Dance of the Dead
Profiles
Number 2
Female
Height…. 5 feet 2 inches {approx}
Weight….105 lbs {approx}
Hair……..black {urchin cut style}
Age……. Mid forties {approx}
Nationality… English speaking
Chief Administrator
Chairman of the village
Slight of build
Village attire, a white peeked cap, orange jersey, white slacks, the ‘old school scarf’ about her neck, together with and flat shoes and carrying about her the usual furled umbrella shooting stick and a Lennin hat. This Number 2 wavers only slightly from the more usual uniform of Number 2. And wears a “Peter Pan” fancy dress costume for Carnival, which well suites her boyish figure and elfin looks remarkably well!
This Number 2 is only the third female to take up the position Number 2 so far, but one of a strong character. Her power does not come from authority, or displays of power, although it is quite obvious that she possesses both and is a most formidable number 2, and not only in control, but controlling of others.
She does not prop herself up with political ideals or egotism.
Completely without fear and totally confident this Number 2 is one to stick to and carry out the purpose of the “Rules”.
Deserving the loyalty and respect of those about her, Number 2 commands well, expecting her orders to be obeyed without question, but at the same time does not curb people’s enthusiasm.
When the doctor-Number 40 does go a little too far and without instruction, number 2 knows when to bend a little, putting the doctor’s error of judgment down to “enthusiasm”. Seeing the positive side to the doctors enthusiasm, allowing him to experiment on those less fortunate beings, such as Dutton, who she sees him as a rather small fish.
This Number 2 is a great believer in efficiency, and sees that even at its best of free democracy, is remarkably inefficient. Having no opposition, it is an irritation which has been dispensed with. Efficient yes, and like the prisoner, number 2 makes the most of any opportunities.
She tells Number 6 that the body of the dead man will be amended slightly, so that it is the prisoner who has died in an accident at sea! Implying that some form of plastic surgery is to be carried out on the body, this in order that the body should be identified as the prisoner, in the outside world.
This number 2 is not out to break Number 6, she believes that Number 6 can be won over. She tells the doctor that “this man has a future with us.” “They don’t want to spoil him.” She doesn’t want him to force her to take steps, as they in indulge any member of the community for a time, after that…….. Which in it’s self is a threat.
She is, at one point, sad for number 6 because she thought he was beginning to be happy. She tells him that all he wants is here in the village. To “feel free” and that he can do as he wants, as long as it is what the majority wants, were democratic…..in some ways!
At one point she acts as “match maker”, in an attempt to find Number 6 a nice young lady for Carnival, pointing out three pretty and unattached young ladies, and looking down her nose at the young lady Number 6 asks about, Number 240. Informing him that she is ‘quite unsuitable!’
Free with information, Number 2 informs Number 6 that only the more fractious of children have their own observer’s. And when informing Number 6 that Number 240 is no longer his observer, she adds;
“Observer’s of life should never get involved.”
However Number 2’s behaviour, appearance together with her general behaviour is androgynous. Quite unfeminine, her demeanour is more akin to that of a man than it is to a woman. And when she strides out, she does so, good as any man! She sees that self-denial is a great “sweetener” of pleasure.” But having said that, and seeing that number 2 is something of a ‘cat lover’, there is perhaps a touch of feline 2 about her.
Her craggy facial features are comparable to those of an “Elf”, and somewhat malevolent.
Her figure, character and manner are somewhat boyish, this would raise the question of her sexuality.
Her Elifin looks give her an air of mischievousness.
All of her predecessors have always received their instructions from Number 1, via an over large red cordless telephone, or at the very least one of the usual ‘L’ shaped phones and mostly in the confines of the Green Dome, but not so the present number 2. She has to go to an elaborately furnished and decorated room in the Town Hall, and there in receives her instructions via a Teleprinter.
It seems that with power comes certain privileges, the well furnished/decorated room for one!
During The Prisoner’s trial, for the possession of a radio, Number 2 is given the position of the Prisoner’s Defender, and so in her summing up pleads the court for clemency, although he had a radio set, he new and guilty of only of folly, no more.
She pleads with the court that folly can be treated with kindness and knowing that soon his wild spirit will quieten and his foolishness will fall away to reveal a model citizen.
Certainly Number 2 is both sure of herself and Number 6. She seems to have the power to read peoples character, and has an insight into the nature of humanity.
However when the prisoner is sentenced to death, number 2 does not continue to stand up for Number 6, but simply accepts that “it is the rules!”
Either that or Number 2 knows full well that the sentence of death will not be carried out on Number 6. After all don’t forget that ‘This man has a future with us’.
But even though the sentence of death is not carried out, and that there is only so far that “They” can go with number 6, Number 2 will ensure that things are still made very uncomfortable for him! This sounds more like a promise than a threat.
What number 2 was trying to demonstrate to number 6 was, that no matter what he did he could not possibly win.
Elfin like, even malevolent, yes. But it is not until right at the end that we see what a cruel streak this number 2 actually has. And when she laughs, her facial features take on an even more elfish look. All that is missing are the pointed ears!
The Doctor – Number 40
Male
Height….6 feet {approx}
Weight….160 lbs {approx}
Hair……..greying
Age……..mid fifties {approx}
Nationality… Scottish
Of man of tall, thin stature.
Village attire, white coat, grey polo neck jersey, grey trousers and white shoes. the usual uniform of the medical staff.
“Napoleon”, being his fancy dress costume for Carnival, they share something in common…. Ruthlessness!
He does not drink, ‘wine is too levelling’.
This doctor’s ethics are called more into question than anyone before him. He is quite ruthless, and in seeking results, will go to any lengths in order to get them. Impatient, he cannot wait for orders ‘otherwise we’ll never get results’.
He experiments on number 6 without any such orders from Number 2, confident that number 6 will talk before any damage is done to the subject.
So the good doctor is quite prepared to carry out his work without instructions, but later is nervous about the report which number 2 is going to submit to number 1, concerning himself and Number 6.
His techniques are efficient, but not always beneficial. He cannot see the benefits of wining number 6 over without treatment. Number 2 informs him that Number 6 has a future with them, and that they don’t want to spoil him. To which the doctor replies “only if we must.”
For the trial of the Prisoner, he is appointed as one of the three judges.
However in the case of Roland Walter Dutton, who is being rather difficult, the doctor is given free reign to carry out his experiments, he will have to be more extreme after all this man is expendable!
But he says he will win in the end, he always does!
Keen to experiment, eager for results, has no qualms at using any radical medical means of discovery and enlightenment and has no doubts about his ability.
As with Number 6, he knew what he was doing and he knew that it was going to work. Except that it didn’t, but might have, had it not been for the timely intervention of Number 2.
From genetic engineering to brain surgery, the scientific laboratory seems to be his oyster.
One can so easily imagine his laboratory to be filled with every conceivable piece of medical equipment, limbs and organs of his victims kept in large jars of preserving fluid, all neatly lined up and labelled on shelves. Filing cabinets filled with the results of his experiments, the village graveyard littered with the corpses upon whom he had carried out those experiments, in both the name of science and Inquisition.
Despite his Scottish accent, this doctor would not be out of place working in either a Concentration Camp, or British Governments science park at Porton Down, where medical experiments were conducted.
Number 6
It appears that number 6 is under a form of protection from Number 2, as no harm must come to him.
Does Number 6 know that he has a future with “Them”? It seems unlikely, he would surely reject that future if he did. But this would account why the village authorities have so far, been easy on Number 6 and the reason for why he must be “won over.” Yet it seems unlikely that he can be won over!
Even nNumber 2 {The Chimes of Big Ben} didn’t want Number 6 broken, he didn’t want a man of fragments!
At the beginning, the still slumbering/drugged body of Number 6 is being experimented upon, not the usual interrogation techniques, but drugs and electrodes attached to his body.
Even though it is his old friend and colleague Walter Roland Dutton on the other end of the telephone, the prisoner will not give the information which Dutton asks for. He fights the drug within, him to the point where he collapses backwards in bed. He would sooner have died first, then have talked.
His defiance is still as strong as ever it was. In the past there have been times when he responded to his number. But when asked by the postman to “sign your number here Number 6,” he refuses to do so by slamming the door shut in the postman’s face!
He has no problem with expressing himself, his anger and disgust and frustration are plain to see, in his yelling and withering sarcasm aim at both the maid and the citizen innocently fixing a window box to one of ‘6 privates’ window.
He shares something in common with this particular Number 2, in the fact that he too is a cat lover. He gives it an ashtray of cream and at night the cat lays comfortably upon his bed, sooner than disturb the animal, number 6 lies back on his leather recliner.
Number 6 is still as defiant as ever. That he is not subject to “The Rules”, he tells his maid number 54, also that he is “new” here.
Number 6 hears much about “The Rules”, but when he asks at his trial, if anyone has seen these “Rules”? no one responds to the challenge.
When Number 2 says that ‘soon his wild spirit will quieten and the foolishness will fall away to reveal a model citizen’, he responds with ‘that day you will never see!’
Later he tells Number2 “you’ll never win!”
But due to his continuing defiance, and even though no real harm can befall him, things will be made very uncomfortable for him.
He informs Dutton that he only arrived here quite recently. How long ago was “quite recently?” It reads as if Dutton arrived in the village before Number 6.
He does not trust women, even the four legged variety!
He is also independent, don’t forget!
will not be a “Goldfish in a bowl”.
Has different values to other citizens.
He sees that everything is elsewhere.
He will not be destroyed.
Each and every night, a maid comes to the cottage of ‘6 private’ in order to make number 6 his nightly cup of hot chocolate, this is to help the prisoner get a good nights sleep, or perhaps more sinister, it is a way of controlling the citizens during night time! However on this occasion number 6 is suspicious of it.
“What is it?” he asks the maid.
“It’s good for you” the maid-number 21 tells him.
“Good for someone!” retorts Number 6.
He does not drink his chocolate night cap, and then cannot sleep. But then this will be the first night which Number 6 has seen since his arrival to the village.
“I’ve never seen a night, I just sleep.” This would indicate that since the prisoner arrival here in the village, he has been drugged via his nightly cup of hot chocolate.
Being unable to sleep, Number 6 paces the floor of his cottage. Each night at curfew the cottage door of ‘6 private’ is locked against him, but remarkably number 6 finds that the French door has been left unlocked. So leaping off the balcony, he makes his way through the village and down to the beach.
A man to keep himself fit for any eventuality, Number 6 sees the white amorphous mass of the guardian, skimming across the waves towards him. He decides to test himself, running along the beach, against the guardian which keeps perfect pace along side him. Faster and faster Number 6 runs, but for all his strength and stamina, he cannot out run the guardian. He finally falls to his knees upon the wet sand. The guardian does not attack, but simply rolls away in victory, leaving number 6 to spend the night alone on the beach.
But once inside the Town Hall in the evening, Number 6 is quick to break away from the ball in order to carry out a reconnoitre, never averse to a little snooping, poking his nose where others would rather he didn’t!
At first the only place open to him, the “village mortuary”, where he finds the body of the man washed up on the shore.
It is quite remarkable, how wearing the white coat of number 116 together with the man’s glasses, changes so much the appearance of the prisoner.
Even more remarkable, is the fact that the prisoner can see perfectly clearly through a pair of spectacles not prescribed for him!
Later that evening {still in the Town Hall}, Number 6 gains entry to an elaborately furnished and decorated room, where number 2 receives her instructions, the doors opening automatically for him. Inside there is the sound of the teleprinter working away. Number 6 rips out some of the wiring, circuitry and paper. But even then, much to the Prisoner’s surprise and frustration, the teleprinter starts up and continues to print it message!
Number 6 was thwarted in his attempt at sabotage, possibly by some back up system to the teleprinter.
Defiantly he tells Number 2 that “You’ll never win!” Then it’s goping to be very uncomfortable for him!
Soon number 6 to the outside world will be dead, a confirmation of a known fact.
Number 6, is always quick to take advantage of any given opportunity, such as when finding a body washed up on the shore. He does not report it, but takes the radio, wallet and hides the body in a nearby cave.
The radio is only a receiver, so he unable to send a message. However it does send word from the outside world, although a somewhat cryptic one!
“Nowhere is there more beauty than here. Tonight when the moon rise’s the whole world will turn to silver. Do you understand? It is important that you understand. I have a message for you, you must listen. The appointment cannot be fulfilled. Other things must be done tonight. If our torment is to end, if liberty is to be restored, we must grasp the nettle even though it makes our hands bleed. Only through pain can tomorrow be assured.”
And it is because of that cryptic message, that saw Number 6 was down on the beach that evening, looking for a sign from his world, either a plane, alight or a boat, something from his world. Of course the message was not meant for Number 6, but it was something which gave him hope.
But always one to make the best of his opportunities, Number 6 steals a length of rope and a red and white lifebelt from the stone boat. He uses the rope to tie the lifebelt to the dead body, then adds a picture of himself {taken from his Id card}, and a rough map of both the village and the coast line, together with a letter ‘To whom so ever may find this…….’ Then casts the body adrift, to be carried away on an outgoing tide. All this he did without attracting his observer!
He does not have a fancy dress costume for Carnival, perhaps because he is still himself, which means that Number 6 has so far resisted all attempts of coercion against him, and any attempt to win him over is a complete waste of time.
Number 2 calls him “Mr Tuxedo”, what when he is wearing his own suit?
And what about that suit, did not the doctor at the hospital, tell the prisoner {soon after his arrival} that his suit had been burnt? Quite obviously it hadn’t been so, and the doctor had lied!
The Prisoner’s attitude towards his trial, is flippant to say the very least, even mocking the court, treating it and its proceedings with contempt.
He is not given the chance to state how he pleads, or told directly of his crime. Instead of speaking out himself he calls for a character witness. “A man who is scheduled to die and therefore better fitted than he to say the things which need to be said!”
So Number 6 is prepared to use a condemned man, rather than take any such risks himself.
Roland Walter Dutton is a man he thinks he once knew, a friend and colleague.
However this man can not be described as a reliable character witness!
However this man can not be described as a reliable character witness!
At the end of the prisoner’s trial, he is sentenced to death. This in the mane of the people, the people carry it out in the name of justice. But where is the justice here?
As the Prisoner is pursed through the Town Hall by the frenzied citizens screaming for blood, he becomes like that of a fox, being chased by a pack of baying hounds!
However the sentence is not carried out, by the court or the people.
With Number 6 there is a point beyond which the village authorities cannot go. After all “he” has a future with them.
Supervisor – Number 48
Male
Height….5 feet 8 inches {approx}
Weight….160 lbs {approx]
Hair……..balding, light brown moustache
Age……..early forties {approx}
Nationality… English speaking
Village attire, black double breasted blazer, olive green polo neck jersey, grey trousers and deck shoes, this particular supervisor is not seen for long, he being the “night time” supervisor.
The familiar supervisor in leave perhaps, and this man is filing in for his, as the duty roster requires.
In his domain of the control room, he watches as the doctor carries out one of his experiments upon the drugged, slumbering number 6.
The supervisor first shows concern that the doctor is using his control room for unauthorized purposes, “Shouldn’t you be doing this in the hospital?” “What about Number 2, has it been agreed?”
Then as the experiment continues, he expresses his concern for the prisoner, warning “that if any damage comes to Number 6………”
And then as Number 6, seen on the wall screen, fights with great will power against not to talking, the supervisor shouts out ‘stop, stop, you’ll damage the brain!’
A man with perhaps not the strongest of stomachs, but who is not looking for trouble from Number 2.
Dance of the Dead continued next time
Be seeing you
No comments:
Post a Comment