I recently saw a play about Albert Einstein called Relativity (Mark St. Germain, 2019?) that used Einstein's life to frame the question, "Is it necessary to be a good man to be a great man?" The title was a play on words as well. Relativity referred to his general theory of relativity but also to to his relationship with his family, his relatives. Then I read Einstein: His Life and Universe (2008, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks). This book also dealt with his ground-breaking work as a physicist and his personal relationships, but in a far more detailed way than the play.
Neither depiction minimized his scientific genius and accomplishments, which were indeed great; nor did either claim that he was an exemplary man in his treatment of others. To represent perhaps his most extreme detachment from his family, the play, Relativity (2019), presented his only daughter, whom he had never met in real life. Although as a young married man he had known of her birth, there has been no documented trace of her. It is speculated that she sickened and died shortly after her birth or that she was adopted and grew up. In the play, as a mature woman. she initially came to his house in Princeton claiming to be a journalist looking for an interview with the elderly Einstein. She later revealed herself to be his daughter, his very angry daughter. She expressed her fury about her abandonment, and he was mostly defensive as he maintained that his work had been most important.
Isaacson (2008) portrayed a more nuanced Einstein. His many relationships with women did not cause scandalous conflicts. His first wife had not been pleased, but his second wife had not seemed to mind. Although avoidant of complicated close relationships, when relationships were simpler and more manageable for him, he could be warm and kind. For example , he had said that his older son gave him "indescribable joy" (p. 246). He gave his two sons financial support when needed, although he hadn't seen them often as adults. He had lifelong friendships, even with fellow physicists with whom he argued. "As long as someone put no strong demands or emotional burdens on him, Einstein could readily forge friendships and even affections" (p. 274). An example of his capacity for friendship has been rendered by Chris Williamson's song (2022, Wolf Moon Records, on YouTube), Marian and Albert .The song tells of Marian Anderson's beautiful concert at Princeton in 1937. Einstein attended and went backstage afterwards to compliment her. He discovered that she had been refused a stay at a local hotel and invited her to stay at his house. When in Princeton for later visits, she always stayed with him. They remained friends until his death.
Do you have to be a good man to be a great man? It's a matter of opinion. I think he was a great but flawed man. No one, in my opinion is perfect. We all have some limitations, and so did he. He rebelled against a lose of independence and conformity. These, for him, would be the ties that bind. Without such rebellion, could he have been the innovative, creative thinker that he was? He transformed physics and our understanding of the universe.