In “The Elephant Man”, why is the title character named John Merrick, when his real name is Joseph Merrick?
Dr. Frederick Treves was the doctor of and a close friend of Joseph Merrick, yet in his book “The elephant man and other reminiscences “, he re-named “Joseph” as “John”. Apparently, in the original manuscript, you can see where Treves has crossed out all the references to Joseph, and replaced them with Jonh. Nobody knows why he did this, but I expect it was to make the character more Sympathetic.
“The writers based this film on the memoirs of Dr. ‘Frederick Treves’ as well as other true accounts, but avoided the play by Bernard Pomerance. The true name of the Elephant Man was not John Merrick as most believe, but Joseph Carey Merrick. Merrick was born in Leicester, England on August 5, 1862, and died in the Royal London Hospital on April 11, 1890, at the age of 27. When Dr. Treves wrote his memoir, he referred to him as John. His handwritten manuscript reveals that Treves knew that Merrick’s name was Joseph, and deliberately crossed out Joseph and replaced it with John. Merrick’s surviving correspondence shows he signed his name as Joseph, and contemporary newspaper articles about his case refer to him by his correct name. Why Treves changed his name to John is unknown.
