Character Analysis: P.R. Deltoid
By: Brian Cotnoir
Hey, it’s been a while
since I talked about “A Clockwork Orange” on this blog so let’s change
that. So from the time I started doing
this “Character Analysis” I’ve wanted to do one on a character from “A
Clockwork Orange”, and to most people the obvious choice would be to do one on
the story/films main character Alex, but the more I thought about it, the more
I began to see that it wouldn’t be much of a challenge.
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| So sorry, little Alex. You're just not challenging enough |
You see there
are literally dozens of articles, videos and analysis’s of Alex on the
internet. Pretty much everything that
can be said about him—in both the novella and the film—has already been said,
and I really don’t have a lot of new material or ideas I could bring to a
“Character Analysis” of Alex. Even, if I
still wanted to write an analysis of Alex it would be far too long, and I’d
probably have to break up the article into much shorter articles so as not to
overwhelm you, the reader. I really wish
I could have done a character analysis on one of Alex’s cellmates, but
unfortunately they were all left out of the film. As for his Alex’s Droogs, well they were
enjoyable, but just not as enjoyable a character Alex. Plus, Director Stanley Kubrick did make some
significant changes to the characters in the film that differ from Anthony
Burgess novella, and I feel like I would have spent more time talking about the
differences in the characters between the novella and the film rather than
analyzing their character.
However, there is one other
character in “A Clockwork Orange” that I always enjoyed and he often get’s over
looked at that characters is P.R. Deltoid, Alex’s Probation officer.
CHARACTER: P.R.
Deltoid from “A Clockwork Orange” (1971)
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| P.R. Deltoid from "Clockwork Orange" (1971) |
P.R. Deltoid is Alex’s
“Criminal Rehabilitation social worker” who was assigned to watch over Alex
after an earlier incident (not mentioned in the novella or film) and keep him
out of trouble and from making bad choices.
In the novella he’s kind of a dweeb who tries to see the good in everyone and just does a really bad job at trying
to motivate Alex and keep him from doing bad things. In the novel, we are first introduced to him
after Alex skips school and he shows up at Alex’s flat to talk to him about
working hard and staying out of trouble. And what does Alex do right after this little
“pep-talk”; why he goes out and drugs and rapes two 10-year-old girls of
course.
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| Bad Touch! Bad Touch! |
However, in the film, he
comes off more as cunning and is aware of whom he’s dealing with. In the film you get the vibe that Mr. Deltoid
is fully aware of what Alex is capable of doing and that he knows deep down
he’s probably been doing some of those things.
His relationship with Alex in the film comes off as “I don’t like you,
but I’m stuck with you! So stay out of
trouble and don’t cause me to lose my job!”.
I think this change to his character in the film definitely makes him a
more enjoyable character. He’s also kind
of bossy. At one point he lies Alex down
on the bed next to him and grabs him by the balls as if he’s saying “don’t-let-these-impede-with-your-progress. Don’t-let-these-get-you-into-trouble”.
The
last time we see Mr. Deltoid—in both the novella and film—he is visiting Alex
down at Police Station. Alex has been
arrested and charged with murder, and Mr. Deltoid says that he is at “the end
of the line [with Alex]”. He tells Alex
that he is on his own from now on and that he no longer responsible for trying
to make Alex a parting shot, he spits in the face of Alex and that’s the last
we see of him in the film.
THE ACTOR
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| Actor Aubrey Morris |
The Actor who plays
P.R. Deltoid is Aubrey Morris. Besides
this the only other notable film that he’s appeared in was “The Wicker Man”
(1973). What I like about Morris’s
portrayal of P.R. Deltoid is that he isn’t playing it with blind ignorance like
in the novella. He knows what Alex does
and what he’s capable of doing and he lets Alex know that he won’t always be
there to rescue him or come to his aid.
To which Alex scoffs. I also really like the way he talks in this
film. He speaks with an upward
inflection when he talks. Everything he
says, ends with him asking a question. I
can’t really explain it that well, but I thoroughly enjoyed how he read his lines. So much so, that when I was in college the
first production I was in required us to speak with English accents, and my
opening monologue in the production was 3
pages long and my first 40-or-so lines were questions, and so at the
first rehearsal I was reading my lines like Mr. Deltoid as a joke...well the
Director and Stage Director thought it was really funny and I was required to
talk like Mr. Deltoid through the whole production. So Aubrey Morris has influenced my stage work
some.
Character
is similar to or Inspired By:
I couldn’t find any
characters in any film that P.R. Deltoid is similar to. I do think he kind of sounds like Tim Curry
in the film, but his voice was not inspired by Tim Curry because Tim Curry’s
first film role didn’t come until 4-years after the release of “A Clockwork
Orange”.
The way he talks is just so interesting.
Fate of the
Character:
We don’t really know
whatever happened to Mr. Deltoid. The
last we see or hear from in the film and novella was when he spat in Alex’s
face down at the police station.
Presumably, he went back to his job, to serve another misguided
youth. I think they could have done a
lot more with his character though. I
think it would have been great for him to have been one of the guests at the
Minister of The Interiors demonstration following Alex’s stint through the
Ludovico Technique. Maybe, then we could
have gotten his opinion on whether he thought it was the best thing for Alex,
or maybe he would have said something like “once a delinquent, always a
delinquent”. That really is a change I
think Stanley Kubrick should have made in his film version. I think Mr. Deltoid had a lot more he could
have offered the film, but oh well. It
is what it is.
