An Exploration of the Mad Scientist Archetype in Stephen King’s Revival

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to identify and analyse the characteristics of the mad scientist character archetype in Stephen King’s horror novel Revival. It is an in-depth exploration of the unique aspects of the archetype which often includes unsettling traits like obsessive tendencies, questionable morals, hubristic nature, degrees of insanity, evil intentions, villainy, apathy, self-centred motivations and other quirks and eccentricities. The mad scientist in King’s story is an expreacher Charles Jacobs, an electricity aficionado who meddles with a power source called “secret electricity”. He conducts experiments on the uninformed public and talks his way to gain easy victims using his showmanship and experience as a preacher. He observes his human lab rats in order to improve the efficacy of his electricity gadgets. He is indifferent to the unwelcome aftereffects of his experiments and continues to wreak havoc and cause negative consequences including mass murders and suicides. He undauntedly attempts to play God in his final experiment, assuming powers to intervene in the process of death and get a glimpse of the afterlife, which is forbidden and metaphorically reserved to God-like beings. This endangers life on earth and requires the hero Jamie Morton’s help to restore the balance of the working of the universe.