of the real world. A corner that admittedly was still housed in a pair of cells in an alien madhouse--but one that had firmly forged links to the world of learning, and connections with a more comfortable reality. After a decade of languishing in the dark slough of imprisonment, intellectual isolation, and remove. Minor felt that at last he was being hoisted back up onto the sunlit uplands of scholarship. And with what he saw as this reenlistment in the ranks, so Minor's self-worth began, at least marginally, to reemerge, to begin spring back. From the little evidence that survives in his medical records, he appears to have started recovering his confidence and even his contentment, both with every moment that he spent reading Murray's acceptance letter, and then when he prepared to embark on his self-set task." (Winchester 149). Mr. Minor found his purpose to his life after his imprisoning, which is to work on the OED ("His personality was undergoing, even if only for a short while, a sea change---and all because, at long last, he had something valuable to do." (Winchester 149)).
 * 2) Permission for W. C. Minor to go back to his home, America, by Winston Churchill ("And so, on Wednesday April 6, 1910, Winston S. Churchill duly signed, in blue ink, a Warrant of Conditional Discharge, subject only to the condition that Minor "shall on his discharge leave the United Kingdom and not return thereto."" (Winchester 223)), caused Mr. Minor to gain enough strength to live the rest of his unfortunate mental-stricken life. Evidence of his pleasure staying in the US is from his brother, Alfred: "I am glad to say that my brother safely made the trip, and is now pleasantly fixed in the St. Elizabeth's Asylum in Washington DC. He enjoyed the voyage very much..." (Winchester 227).