73 pages • 2 hours read
Philip K. DickDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1968A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Character Analysis
Rick Deckard
Rick Deckard is the protagonist of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? but he is far from a hero. Deckard is a morally ambiguous man who aspires toward wealth and success because he believes it will fulfill him. He becomes disillusioned with his work as he develops empathy for the same androids that he is ordered to kill. Deckard’s wife Iran accuses him of being a murderer due to his work as a bounty hunter. Deckard is initially able to ignore this insult; he believes Iran is simply trying to goad him. The more time he spends with androids, however, the more her insult burrows into his thoughts.
Through the Voight-Kampff test, Deckard uses empathy and its absence to decide whether someone is an android or a human. If they do not show the requisite amount of empathy, he judges them to be an android and he is licensed to kill them. When Deckard begins to empathize with androids, Iran’s insult manifests in his mind. He begins to suspect that his job is not an amoral exercise of the state’s will. Due to the sophistication of the androids, Deckard fears that Iran may be right: He may be a murderer. Even as his fears begin to mount, though, Deckard does not stop hunting the androids. He continues until every android on his list is dead. In terms of the narrative, Deckard is presented as a morally ambiguous figure. More importantly, Deckard begins to recognize his own moral ambiguity, and this realization forces him to change.
Deckard uses the Voigt-Kampff test to determine whether his targets are capable of empathy. If they are not capable of empathy, then they are likely androids, and he is ordered to kill them. The narrative functions as a symbolic Voigt-Kampff test to illustrate Deckard’s growing empathy, who remains unaware that he is even being tested. In the novel’s opening, he has empathy for other humans, real animals, and electric animals, and he yearns for animals to care for. Over the course of the novel, he develops empathy toward androids. For example, he debates whether he can kill an android who closely resembles Rachael. After killing all the androids, Deckard has an identity crisis because he sees himself as a killer. In the midst of this crisis, Deckard hallucinates that he meets and permanently fuses with Wilbur Mercer. He knows that Mercer and Mercerism are fake, but the ideas of Mercerism resonate with him and inspire him to quit bounty hunting. In short, the narrative tests Deckard’s humanity by measuring his empathy, just like a Voigt-Kampff test. The events in the novel force Deckard to make moral decisions, and his responses evolve over time.
Rachael Rosen
Rachael Rosen is intelligent, seductive, alluring, and artificial. She introduces Deckard to the complexity of the Nexus-6 model androids; even an experienced bounty hunter like Deckard was willing to accept the possibility that she might be real. Rachael is so close to being human that her existence makes Deckard question the nature of humanity itself. He begins to wonder whether he can continue to kill androids for a living. This moral confusion is exactly what Rachael hopes to achieve.
Her slow and steady seduction of Deckard is part of a plot to foil the bounty hunter’s pursuit of Nexus-6 androids. She may present herself as a human, but her intentions are always more cynical. Like all androids, Rachael remains a machine, first and foremost. Her ability to seduce and confuse Deckard is part of her assignment; her uncle deploys her like a tool to distract and undermine the bounty hunters who work against the company’s androids. This assignment colors all of Rachael’s actions. When she is seducing Deckard in his hotel room, she is carefully manipulating him with her family’s interests in mind. She pretends to be human by showing hints of empathy, but these emotions are all part of the seduction process. Throughout the novel, Rachael’s performance of empathy is so convincing that Deckard changes his entire moral philosophy. His revelation is undermined, however, by the cynical reveal that everything Rachael has done has been to deceive, delay, and ultimately stop Deckard’s goal of killing her fellow androids.
Rachael may want to stop Deckard from killing androids, but she does not do so due to empathy. Rachael is an android, so she cannot feel empathy. Instead, the lengths to which she will go to protect her fellow machines are indicative of a broader, machine-like dedication to protecting her family and their company. Eldon Rosen is presented as Rachael’s uncle. As an android, however, she has no real relation to him. Despite this, she works on his behalf to protect the company from men like Deckard who threaten the business. If the Nexus-6 models went rogue or the Voigt-Kampff test proved to be unusable, the Rosen business is threatened. As a result, a fortune is at stake. Rachael is a weapon in Eldon’s arsenal, but a convincingly human one. This role as just another piece of Rosen family machinery reduces Rachael’s agency. She is not acting of her own volition or the Nexus-6 models. Rachael is simply following orders.
Even though Rachael’s relationship with Deckard is an elaborate trick, it does produce complexity in Rachael’s character. Racheal lies constantly to Deckard, but these lies are so convincing that he essentially creates a character for her that he projects onto her blank, detached person. To Deckard, Rachael is everything he wants from a woman, much more so than Iran. Deckard believes that he is empathizing with Rachael, but in truth, he is empathizing with the version of Rachael that exists in his mind. The irony of Deckard’s revelation regarding the humanity of androids is that it is built on Rachael’s lies. She evokes empathy in Deckard by presenting him with an artificial romance and her own inauthentic facsimile of empathy. In this respect, she is like the electric animals in the novel: She exists for Deckard to perform his emotions, providing him with a substitute for genuine affection.
John Isidore
Physically and emotionally, John Isidore is an isolated figure. He is a lonely man who lives by himself in an abandoned apartment block in an empty suburb. Like many parts of Earth, this suburb was once a bustling community. Now, the apartments are filled with clutter and junk that was left behind by the people who evacuated. Isidore is forced to live alone in the abandoned apartment building because he is a “special.” This patronizing term is assigned to anyone whose body has been affected by the radioactive dust that covers Earth. As a special, Isidore has a diminished IQ. He is not permitted to emigrate from Earth to an off-world colony, like so many other people have, and he is not permitted to hold certain jobs or father any children. As well as being physically separated from society, Isidore’s status as a special means that he is socially isolated, emotionally, and intellectually isolated. In these ways, Isidore is the victim of a perfect storm of marginalization. He is driven to the fringes of society and made to feel guilty for wanting a better life for himself.
Isidore feels profoundly sad about his life. He wishes he had more friends and he wishes he could connect with others, but he has come to accept the reality of his medical condition. Isidore accepts his fate and commits to isolation and mockery from a society that does not value his health or well-being. He has internalized his marginalization to the extent that he cannot integrate into society. To alleviate the pain of this lonely existence, Isidore turns to Mercerism. The quasi-religion of Mercerism is a globalized effort to share emotion and empathy among alienated and marginalized people. Through empathy boxes, people can feel a facsimile of human connection. Isidore is practically addicted to this simulacrum of empathy as he cannot access genuine human interaction outside of his workplace. For Isidore, Mercerism is like owning an electric animal. Still craving authentic human interaction, he turns to Mercerism to give him an artificial replacement.
While Isidore may lack academic intelligence, he shows more emotional depth and moral intelligence than any other character. The androids cannot feel empathy, and Deckard is struggling to come to terms with the consequences of his actions. Isidore, meanwhile, feels empathy for everyone and everything. He cares about androids, people, and animals that will not ever feel empathetic toward him. His deep and sincere affection for other people is a product of his loneliness; in this alienated world, only those on the fringes of society remember how to experience genuine empathy. Unfortunately for Isidore, this empathy backfires. He is horrified when Pris tortures a spider, and he is forced to confront the reality that his new and only friends do not care for others the way he does. His faith in the goodness of the world is shattered, showing the tragedy of trying to care in a cynical and brutal world.
Pris Stratton
Pris Stratton is one of the Nexus-6 androids who arrives on Earth after killing her master on Mars. She is on the run, fleeing the bounty hunters who want to find and execute her for murder. In her desperation, she takes up residence in an empty apartment block where Isidore is living alone. Her meeting with Isidore introduces her to a different kind of humanity. Rather than her abusive master or the bounty hunters who want to kill her, Isidore simply wants to be her friend. Pris does not know how to deal with this genuine compassion.
As an android, Pris lacks empathy. She is uninterested in Isidore until she decides that she can take advantage of him. Though she lacks empathy, Pris can emotionally manipulate Isidore. She hints at the possibility of love or companionship, and he is willing to do anything for her. She presents him with a lurid description of a bounty hunter, framing herself as the innocent victim fleeing from a monstrous, destructive force. The blatant emotional manipulation works, and Isidore welcomes Pris and her friends into his apartment block. The manipulation suggests that, despite their lack of empathy, the androids are emotionally intelligent enough to manipulate humans.
Despite her lack of empathy, Pris’s relationship with Isidore becomes unexpectedly complex. The arrival of the even-more-ruthless Roy Baty provides a contrast with Pris. While Roy is utterly uncaring about what happens to Isidore so long as the androids survive, Pris finds herself suddenly doubting his leadership. She defends Isidore against several of Roy’s more pernicious insults, even as Isidore does not grasp what is happening. She appreciates Isidore’s help and tries to protect him from Roy’s manipulation. These brief flickers are the closest any android comes to demonstrating genuine empathy, even if this empathy is self-interested in that Pris hopes to protect herself from bounty hunters.
These flickers are short-lived, as Pris destroys her relationship with Isidore by coldly torturing a spider. The torture horrifies Isidore but barely registers with Pris, who remains detached and intellectually curious about what happens to a spider when its legs are removed. Isidore betrays the androids by alerting Deckard to their location. Pris’s inability to comprehend how torturing a spider might horrify Isidore indicates that the androids do not understand empathy, even on an intellectual or self-interested level, even if they can sometimes feign the emotion.
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By Philip K. Dick
