I Do Not Like Thee Doctor Fell

Frankenstein - Don't Monkey with Monsters

This may be the most unusual illustration of all those for this rhyme. The characters and setting suggest an early black and white Frankenstein movie. There is still the doctor and patient of the traditional rhyme; but the doctor is a scientist. The reason that the patient does not like Dr. Fell is that, depending on the interpretation, the patient is either the character to the left finally getting his revenge for being the subject of so many experiments, or he is the man bound to the table about to have his brain fried.

There are two ways of understanding this illustration. The first is that the man to the left is the doctor and the man to the right is the patient. One basic clue to this view is that Dr. Fell should be the one pulling the levers, not the patient (unless something has gone very wrong!). The doctor has a maniacal, gleeful smile, as though he has waited all of his life to pull those two levers. The two tags, one on the caged monkey and the other on the bound man's wrist, indicate that the latter is not Dr. Fell's first patient, only the latest. One can see the poor patient with a shaky voice and large eyes, saying, "I do not like thee, Dr. Fell."”

The second interpretation is that the man to the left is the patient and the bound man is Dr. Fell. Here the patient gets his revenge by performing his own experiment on Dr. Fell. We can hear the patient saying the rhyme with a laugh between every few words. The patient is here wearing a long, black coat instead of a doctor’s white lab attire.

Given the apparent reference to Frankenstein by the illustrator, one might give more credence to the second understanding of this illustration. The resemblance between the man on the left and Frankenstein's monster is difficult to deny.