#711 William and Mary- Roald Dahl
William has died leaving his wife behind. A week after his death she receives a letter from his attorney that he had been instructed to give her upon his death. The letter describes his decision to allow his brain to be used for an experiment. It was to be removed from his body and kept alive using a heart pump and other artificial devices.
“The big difference, of course, would be that we have severed every single nerve that leads into it…and this means that your thinking would no longer be influenced by your senses. You’d be living in an extraordinarily pure and detached world. Nothing to bother you at all, not even pain…No worries or fears or pains or hunger or thirst.”
He would be left with the brain in a basin of fluid and one eye so he could see the world, but nothing else. Mary was shocked and disgusted. But she went to see the brain after reading about it. After getting over the initial grotesque nature of the situation, she was overwhelmed with a renewed sense of affection for her husband. All the things she despised about him were now taken away, leaving her free to do all the things he wouldn’t allow.
“No arguments and criticisms, she thought, no constant admonitions, no rules to obey…no pair of cold disapproving eyes.”
But with one eye, and no way of communicating, she could also make him see whatever she wished, for as long as the brain could stay alive. Revenge is sweet.
No comments:
Post a Comment