Character Analysis

Included below is a character analysis about Dr. Laszlo Kreizler from the Alienist books. For basic information about Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, quotes made by Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, or character testimonials about Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, please use the menu.

Dr. Laszlo Kreizler Character Analysis

Laszlo Kreizler

Dr. Laszlo Kreizler is by far the most developed character of the series. Some critics have even noted that The Alienist seems to be as much about its main character as about the quest for a murderer. Caleb Carr has said that his intent was to have a protagonist who shared several qualities with the killer he was pursuing. This would lead the protagonist to become emotionally involved in the case, and even falter by unconsciously basing assumptions on personal experience rather than actual evidence. This is the basis for Laszlo Kreizler; however, his character does not end here.

Dr. Kreizler is an alienist, or psychiatrist, who specializes in child and criminal psychology. In accordance with this, within the books he applies his theory of “context”, the notion that an individual’s personality and behaviour is determined by his or her childhood experiences, to the profiling of the criminals being pursued by the investigative team. His formal training in psychology took place in the mid-to-late-1870s at Harvard where he completed the first graduate course offered by William James on the relations between physiology and psychology. Prior to this, he had worked at the Lunatic Asylum on Blackwells Island as a junior assistant after having completed an “unprecedentedly quick course of study at the Columbia Medical College” (A 47).

Outside of the profiling work he completes for the investigative team, most of the Doctor’s time is spent at the Kreizler Institute for Children on East Broadway, a centre he founded in 1885 for the study and treatment of children with emotional and psychological disorders. He also frequents several New York hospitals to do assessments and, being the leading expert in New York on criminal insanity, is often called as an expert witness. His professional activities have strong ties to his private life as well. Although Laszlo is a bachelor, he shares his home with his ward and part-time carriage driver, Stevie Taggert, and his valet, Cyrus Montrose, both of whom are former patients. Throughout The Alienist he also shares his home with his housekeeper, Mary Palmer, another former patient who is he in love with; sadly, she is killed in the latter part of the novel.

Childhood & Upbringing

It is explained in The Alienist that the Doctor, who was born in Europe, “emigrated to the United States as a child when his German father, a wealthy publisher and 1848 republican, and Hungarian mother […] fled monarchist persecution to begin a somewhat celebrated life in New York as fashionable political exiles” (A 25). He has one sibling, a sister, but it is unclear if she also immigrated or was born in New York; by the time the books are set, she has moved to England, having married “a baronet or some such” (A 191). Despite growing up in America, Laszlo was forced to speak German at home throughout his childhood and therefore retains a mild German accent, along with a trace of a Hungarian accent (which he somehow acquired, even though he apparently wasn’t allowed to speak Hungarian as a child). His appearance is also indicative of his eastern European heritage: he has black eyes, and his long hair, “neatly trimmed moustache”, and “small patch of beard under his lower lip” (A 28) are similarly dark.

Although we are told during The Alienist that in recent years Laszlo’s mother and father have stayed “pretty shut up” (A 249) in their house on Fourteenth Street and Fifth Avenue due to the latter parent having had a stroke, the couple were popular socialites in upper-class New York society during the Doctor’s youth; John Moore, a childhood friend, describes Kreizler’s father as “gregarious” and his mother as “vivacious”, and has fond memories of the large parties they would hold to which European luminaries would be invited. However, this was only appearance. Behind closed doors Kreizler’s father was an alcoholic who was physically abusive to his wife and children. The abuse appears to have been severe; we know that Laszlo was being beaten when he was as young as three years old and, as the following quote describes, the worst confrontation left one of his arms permanently disfigured.

The Angel of Darkness, 338:

[W]hen he was only eight, the Doctor’s left arm had been smashed by his own father during the worst of their many fights. The older man had then kicked his son clear down a flight of stairs, aggravating the injury and making sure that the arm would never heal properly. The recurring pain in the scarred bones and muscle, along with the underdeveloped state of the arm, served to keep the trials what the Doctor’d been through during his childhood pretty constantly in his mind.

There is reason to believe that Dr. Kreizler’s father was also emotionally abusive. Laszlo reveals to John that as a child his father would “always” tell him, “That I didn’t know as much as I thought I did. That I thought I knew how people should behave, that I thought I was a better person than he was. But one day — one day, he said, I would know that I wasn’t. Until then, I’d be nothing more than an — impostor…” (A 371).

His mother does not appear to have offered any solace. Dr. Kreizler discloses in The Angel of Darkness that she never attempted to stop her husband from abusing their children. He explains that “although my mother cared for her children, their welfare was simply not her first priority” (AoD 272). Laszlo goes on to reveal that he had felt responsible for the failure of his mother’s relationship with her children and, as a young man, this had prompted him to form a romantic attachment to a woman named Frances Blake who reminded him of his mother. He claims that on an unconscious level he had wanted to change Frances since he had been unable to change his mother. Nevertheless, he eventually did come to understand that it was this, rather than love, which had drawn him to the relationship, and he subsequently broke off the attachment.

It is unclear what Laszlo’s temperament was like as a young child. The only indication we have is the following observation made by John: “Even when we were boys, he was always at something, and always so deadly serious. It was somewhat amusing, in those days” (A 191). Although this quote indicates that he used to keep himself busy with projects or study, the second part of the observation is a bit more opaque. “Deadly serious” could imply that he was quiet and didn’t play very much, while “amusing” might suggest that other children found his behaviour comical and poked fun at him.

Character & Personality

His adult character, however, is much less speculative. One of Dr. Kreizler’s most obvious qualities is his intelligence; one reviewer describes him as “preternaturally brilliant”. He is liberal-minded and his professional opinions are quite progressive for the time period he lives in. Although this puts him at constant odds with many of his contemporaries, negative public feeling doesn’t discourage him; it is written that the Doctor’s “mental belligerency” keeps “his enemies at bay” (AoD 57). This is illustrated vividly within The Alienist when John recalls that Kreizler publicly debated his professor on the existence of free will while he was still only a graduate student at Harvard. In keeping with this, Kreizler is energetic and passionate about his work. Indeed, these traits are particularly evident when he returns to his Institute in The Angel of Darkness after being forced to leave for 60 days; Stevie tells us: “As for the Doctor, once his name’d been cleared he dived back into affairs at the Institute like a man what’d been deprived of life’s necessities” (AoD 623).

Consistent with his profession, Dr. Kreizler is highly perceptive of the emotions of others, although he is also quite emotionally distant. In fact, this is one of the first things the reader is told about him; at the very beginning of The Alienist, John describes him as “perplexing to so many who knew him” because of his “peculiar quality of emotional distance” (A 10). When speaking of topics that he is emotionally close to, such as his childhood or his love for Mary Palmer, he discusses them in a solely objective manner. He avoids his emotions instead of dealing with them properly, which makes it difficult for him to think rationally when his emotions overwhelm him. For example, in The Alienist he starts to somewhat identify with the murderer he is pursuing and becomes emotionally involved in the case. He begins to make judgments on the killer based solely on his own personal experience and shuts out every other option which, as John points out, doesn’t “seem to make sense, given Laszlo’s professional opinions” (A 223).

Furthermore, despite his aforementioned “mental belligerency”, it is clear that Dr. Kreizler is plagued by a lack of self-confidence, which is not surprising given what he claims his father “always” told him as a child. John observes in The Alienist that Laszlo is “full of doubts about his own judgment and abilities. I never really understood before how much he’s tortured by that — self-doubt. It’s hidden most of the time, but it goes back” (A 388). It is also revealed in The Angel of Darkness that Kreizler has “nagging doubts” about his professional motives as well. This is brought to the attention of the reader when Clarence Darrow cross-examines Dr. Kreizler during Libby Hatch’s trial. The lawyer suggests that Kreizler dedicates himself to ‘saving’ children in an effort to ‘save’ himself, and that finding explanations for other children’s disturbing experiences helps him to explain what happened in his own childhood. Laszlo seems to think that this analysis has some foundation of truth; he remarks that Darrow “was wrong — about Libby Hatch. And this case. But about me?” (AoD 495).

The Doctor is also quite self-reproachful, which is again probably a result of his having been abused as a child. One scene that is telling of this takes place in The Alienist directly after Mary is killed. Laszlo immediately blames himself, and when John tries to reassure him that he isn’t responsible for the incident, he replies, “Don’t tell me I’m not responsible for it! Who then, if not me? It’s my own vanity, just as Comstock said. I’ve been in a blind fury, trying to prove my precious points, oblivious of any danger it might pose. […] We’ve been hunting a killer, John, but the killer isn’t the real danger — I am!” (A 372).

Yet, in spite of these traits, Dr. Kreizler is not an entirely dark character; he is ultimately a kind, empathetic, and selfless person. He is deeply distressed by the corrupt society he lives in and is devoted to making whatever difference he can. As John puts it, he is “determined to wring satisfaction from the worrisome world around him” (A 28). He also has a dry sense of humour and quite a playful streak; Stevie relates one such example of this within his narrative: “I didn’t know how agitated my movements had become ’til the Doctor threw a playful arm round my head, telling me it was the only way he could think of to keep my skull from exploding” (AoD 268). Perhaps the most important of all the Doctor’s positive qualities, however, is his determination not to let his doubts and self-vexations prevent him from pushing ahead with his work. In fact, Stevie makes just such an observation in The Angel of Darkness, 625:

I get the feeling, sometimes, that the Doctor feels guilty about never getting me to give up the smokes; but I was a nicotine fiend long before I ever met the man, and, caring and patient as he always was, there were just some things about my early life what even his kindness and wisdom couldn’t undo. I don’t hold him responsible, of course, or love him any the less for it, and it makes me sad to think that my physical predicament only gives him one more reason to vex himself; but again, I guess it’s that very vexing, and the ability to keep working through it toward a better sort of life for our mostly miserable species, what makes him such a very unusual man.

Due to the emphasis placed on Dr. Kreizler’s work, very few of his non-professional views are discussed in the books. His religious and political views, for example, are unknown; he tells J.P. Morgan in The Alienist that his “religious opinions are a private matter” (A 304). We do know, however, that he does not attend church, so it is possible that he is an atheist. Atheism and agnosticism were highly popular among the intellectuals of the time, especially after the advent of such philosophers as Darwin and Nietzsche. Nevertheless, he does use phrases such as “God help us”, which could simply be colloquial but might also be intended literally. The following excerpt also suggests that he may retain some sort of spiritual belief.

The Angel of Darkness, 344-5:

“Do you think Matthew Hatch will reach out from the grave, Moore?” the Doctor needled. “To rebuke you for disturbing his eternal rest?”

“Maybe,” Mr Moore answered. “Something like that. You don’t seem too damned troubled along those lines, Kreizler, I must say.”

“Perhaps I have a different understanding of what we’ve just done,” the Doctor answered, his voice growing more serious. “Perhaps I believe that Matthew Hatch’s soul has not yet known peace, eternal or otherwise – and that we represent his only chance of attaining it.”

As for his political stance, his ideas seem to fall left of centre, which suggests his political opinions probably do as well, but this, too, is unknown.

Substantially more is known about Dr. Kreizler’s personal interests and aesthetic tastes, however. It is clear, for instance, that the Doctor is something of a music connoisseur — he owns a box at the Metropolitan Opera House — and he has an appreciation of fine art and antique furniture. Indeed, his “elegant” townhouse at 283 East Seventeenth Street contains a “collection of contemporary and classic art and splendid French furniture” (A 88; to learn more, see the history blog: Did Dr. Kreizler really live at 283 East Seventeenth Street?). In addition, when he secures a lease on the sixth floor office of 808 Broadway in order to provide the investigative team with headquarters during The Alienist, he outfits it with early 19th century antique furnishings because he “couldn’t live with [store bought office furniture] for a day, much less an extended period of time” (A 122). This penchant for luxurious surroundings even appears to extend to transportation; although he owns a Canadian calash for daily use, he keeps a barouche for more formal occasions. He seems to have a taste for gourmet food as well, and takes his consumption endeavours quite seriously: Charlie Delmonico reserves Kreizler and his colleagues a private blue dining room because he recalls the Doctor saying that he “found neither olive nor crimson conducive to digestion” (A 98). Dr. Kreizler’s taste in fashion also appears to be serious; he only wears black suits, even in summer, and his formal wear is described as being “immaculately cut” (A 89).

Finally, despite these expensive tastes, it is important to mention that the Doctor does not restrict his spending to personal luxuries. In keeping with his generous nature, much of the income he receives from his work as an expert witness is used to maintain the Institute and take on charity cases. This generosity is also demonstrated during The Angel of Darkness when he provides one of Stevie’s street-working friends, Kat Devlin, with a first-class train ticket to San Francisco along with $300 spending money (equivalent to approximately $7700 today) in exchange for her help with the investigation.