The Conjurer's Revenge by Stephen Leacock

“THE CONJURER’S REVENGE” by Stephen Leacock

OUTLINE OF THE ESSAY:

·        INTRODUCTION

·        THE CONJURER

·        QUICK MAN

·        THE CONJURER’S SHOW

·        THE FAMOUS JAPANESE TRICK

·        THE CONJURER’S REVENGE

·        CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION: ‘The Conjurer's Revenge’ by Stephen Leacock is a humorous short story.  A Conjurer deals smartly with a troublesome person known as the Quick Man for spoiling his magic show.

THE CONJURER: The Conjurer is a skilled magician who performs magic tricks for an audience. He was so talented that he could produce even a fish bowl from a piece of empty cloth. He could do difficult tricks like extracting eggs from a hat. During a show, he meets the Quick Man who unnecessarily spoils the show. Initially, the conjurer ignores him and continues with the show. Towards the end, the conjurer decides to take his revenge on the Quick Man.

QUICK MAN: A ‘Quick Man’ is referred to a person who is crazy and fast in grasping, quick-witted but cunning.  Among the audience, there was one such man who whispered at the end of every trick that it was all fraud.   This upset the conjurer and spoiled the magical effect for the audience. He can be called as the villain in the story.

THE CONJURER’S SHOW: The conjurer performed several tricks for the audience. From the beginning of the show, the Quick Man keeps spoiling the show for the conjurer. He kept saying the audience that the trick was done with the help of items hidden up the conjurer’s sleeve. When the conjurer produced a fish bowl from a piece of empty cloth, the Quick Man said that this must have been up his sleeve. The next trick was the famous Hindostanee rings. He joined two separate rings into one with a blow. The Quick Man whispered that he had another lot up his sleeve. The conjurer worried a lot but he continued his tricks.

 The conjurer got a hat from the audience and extracted seventeen eggs in thirty five seconds. The audience thought it was wonderful but the Quick Man told he had a hen up his sleeve. The egg trick was ruined. The conjurer got the same response for all his tricks. According to the Quick Man, the conjurer must have had rings, eggs, cards, bread, a live guinea pig and a rocking chair hidden up his sleeve. These constant comments by the Quick Man made the audience feel that the tricks were nothing special. This upset the conjurer. However, he went on performing one trick after the other till he could take it no more. He decided to take revenge.

THE FAMOUS JAPANESE TRICK: The conjurer announced that he would be showing the famous Japanese trick. Appearing to perform a trick using items borrowed from Quick Man, he took the Quick Man's watch and broke it to pieces. The Quick Man told the audience that the watch had been slipped into the conjurer’s sleeve. The conjurer then took the Quick Man’s handkerchief and punched holes in it. The Quick Man thought that this was a trick which he did not understand. The conjurer then took the Quick Man’s hat and trampled on it. He then proceeded to burn the Quick Man’s collar and smashed his spectacles. The Quick Man, all the while thought that this was just a trick. However, later the Quick Man and the entire audience realized that what the conjurer did with the Quick Man’s things were not tricks.

THE CONJURER’S REVENGE: The conjurer's revenge was complete after he destroyed the belongings of the Quick Man. The conjurer had succeeded in fooling the Quick Man with his permission. Thus the conjurer took his revenge. The humorous part of the story is the seriousness with which he asked for the various items of the Quick Man. The conjurer kept up the suspense till the end of the show by not letting either Quick Man or the audience realize that the “trick” that he was performing at the end of the show was not a trick but the real destruction of the possessions of the Quick Man. At no point of time did the Quick Man realized that the Conjurer was taking his revenge.

CONCLUSION:  The moral of the story is that, when we cannot appreciate a person, we should learn to keep it to ourselves. If we unnecessarily irritate or cause any harm to another person, we will have to face the consequences.