Jack Gurney

Jack Arnold Alexander Tancred Gurney is a fictional character, the protagonist of Peter Barnes' 1968 play, The Ruling Class. He was portrayed by Peter O'Toole (in an Academy Award-nominated performance) in the play's 1972 film adaptation.

Born into a wealthy, aristocratic British family, Gurney was designated at birth to be the 14th Earl of Gurney upon the death of his father. There was only one problem: he was a paranoid schizophrenic prone to delusions of grandeur, which were made worse when his parents shipped him off to boarding school, where he felt abandoned and victimized. As a subconscious defence against such abandonment, he developed a delusion that he was Jesus Christ returned to bring and embody love, so that people would have to love him in order to find peace and salvation.

Upon his father's death (in a bizarre autoerotic asphyxiation mishap) Gurney returned to his family—not to take his rightful place as heir to the title, but to spread the gospel as he saw it, which was to treat everyone with love and charity. His relatives were appalled, especially his half-uncle Charles, who coveted the lordship for himself. Sir Charles plotted to marry his nephew off to his long-time mistress, Grace Shelly, so as to produce an heir, and then have his nephew institutionalized. The plan failed, however, when his mistress actually fell in love with Gurney. Gurney gained another ally in Sir Charles' wife, who hated her husband and befriended Gurney just to spite him. She also began sleeping with Gurney's psychiatrist, Dr. Mercer, to persuade him to cure Gurney quickly.

Mercer attempted to cure him through intensive psychotherapy, but it was to no avail, as Gurney so thoroughly believed that he was Jesus that, ironically, he dismissed any suggestion to the contrary as the rambling of lunatics. The night his wife went into labour with their child, Mercer made one last effort at therapy; He introduced Gurney to a patient who also believed himself to be Christ, or, as the patient put it, "the God of electricity," who would subject an unwitting Gurney to electroshock therapy. The plan was to use the electroshock to (literally) jolt Gurney out of his delusions, showing him that the two men could not both be Jesus, and so he must be operating under hallucinations. The plan worked, and, as Grace delivered a healthy baby boy, Gurney returned to his senses and reclaimed his true identity.

Sir Charles, still intent on stealing the lordship, sent for a court psychiatrist to evaluate Gurney, confident that his nephew would be sent to an asylum for life. He was once again thwarted, however, when the psychiatrist discovered that Gurney was a fellow Etonian, bonded with him, and declared him sane.

Gurney soon relapsed into mental illness, however, this time believing himself to be Jack the Ripper. Now a violent psychopath with a puritanical hatred of women, Gurney murdered Sir Charles' wife in a fit of enraged revulsion when the aging woman tried to seduce him. He framed the family butler, Tucker, for the murder, and assumed his place in the House of Lords with a fiery speech in favour of capital and corporal punishment. That night, he murdered Grace for expressing her love for him.

The story's ending is ambiguous; it is unknown whether Gurney got caught, or escaped detection to kill again.