"What is a man?"
The pivotal nature of this question became steadily more evident.
If Tony Corfino was not Tony Corfino, was he then not more of the real personality, the human entity, than the original Tony had ever been.
"In restoring the damaged areas of the brain," a surgeon testified under Jake's skillful prodding, "we thought it wise to perform a lobotomy at the same time, thereby relieving anti-social tensions and pressures."
(The body is at once a means of expression for the soul, and a veil; it reveals and it hides....)
"During the convalescent period," a consulting specialist informed the courtroom, "we recommended treatment with sodium dilantin and electroshock therapy, thereby producing a change in this patient's electroencephalograph."
(The body presents all the problems of matter: It is a limitation, a weight, a force. It seems almost a miracle when it is overcome, penetrated and ordered by thought and spirit....)
"Subsequently," the psychiatrist stated, "this patient underwent extensive therapy, aided frequently by hypnosis and sodium pentathol. His respiratory, vascular and circulatory systems began to show increasing stability."
(Released from its warped framework, brought into balance with instincts inherited from our animal ancestors, the body becomes, in a way, an image of the soul, a sign conveying something of our personal mystery....)
And then Jake called the hospital Administrator to the stand. Speaking with great deliberation, so that each word registered, Jake asked: