Mario and the Magician - Illness and Deformity

Mario and the Magician - Illness and Deformity

In Thomas Mann's "Mario and the Magician," Mann uses illness and deformity to symbolize the driving force towards disaster. It is in the illness of the characters that the setting for disaster is made, which then beings on a downward spiral once the character of Cipolla enters the story. Cipolla is not only mentally ill, but he is deformed. Much of his deformity is left a mystery for it is described so vaguely by the narrator. The first episode of illness starts with a whooping cough. After the whooping cough episode, another display of illness, not only physically but also in regards to the illness of character, is a child with "disgusting raw sores on his shoulders" (Mann 534). Shortly after these two episodes, the narrator even contemplates terminating his vacation to leave behind the already present disasters. Unfortunately for the narrator and his family, the downward decent into total tragedy was not over; it had nearly begun. The next several episodes that set the stage of disaster are in Cipolla's deformity. Due to the illness of the characters and the deformity of Cipolla, the entire story is doomed for catastrophe.

Primarily starting with the whooping cough, total calamity was not far away for the narrator and his family. When some high Roman aristocracy became concerned with the whooping cough of the narrator's child, a doctor is called upon to inspect the child. Once the doctor finds that the cough is not contagious and there is nothing to worry about, the manager of the hotel insisted the narrator and his family move hotels. This first creates the scene of a bad vacation. The narrator says, "I dwelt upon the incident too much, it irritated me in retrospect" (Mann 533). He goes on to fume about his unhappiness with the intensity of the sun and how day after day it becomes dull. Everything was irritating him. He explains, "Without that stupid business of the whooping cough I might not have been feeling these things" (Mann 534). Illness, the whooping cough, has set the stage for unpleasantness.

Once again, another portrayal of illness setting the stage for disaster is in the young boy with the sores on his back. The narrator describes him as having "outdid anything I have ever seen for ill-breeding, refractoriness, and temper and was a great coward to boot, putting the whole beach in an uproar, one day, because of his outrageous sensitiveness to the slightest pain" (Mann 534). This sensitiveness to the slightest pain that the narrator describes occurred when the boy was pinched by a sand-crab, which for a doctor had to be fetched. The narrator continues to describe the boy as "prominent among the influences that, imperceptibly at first, combined to spoil our holiday and render it unwholesome" (Mann 535). Again, this is where the narrator makes a direct connection to illness and the disaster that become of the story.

Lastly and most obviously, disaster is at the hands of the character of Cipolla. After even just the events prior to Cipolla's entrance into the story, the narrator remarks that he should have left Torre and "thus escaped that fatal Cipolla" (Mann 537). Much of how Cipolla's deformity relates to the tragedy of the story is not directly stated; however, it is quite obvious. The details of Cipolla's deformity are left vague. The narrator first explains that "There was something not quite in order about his figure, both front and back" (Mann 541). Then, Cipolla himself reasons that he has "a little physical defect which prevented [him] from doing [his] bit in the war for the greater glory of the Fatherland" (Mann 544). This is the first bit of evidence that shows Cipolla pities himself. Had Cipolla never mentioned the fact that he had a deformity, it would have never set the audience in to a somewhat uncomfortable state of mind. Cipolla's overall appearance gave an eerie vibe; his outfit, his mannerism, and his physical appearance excluding the deformed aspect of it. It is commonly known that people, who mock others and put others down, are only unhappy with themselves. Cipolla's unhappiness with himself evolves in part from his deformity. By making mockery of the members of the audience, it allows him to feel better about himself. However, Cipolla, in relation to this particular audience, does not know the power he holds and the fateful road down which he is taking himself.

The first attack Cipolla makes is against two men, which turns into an attack against the audience as a whole. There is something interesting about this attack in that it shows the type of victim whom Cipolla targets. The narrator describes the men as "two sturdy young louts" (Mann 546). Cipolla targets these particular two because he notes their physical appearance and brings them to the stage in order to diminish their self-image and humiliate them in front of an audience. In utter sarcasm, Cipolla "praised their heroic firmness