Doctor Dillamond
Doctor Dillamond is a Goat and a Fellow of Shiz University on the Faculty of Biological Arts, whose scientific research into the biological differences between humans and Animals becomes a political flashpoint in the Wizard of Oz's campaign to suppress Animal rights. His murder, disguised as an accident, marks a turning point in the novel, galvanizing Elphaba's commitment to resistance and exposing the collusion between the Wizard and Madame Morrible.
Identity and Academic Standing
Doctor Dillamond is introduced as a Goat traveling first-class on the train to Shiz, where he meets the newly arrived student Galinda. He is a shabbily dressed Fellow of Shiz University, a position he earned through years of study, training, and saving, despite the fact that his ticket cost double what a human student's did. He is a unionist himself, a fact that Elphaba later notes as a paradox given his political views. He is unable to write with a pen due to his hooves, so he relies on an amanuensis—a role Elphaba fills—to take dictation and file his research. He is described as having a "horrible sandpapery voice, as you might imagine for a Goat," which he uses to sing his scientific findings in arias of discovery.
Research and Political Significance
Doctor Dillamond's research is focused on determining the real differences between animal and Animal tissue, and between Animal and human tissue. He believes that the literature on the matter is couched in unionist terms and does not hold up to scientific scrutiny. His work has profound political implications: if he can prove scientifically that there is no inherent difference between humans and Animals, the Banns on Animal Mobility cannot be upheld. He makes a breakthrough using opposing lenses to peer at bits of tissue backlit by candlelight, discovering what he calls the basic shapes of organic life. He is so excited by his findings that he composes arias about structure, color, and the implications of his work. He does not want to announce any breakthroughs until he has figured out the most politically advantageous way to present them, and he requires his student helpers to find Lurlinist and early unionist disquisitions on how Animals and animals were created and differentiated.
Murder and Aftermath
Doctor Dillamond is found dead with his throat slit, the wound knotted with congealed ropes of black blood. The official story is that he broke a magnifying lens and stumbled against it, cutting an artery, but nobody believes it. Elphaba and Glinda discover that Ama Clutch, who witnessed the murder, saw the knife in the air and identified the killer as Grommetik, Madame Morrible's tiktok servant. Madame Morrible later admits to sending Grommetik over with a pot of tea that morning, claiming she found the Animal slumped over a broken lens. Elphaba, who had been working as Doctor Dillamond's amanuensis, sneaks into his lab the day his body is found and hides his findings, studying them on her own. She later uses his theories as the basis for her experiments with the winged monkeys, stitching wings into the back muscles of snow monkeys, a procedure she perfects after years of failures. The memory of his work and his murder fuels her lifelong opposition to the Wizard's regime.
