Venus

The Baron Docteur is one of the pseudo-antagonists of the work, alongside the Mother-Showman, as he embodies the ways in which the Venus is exploited and commodified for her body. The Baron Docteur is assumed to be a successful doctor and anatomist, based on the real-life Georges Cuvier, with the Grade-School Chum noting the Baron Docteur’s reputation and marriage. The Baron Docteur is initially attracted to the Venus because of her physical body, which is both sexually appealing to him and scientifically interesting to him. In his relationship with the Venus, it is unclear whether the Baron Docteur is predominantly sexually or scientifically attracted to the Venus, but his actions align with traditional conceptions of a husband and mistress dynamic, in which the Baron Docteur provides for the Venus as a “kept” woman, without entertaining the possibility of leaving his wife, despite the Venus’s desire for a more legitimate monogamy. In the end, the Baron Docteur takes a passive role in imprisoning the Venus for indecency, repeating the Grade-School Chum’s charge of indecency with an added question mark, indicating that his sexual desires were at least equal to his scientific interest.

The Baron Docteur, beyond taking the role of Georges Cuvier in Saartjie Baartman’s life, represents the broader European interest in African peoples, mixing horrified fascination, fetishization, and scientific racism, which all compel the process of exploiting and commodifying Black bodies. In watching “For the Love of the Venus,” for example, the Baron Docteur laughs and applauds with the play, as he, too, is only temporarily attracted to the mystery of Africa in the embodied form of the Venus. Much like the Young Man, the Baron Docteur presumably returns to his Eurocentric life after the death of the Venus, using her death as a means by which to further his career. The critical difference between the Baron Docteur and the Mother-Showman is the distinct emphasis on sexuality and science, as opposed to financial gain, as the Baron Docteur is more invested in the ways in which possessing the Venus can serve him intellectually and physically. In each case, the Venus is an object to desire, though, and not a complete human being.

The Mother-Showman is another pseudo-antagonist of the play, serving as the primary opposition to the Venus in the text until the Baron Docteur takes over this role. Like the Baron Docteur, the Mother-Showman does not acknowledge the Venus as a full person, instead objectifying the Venus as a commodity that can be displayed and sold, in the form of sex work implicitly, to make a profit. The Mother-Showman takes over for the Brother, who is essentially the same character as the Baron Docteur in terms of his relationship to the Venus, and the Mother-Showman and the Brother are cast as the same actor. The Mother-Showman lacks the scientific or sexual interests of the Brother or Baron Docteur, focusing on the exploitative value of the Venus in the exhibition. The Mother-Showman is already entrenched in this form of exploitation, as shown by the existing 8 Human Wonders, and the Mother-Showman’s greed is displayed in his desire to retain all but the minimum necessary wages.

The Mother-Showman, unlike the Baron Docteur’s representation of broad, Eurocentric interests in the Venus, represents the common interests of regular Europeans, largely working-class individuals looking for artifacts and specimens from foreign lands. The people the Mother-Showman tries to attract are those who do not have a specific interest in Africa or African peoples, but those who are willing to spend a small sum to see something or someone “freakish” or abnormal. As such, the Mother-Showman’s act involves allowing people to poke and prod the Venus, as well as the Mother-Showman kicking the Venus like an animal. These practices are directly in conflict with the Venus’s sense of self and well-being, and they contradict the Baron Docteur’s later perspective that the Venus is unique and specifically valuable. 

The Negro Resurrectionist is both a character and a framing device within the play, serving both to highlight the practice of using bodies for scientific purposes and to introduce the historical elements of the play. As a character, the Negro Resurrectionist only develops in the final scenes of the play, when the Grade-School Chum bribes him to give the Baron Docteur the Venus’s body after her death. The Negro Resurrectionist claims, at that moment, that he no longer trades in corpses, but his former occupation, a form of “resurrectionist,” involved illegally acquiring corpses to sell for scientific study, a common practice in the 18th and 19th centuries. His character is present throughout the play to remind the audience that the desire for the Venus is not purely sexual or fantastical, bringing in the direct desire for physical bodies after death. This reminder is present in almost every scene of the play, acting as a watchman, both physically in the jail and figuratively as a host or guide, to ensure the Venus’s body is always in sight, ready to transfer custody of her body to the Baron Docteur when she dies. In a sense, the Negro Resurrectionist fulfills the traditional role of Death, or the Grim Reaper, serving as a harbinger of the Venus’s death and the physical rights of her body after death.

His name, the Negro Resurrectionist, plays on both the race of the character as a Black man, making him a Black resurrectionist, but also on his role in the greater text, as a person who resurrects Black figures like the Venus. In this role, existing both inside and outside the narrative of the play, the Negro Resurrectionist imbues the work with historical information that informs the audience and adds factual, historical layers to the Scenes of the play. As the play is a re-imagining of Saartjie Baartman’s life, the Negro Resurrectionist is figuratively resurrecting Baartman for the audience, bringing with him artifacts that add detail and accuracy to her life and death in Europe. In this sense, the Negro Resurrectionist provides a modern insight into the play, providing insights that would not have been available to the characters in their own time. For the audience, the Negro Resurrectionist is also the guide of the play, helping the audience better understand the events therein.