It has been suggested that the Prisoner-No.6 is the only person to go through the series unchanged. Unchanged in number, and unchanged both physically and in character. The Prisoner known as Number 6 was the same man at the end of his ordeal as he was at the beginning. I found myself agreeing, and yet really can someone endure the ordeal Number 6 did without being changed in some way?
When the Prisoner eventually returns to his home in London in 'Mnay Happy Returns', he is unsure, uncertain. When confronted by Martha on the doorstep of his own home he is polite, and allows the front door to be closed in his face. Is this the man who resigned in such dramatic fashion? The old Number 6 would have brushed Martha aside as he entered his own house. The former Prisoner would never have taken it so calmly to find someone else living in his home, especially with six months still to run on the lease.
I should imagine, that after the trickery of the Village's Administration during 'The Chimes of Big Ben,' Number 6 couldn't be sure he had actually escaped in 'Many Happy Returns.' He may have arrived back in London, but in 'Living In Harmony' the Prisoner thought he was in an American frontier town. And when the Priosner stood in his study, so identical are they, that he could have been in his house in London, or his home in the Village. And all the rest simply played out in his mind!
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