Portrayal of Mathematicians in Fictional Works

Abstract

In his article Portrayal of Mathematicians in Fictional Works, Daniel Dotson explores how people with mathematical abilities -- including mathematicians, mathematics teachers, mathematically- inclined youths, cryptographers, and more -- are portrayed in novels, films, television programs, and a play. A summary table of the characters gives a short description of each of them, the title of the work in which they appeared, and the format of the work. Characters were analyzed to see if they possessed any of ten personality traits: obsessive, having major mental health problems, withdrawn, brave, timid, socially inept, arrogant, uses math to escape reality, out of touch, and stubborn. Dobson describes in his paper each personality trait, lists the characters with that trait, and several characters are described with further details as to how that character manifested that personality trait during the course of the work in which they appeared. Male and female characters are compared to determine if one gender received a better portrayal (i.e., fewer negative personality traits) than another. In addition, characters possessing several personality traits are described in detail as well as the few characters not possessing any of the traits. What image comes to mind when one thinks of a mathematician? Some may think of mathematicians as being male, obsessive about their work, withdrawn, and more. The television series Numb3rs has brought a mathematician into millions of homes weekly. How are this mathematician and others portrayed in fiction? What is a mathematician anyway? For the purpose of this survey of characters, it is anyone mathematically inclined. This includes college/university professors and K-12 teachers, people with degrees in mathematics working in various fields, students studying mathematics, autistic and mentally incapacitated people with outstanding mathematical abilities, teenagers and adults with promising mathematical ability but no mathematics degree, and more. For lack of a better term, all of these people will be labeled as mathematicians. Searching in English-language materials, eighty-five mathematicians in a variety of fictional media were examined, including characters in 41 novels, 2 television series, 22 films, and a recorded play. The characters' actions and stated facts about them were examined to determine if they possessed one or more of a number of personality traits: obsessive, having major mental problems, withdrawn, brave, timid, socially inept, using math to escape reality, out of touch, arrogant, and stubborn. The focus of the work at hand in which the mathematicians are featured is not necessarily on mathematics and include such topics as photographing an eclipse, escaping a deadly cube, murders and criminal activity, love, teaching, aliens, and time travel. The character had to have enough of a presence in the work in order to gather information on the personality traits. In some instances, a mathematician may only appear briefly, which does not give a good sense of the personality. While most of the mathematicians portrayed are purely fictional, eleven characters are based upon people who actually existed: Ada Byron King, Alan Turing, Archimedes, Evariste Galois, Faufi Kovalevskaya (daughter or Sofya), Hypatia, Jaime Escalante, John Nash, Sophie Germain, Pierre de Fermat, and Sofya Kovalevskaya. Overall, the mathematicians were examined to determine how they were portrayed in fictional works: Did they possess a lot of negative personality traits? Also, did one gender get a better portrayal than