The Magic Theater
Summary
“Nothing,” said he in the mirror, “I
am only waiting. I am waiting for death.”
“Where is death then?”
“Coming,” said the other.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Outside the Magic Theater, Pablo holds a small looking
glass up to Harry. Harry sees the trembling reflection of a creature
into which a man and wolf flow irregularly, each trying to destroy
the other. Harry recognizes that this is how he sees himself, and
that with Pablo’s help all of his soul will be made visible to him.
Pablo leads Harry and Hermine into a horseshoe-shaped theater. He
explains that victory over time is achieved through the dissolution
of the personality. Pablo instructs Harry to walk down the left
corridor while Hermine walks down the right. He shows Harry the
pocket mirror again and tells him that the Magic Theater is a “school
of humor.” Harry laughs, fully and with a feeling of wonderful release.
The mirror chars, as though burned, and turns opaque.
Congratulating Harry and laughing the same eerie laugh
from the end of the dance, Pablo tells Harry that the Magic Theater
is a world of “pictures, not realities.” To cast aside the “spectacles”
of his old personality, Harry looks into a gigantic mirror in which
he sees infinite Harrys of all ages. One is a young teen who leaps
out and runs down the corridor. Harry runs after the teen and stops
with him at a door that reads “ALL GIRLS ARE YOURS—ONE QUARTER
IN THE SLOT.” The boy disappears into the slot. Harry
discovers everyone else has also disappeared, and he is left to negotiate
the Magic Theater alone.
Harry opens a door that reads “JOLLY HUNTING—GREAT HUNT
IN AUTOMOBILES.” He finds himself in the middle of a war
between men and machines. The scene is apocalyptic, filled with
flames and death and reckless, gratuitous bloodshed. Gustav, Harry’s
school friend, suddenly appears. Next, Harry opens a door that bears
the words “GUIDANCE IN THE BUILDING UP OF THE PERSONALITY.
SUCCESS GUARANTEED.” Inside, a man who looks like Pablo
asks Harry to put the pieces of his personality on a chessboard,
and shows him how to infinitely reconfigure them. When finished,
Harry puts these wonderful pieces into his pocket.
The third door Harry chooses is marked “MARVELOUS
TAMING OF THE STEPPENWOLF.” Inside, Harry watches a
man humiliate a broken wolf by making it behave like a man. Harry
is horrified to see the hungry wolf swallow chocolate while it is
forced to put its paws around a rabbit and a lamb. Then man and
wolf switch positions, and the man rips off his clothes and tears
through the flesh of the rabbit and lamb as if he were a beast.
In the fourth room Harry enters, “ALL GIRLS ARE YOURS,”
he gets to enjoy all the women he has ever wanted in his life. Each
one of these lovers readies him for his final encounter with Hermine.
Finally, Harry stands in front of a door marked “HOW
ONE KILLS FOR LOVE.” He is reminded of his early conversation
with Hermine, when she told him she would give him a final command
to kill her. Filled with dread, Harry reaches in his pockets for
the pieces of his life so that he may rework them into a different
conclusion. However, all he manages to fish out of his pocket is
a knife. Harry runs away, back to the gigantic mirror, where he
sees a wolf that turns into Harry. The reflection tells Harry that
it is waiting for death.
Strains of the opera Don Giovanni and
a peal of unearthly laughter herald the appearance of the composer
Mozart, the person Harry most admires. The two discuss music and
see Brahms and Wagner marching drearily below past them, dragging
hosts of followers. Mozart does a somersault and laughs at Harry
for being so despondent. Harry tries to catch Mozart’s pigtail,
but it turns into the tail of a comet, which Harry follows into
the cold atmosphere of immortals. Harry then passes out.
