The Physicists Literary Elements

Abstract play

The play was originally written in Swedish but then it was translated into other languages.

The action in the play takes place inside the sitting room of a well known sanatorium in Sweden.

Because this is a play, there is no narrator and no point of view. Instead, each character recalls the events from their own perspective through their dialogues.

The tone and mood in the play is a chaotic one.

The protagonists are the three men admitted to the asylum and considered as being insane and the antagonist is doctor von Zahnd.

The major conflict is between the need to keep hidden an extremely dangerous truth and the need of the world, in general, to play with knowledge which can destroy it if not handled properly.

The play reaches its climax when the 3 men decided to remain as patients inside the asylum just to protect the information that can destroy the world as a whole.

The crimes mentioned in the first act of the play foreshadows the later violent instances which will be described in the play.

In the first act of the play, the three doctors are described as being insane and in need of constant supervision. This is later proven to be an understatement when in the second act the author reveals that none of the men are ill.

One of the main allusions in the play is the idea that no matter how hard a person will try to keep something secret, in the end that piece of information will inevitably become common knowledge.

One of the most important imageries appears at the end of the first act when the body of the dead nurse is described. This image is important because it shows just how far some people were willing to go to gain access to information.

One of the most paradoxical ideas in the play is the way in which the two spies decided to work with one another instead of working against each other in order to protect Mobius' discoveries.

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We have a personification in the first act in the line "the blood was screaming at those staring at it".

The author uses in the play the aside, dramatic monologue and stage directions as dramatic devices. These are used to reveal the true feelings and ideas of the characters as well as give information about the place where the action takes place and certain biographical details about the main characters.