Cyclical Abuse in The Twilight Zone

As an episode that redirects audience sympathy away from humans and toward a robot, “Uncle Simon” is a bit of an outlier in The Twilight Zone canon. Written by creator Rod Serling, the story focuses on Barbara (Constance Ford) as she cares for her wealthy uncle, Simon (Cedric Hardwicke). But lurking beneath this seemingly innocuous portrait of family caregiving is a dark depiction of the tolls abuse takes on a family. The antithesis of the human/robot relationship envisioned by Dr. Julie Carpenter in which robots facilitate “healthy and successful social-emotional models of communication,” this episode leverages the robot as a means of showing the cyclical nature of abuse.[i] Simon and Barbara are engaged in a dynamic where verbal abuse is an ingrained part of their communication model. It’s a pattern that not even Simon’s death can break thanks to a robot he wills to Barbara.

The episode opens with Simon and Barbara trading barbs with one another. As the insults escalate, so too does the hostility between the two with Barbara angry she has sacrificed her youth caring her demanding uncle and Simon rebutting that Barbara’s only motivation in caring for him is greed.  “Uncle Simon” is a very pointed character study in which neither Uncle Simon nor Barbara is particularly sympathetic. With an escalating pattern of name calling, Uncle Simon is overtly verbally abusive toward Barbara. The names he calls her, ranging from a “garbage head” to a “wilting blossom” to an “angular turnip” are designed to undermine her sense of self-worth by targeting her lack of conventional beauty. Normally, it would be easy to sympathize with Barbara given what she endures, if not for her own abusive behavior. Consider this exchange between the two:

Uncle Simon: Let’s see if you can compensate for the fact that you’re a passionless vegetable by speaking your mind.

Barbara: If I’m a passionless vegetable, it’s because my gardener is an ancient relic made out of dry skin and ice water.

With words as venomous as Uncle Simon’s, Barbara reads as someone equally capable of verbal abuse. Her cruelty is most overtly demonstrated when she mocks a dying Uncle Simon who has fallen down the stairs. By refusing him medical help, Barbara is not only complicit in his death, but she’s ensuring that she gets the last word when she gleefully tells him that his death means she will soon be compensated. This also positions Barbara as someone who made a conscious choice to stay in the dysfunctional relationship because she saw her future inheritance as worth the suffering. Because these two characters come across as largely unsympathetic, the introduction of the robot into the episode then provides a space for audience empathy.

When this episode aired in 1963, robots in science fiction tended to be expressly mechanical in terms of physical appearance and to follow the Three Laws of Robotics set forth by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in his I, Robot series.[ii] Of those tenets, the edict that the robots do no harm to a living person is considered the most important and so its application to this episode is particularly interesting. When Robot Uncle Simon is first introduced, it is polite and solicitous of positive interactions with Barbara, even going so far as to request she be patient with it as it adapts to its new environment. But Barbara, whose communication patterns are conditioned to default to the sarcastic, mocks the robot at every turn. For example, when the robot calls out for Barbara’s assistance, she responds by saying, “I’m going out, Frankenstein. If you need anything, like a can of lubricant, get it yourself.” From the name calling to the dismissiveness, this is exactly the type of response Barbara would have offered to Uncle Simon. Rather than helping the robot adapt and attempting to forge some sort of relationship, Barbara defaults to learned, negative communication patterns. In turn, these interactions signal to the robot a need to respond in kind. Though the robot clearly states it has been programmed by Uncle Simon to take on certain human attributes, these responses are evolutionary. In saying that it is “like an infant” who is “maturing gradually,” the robot indicates that it is learning from its environment. Consequently, Barbara’s responses have a conditioning effect on the robot that when combined with the impulses programmed by Uncle Simon, result in the same verbal abuse patterns understood by both Barbara and Uncle Simon. In essence, the abusive dynamic that existed between Uncle Simon and Barbara is then transferred to Barbara and Robot Uncle Simon.

And here is where the application of Asimov’s tenet gets interesting. To a modern audience, the dynamic between Barbara and Uncle Simon- and later Barbara and robotic Uncle Simon- reads as a textbook definition of verbal abuse. In this respect, the robot violates the ‘do no harm’ credo because it is continuing Uncle Simon’s abuse of Barbara. Yet, to Serling’s intended audience, these interactions wouldn’t be as clear-cut. As recently as 1964, scientific studies were defining domestic physical violence as “therapy” with beneficial consequences.[iii] The episode’s initial audience would see the exchanges between Barbara and Uncle Simon as cruel but something each party willingly participated in for their own purposes. Uncle Simon receives on demand assistance necessary given his failing health and Barbara gets the promise of money after Uncle Simon dies. This is a point underscored by the repetitive mentioning of Barbara’s greed as a potential reason for Uncle Simon’s cruelty. Further, Serling’s closing dialogue in which he again reminds the audience of Barbara’s avarice and concludes with the warning, “once a bed is made, it’s necessary you sleep in it,” suggests an affirmation of the culture’s view of domestic violence as something “asked for” and that should be dealt with privately and quietly. So in this respect, the robot doesn’t violate Asimov’s essential rule for robots because the behavior it participates in isn’t yet viewed as damaging.

Because the audience’s initial exposure to the robot is positive and lacks any of the vitriol demonstrated in the Uncle Simon and Barbara interactions, the robot is an accessible presence with which to empathize. Its appearance clearly delineates its “otherness” and its stated need for support and patience positions it as an object deserving care. And so when Barbara’s willful disregard for its needs manifests in a more demanding and harsh nature, it feels, for both the robot and Barbara, like a tragically lost opportunity to change the household dynamics. There is little doubt that The Twilight Zone has maintained a presence in popular culture because of its depictions of universal themes related to human behavior. Usually, the series feels ahead of its time but in this case, “Uncle Simon” stands as a disturbing time capsule on how our understanding on the impact of family violence has evolved for the better.

“Uncle Simon” is episode 8 of season 5 of The Twilight Zone, and you can find it on Netflix or Amazon:

[i] Lin, Patrick. “Relationships with Robots: Good or Bad for Humans?” Forbes, 1 Feb. 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/patricklin/2016/02/01/relationships-with-robots-good-or-bad-for-humans/#34d016b97adc.

[ii] Asimov, Isaac . I, Robot. Doubleday, 1950.

[iii] Dockterman, Eliana. “50 Years Ago, Doctors called Domestic Violence Therapy.” Time Magazine, 25 September 2014, http://time.com/3426225/domestic-violence-therapy/.