# Doctor Bicknell — When God Laughs character guide

> Doctor Bicknell in When God Laughs by Jack London.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Semper Idem Doctor Bicknell, Semper Idem

**First appearance:** 0007-semper-idem

## Snapshot

A hospital doctor with a surgeon's gallows humor, Doctor Bicknell patches up the desperate and delivers his advice with the same briskness he gives a diagnosis.

## Who they are

Doctor Bicknell presides over a busy hospital ward where the suffering arrive on stretchers and the day's work is measured in lives saved or lost. His exchange with the patient called Semper Idem reveals a man whose professional detachment shades into something colder, an almost clinical curiosity about the wounds men inflict on themselves. He matters because his voice sets the story's tone, treating the grimmest human wreckage with a shrug and a relit cigar.

## Relationships

### [John Gorman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/when_god_laughs_se/characters/john_gorman)

_professional_

Doctor Bicknell and John Gorman have a doctor-patient or professional caregiver relationship.

### [John Gorman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/when_god_laughs_se/characters/john_gorman)

_professional_

Doctor Bicknell and John Gorman have a doctor-patient or professional caregiver relationship.

## In the story

### [Semper Idem](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/when_god_laughs_se/chapters/semper-idem)

The surgeon who saved Semper Idem and later receives him dead after a successful second suicide.

### [Semper Idem](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/when_god_laughs_se/chapters/semper-idem)

The mysterious patient who recovers from a throat-cutting, leaves the hospital, and returns dead from a properly executed suicide.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/when_god_laughs_se/characters/doctor_bicknell
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/when_god_laughs_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/when_god_laughs_se/characters