Chemistry Reference
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dured, not only in fiction but also in the more recent medium of film.
From his extensive analysis of horror films in English between 1931 and
1960, Andrew Tudor estimated that 30% of the villains were scientists;
40% of the threats were spin-offs from science; and a mere 10% of the
heroes were scientists (Tudor 1989b, pp. 589-92). It should be noted that,
whether noble or evil, the scientist figure remained overwhelmingly male
even when this no longer reflected the actual degree of involvement of
women in science.
The most obvious reason for the perpetuation of the evil alchemist
figure is that the personality traits to which alchemy appealed - greed,
vanity, desire for power, immortality, and manipulation of other human
beings - remain prevalent and those who profess to satisfy them in some
form continue to be regarded with mingled fascination and fear.
However, I want to suggest ten more specific reasons for the persis-
tence of the alchemist-derived character and for the imaginative power it
continues to exert.
(i) One of the most common forms of the stereotype, the seeker after
forbidden knowledge, has its roots in much older mythology, suggesting
that it is deeply ingrained in human consciousness, perhaps within the
subconscious: the narratives of Eden, of Prometheus, of Daedalus and
Icarus, and of Pandora's Box all feature protagonists who sought tran-
scendent knowledge and were punished by some higher authority or by
the inevitability of events. Coming from this implicit lineage, their mod-
ern descendants carry a transferred kudos and more powerful resonances
than any 'new' story could generate. The scientist who discovers some
power (whether it be a weapon or nuclear power or the ability to create,
clone, or modify life) that cannot be contained or controlled is Pandora
trying vainly to push the escaping Troubles back into the box. Like these
archetypal myths, nearly all alchemist narratives focus on a reversal of
expectation and consequent nemesis: the glorious promises turn to ashes
and destruction - sometimes because they are not achieved, as in Bal-
zac's
La Recherche de l'Absolu
(1834), but more often because they
are
achieved in the short term but bring unforeseen disaster in their train.
The preeminent literary example here is Frankenstein, whose tragedy be-
gins at the precise moment of his experimental success.
