Mr. Hackington

Mr. Hackington, commonly shortened to Mr. Hack, is a mad scientist~executioner and mad science teacher at Monster High. He was introduced in the webisode "Freedom Fight".

Personality
Mr. Hackington is an energetic, possibly British man who enjoys his job greatly. He's also slightly insane, having a tendency to burst into maniacal laughter. He is the only teacher at Monster High with a specific set of rules to follow during his class, complemented by a set of harsh punishments for whoever fails to follow them. For instance, if a student arrives so much as a second too late, they are excluded for the entire class and forced to make up for it on Saturday. Another example of his harsh attitude is that he doesn't want his students to have too much fun, as he believes this distracts them from the subject matter.

Nonetheless, Hackington is a very social man who delights in sharing his knowledge. For instance, he's the faculty sponsor for the student creature-watching club and regularly organizes trips down into the catacombs to study the local lifeforms. He also loves to tell stories about his long career and the other scientists he has worked, which sometimes take up the entire class instead of only the first half. Fortunately, for the students, Hackington considers all his stories as must-know information and will use questions from his stories on his tests. Even better, Hackington has a tendency to emphasize information he finds important by laughing so hard that he starts hacking.

Classic Monster
While it is likely that Hackington is some kind of monster, his horror niche is that of mad scientist, with an appearance inspired by the classical image of executioners. Prior to becoming a mad scientist himself, he's also been a professional Igor for some the maddest minds in science, referring to the tendency of antagonists in horror stories to have a sidekick named Igor.

Since ancient times fear has existed towards those thought of as more knowledgeable, as while they had the power to be an asset to society, they also had the power to bring it to its knees. Traditionally, these people were associated with magic. In the 19th, however, the idea of magic as thé omnipotent power had been replaced by technology. In this climate, the scientist became the new savior-or-menace of society, resulting in the mad scientist archetype. The mad scientist is a person many steps ahead of their sane peers (or so the mad scientist likes to think), making them a savior-type. However, the mad scientist also tends to hold few scruples and arrogantly pursue their ideas no matter what, making them a destructive force.

The image of the hooded executioner is one that came into existence in Medieval times. The hood held both a symbolic and practical function in keeping the identity of the executioner hidden. In a practical sense, the hood prevented family or friends of the 'criminal' from knowing who killed or would kill their loved one and subsequently taking revenge. In a symbolic sense, the hood robbed the executioner of his identity and highlighted he was merely justice's hand. However, by far not all executioners went to work hooded. In some places, being the executioner was a title held in high esteem and in others, the executioner was well-protected by those he served. The image of the hooded executioner is a more powerful one than the Average Joe one, though, so that is the one that has stuck in popular culture.

The "misfigured assistant named Igor" stock character finds its origins in the first stage adaptions and 1931 film adaption of the horror novel Frankenstein. No such character exists within the actual book, and in the adaptions, the character is called Fritz, not Igor. A similar character appeared in the film sequel, Bride of Frankenstein, but called Karl. The first use of the name "Igor" or "Ygor" comes from the 1933 horror film Mystery of the Wax Museum and was later again used in the two Frankenstein sequel films, though while both Igors are disfigured, neither are disfigured in the common-Igor way or are assistants. Exactly what factors made the name "Igor" tightly connected to the misfigured assistant-character are unknown

Family
Hackington's mother made an appearance in the webisode "Freakout Friday". Hackington accidentally caused her to break her back by standing on a crack.

Volume 1
In "Freedom Fight", "Bad Scare Day", "Freakout Friday", "Hatch Me If You Can"

Volume 2
In "Screech to the Beach"

Fright On!
Characters Monster High staff