Analysis Of The Uncanny In Rod Sterling's 'The Dummy'

Rod Sterling’s classic show The Twilight Zone has long elicited feelings of deep-seeded eeriness in its viewers. From its familiar, daunting music to its obscure, often sinister plot lines, the program holistically embodies the Freudian principle of “the uncanny.” In other words, the show depicts what psychologist Sigmund Freud calls “that class of the terrifying which leads back to something long known to us, once very familiar” (2). One specific episode, “The Dummy,” exemplifies this definition of the uncanny through the story of small-time ventriloquist Jerry Peterson and his inexorable descent into madness at the hands of his dummy, Willie. Through these characters, uncanniness is portrayed through animism, the idea of heimlich and unheimlich

and ultimately the existence of a “double”.
“The Dummy” foremost, heavily focuses on animism to convey its sense of the uncanny. Quoting Ernst Jentsch, Freud states that, “In telling a story, one of the most successful devices for easily creating uncanny effects is to leave the reader in uncertainty whether a particular figure in the story is a human being or an automaton…” (5). From the opening sequence, the episode presents this scenario to the viewer: after finishing his comedy routine, Jerry, carrying the now silent dummy of Willie, exits backstage where he is promptly bitten by the puppet. The ventriloquist’s astonished face confirms the unsettling notion that Willie, by himself, may have bitten his owner. Evidence pointing to his supposed animation continues to grow: throughout the episode, Willie’s head and body are often found in different positions from those which he was left in and he seemingly moves about the room on his own accord, actions that are observed by Jerry. However, the logic of the audience and Jerry’s agent present the counter-argument: Jerry is merely suffering from episodes of schizophrenia and the puppet’s animation is merely a side-effect of his condition. Willie’s debated existence as a “human” naturally induces feelings of uncanniness in Jerry, whose rapid mental deterioration has cost him his reputation and potential chance at fame. Yet, it is only when Jerry decides to lock Willie in a trunk and start a new career with his back-up dummy that his incessant worrying is manifested in its entirety and passes from mere verbal expression into physical action against Willie. At this point, Jerry truly believes his dummy to be alive and capable of thwarting his plans for liberation, creating an ironic situation that is rooted in Willie’s believed animism: the controlled ultimately becomes the controller.
The concept of Willie’s uncanniness is further explained through the usage of heimlich and unheimlich-- the premise of something simultaneously representing what it is and what it is not. Freud writes, “On the one hand [heimlich] means that which is familiar and congenial, and on the other, that which is concealed and kept out of sight” (4). The underlying relationship between ventriloquist and dummy mirrors precisely this: to the audience and the outside world, there is a unique bond shared between the two--in reality, there is nothing but a continual struggle for power fed by animosity and paranoia. Willie also exhibits the qualities of heimlich and unheimlich: he appears to be harmless and playful, yet is nefarious and calculating. In this manner, Freud’s explanation of Schelling’s concept that “everything is uncanny that ought to have remained hidden and secret, and yet comes to light” ( 4) is evident in his behavior towards Jerry in the dressing room, the place where he exposes himself for who he truly is. The effects of the uncanny are felt by Jerry due to Willie, which results in the instability of Jerry’s mental state, creating a paradoxical situation that Jerry cannot escape from: as he tries in vain to flee from Willie’s horrifying uncanniness, he realizes that he will never be free from his ingrained fear of him, leaving him with the one-solution option of destroying Willie.
Destroying Willie, however, is not as easy as he believes it to be: the blanching truth is that the puppet is, in a sense, his double.

In the opening of the episode, Serling describes Willie as Jerry’s “brash alter-ego,” a sentiment that confirms the inextricable link between the two. Willie’s further uncanniness as a double is confirmed by Freud, who, citing Otto Rank states, “...the ‘double’ was originally an insurance against destruction to the ego, an ‘energetic denial of the power of death’” (9). Willie, being a wooden puppet, is immune to criticism, making him the perfect candidate to protect Jerry’s ego. The distortion of Willie into a source of security increases his uncanniness: “From having been an assurance of immortality, [the double] becomes the ghastly harbinger of death” (9). Indeed, Willie becomes the vessel for certain “death” as he maliciously causes the destruction of Goofy Goggles, Jerry’s back-up puppet, at the hands of Jerry himself, no less. This vivid death closely foreshadows the ultimate death of Jerry, though, as his failure to confront his fear of Willie results in his worst nightmare: the episode concludes with Willie and Jerry having switched roles. Jerry has literally become the puppet that he always was, helpless against the literal control of the now-human Willie. This is the ultimate fulfillment of the uncanny: Jerry is no longer trapped in his prison of flesh, but in one infinitely more confining--a prison of wood that he tried in vain to trap Willie

in.