Fear of Nuclear Proliferation

The Physicists was written in the early 1960s—after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan in World War II and during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States (a time when nuclear war and the possible destruction of civilization felt like a very real possibility). One theme of The Physicists involves the fear of what mankind is capable of and how scientific progress can be used for evil, particularly if it is in the hands of a powerful government.

The playwright invents the "Principle of Universal Discovery," as developed by Mobius, as the latest and greatest scientific advance that could have even more devastating effect than the atomic bomb. In the end, all three physicists are revealed to have been manipulated by the insane Doktor. The nightmare scenario they all fear has come true: science is in the...