The play Refund written in 1938 is about a man about forty
who goes back to the school in which he had studied and demands a refund of the
fees he had paid eighteen years back claiming that he had learnt nothing useful
at school and he is now good for-nothing.
This play was adopted by the American playwright Percival
Wilde for a general audience. Refund brings out the extraordinary sense of
parody, word play in Karinthy’s literary art. The play is full of humour which
deals with an extraordinarily absurd situation.
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One Act Play
Refund by By Fritz
Karinthy (फ्रिट्ज़ कारिन्थी)
Characters in the play Refund
- The Principal
- The Servant Wasserkopf
- The Mathematics Master the Physics Master
- The Staff
- The Geography Master
- The History Master
SUMMARY of
the one act play ‘Refund’
The play Refund is written by Fritz
Karinthy, a famous Hungarian playwright in 1938. The one-act play Refund was
adopted and translated by the American playwright Percival Wilde.
The Refund is an absurd
(हास्यास्पद/ महत्त्वहीन) and satirical (व्यङ्ग्यत्मक) play. It
satirizes the present day education system, which doesn’t prepare students for
their career. It is full of humor (हास्य) which deals with an unusual (अनौठो) situation.
The play is about a former (भूतपूर्व) student of a school in Hungary named
Wasserkopf.
He is forty years old and unable to get any
employment (रोजगार). Even if he succeeds (सफल) in getting a job he cannot keep it
for a long period. Wherever he goes the people tell him that he is fit for nothing and hasn’t learned anything worth (योग्य) in the school.
Once he meets his old classmate Leaderer in the
street and when he tells about investment in foreign exchange and the Hungarian currency, Wasserkopf expresses
his inability to understand them. He starts asking questions about foreign
exchange. For which Leaderer says that if he doesn’t know about
such a small thing he hasn’t learned anything in the school.
Hence better he goes back to his school and gets his tuition fees back. For
Wasserkopf, who is jobless and penniless that idea appeals (मन पराउनु) and seems beneficial to him.
So he comes back to his old school
after eighteen years
and demands (माँग्नु) for his tuition fees back claiming he hasn’t learned
anything and they haven’t taught him anything worth (मूल्य भएको). The principal is shocked (स्तब्ध) after hearing such an absurd (विवेकहीन) demand. Wasserkopf even threatens (धम्काउनु) to go to the education minister if
justice (न्याय) is denied to him. He demands a
re-examination and if he fails in it he must get back his money. The principal finds himself in a peculiar (अनौठो) situation and calls for an urgent
meeting of all the teachers. They decide to conduct the re-examination and agree to prove
his answers, whether right or wrong, correct. Because they realize
that Wasserkopf would intentionally (जानीजानी) give wrong answers to fail in the
exam and to get back the refund. So they decide to outsmart (चलाकीमा हराउनु) him and to help each other by
sticking together.
Wasserkopf uses abusive (अपमानजनक) and derogative (लज्जाजनक) words to each teacher intending to
be thrown out of the school. But the teachers outsmart him by proving him
excellent in Manners, Physical Culture, Alertness, Perseverance (दृढता), Logic, and in Ambition.
Then the first question is asked by the history
master on how many years the ‘Thirty Years War’
lasted. Even though the answer is there within the question, Waaserkopf is
eager (उत्साही) to give a wrong answer and says that
the war lasted for seven meters.
When the history master is unable to prove his wrong answer right, mathematics
master aids (सहायता
गर्नु) him. He argues that according to
Einstein’s relativity theory years can be represented in terms of meter and the
actual war took place only for seven years. Because the war was waged (सन्चालित गर्नु) only during the half of each day
(twelve hours), three hours in a day was given to eating and three hours more
for non-war like activities. So the answer seven meters given by the candidate
is right in Einstein’s equivalence of seven years.
Next, the physics master asks him whether
clocks in the church become smaller if one walks away from it or is it because
of optical (दृष्टि
सम्बन्धि) illusion (भ्रम). Wasserkopf calls the master as an ass
(गधा) in answer. But the answer is
accepted by the master as the correct one. Because an ass doesn’t have any
imaginative (काल्पनिक) powers as it is a sad creature. So it must have an optical
illusion and Wasserkopf has given a metaphorical (symbolic) answer.
The geography master asks him to name the capital city
of the same name Brunswick (Brunswick is the historical English name for the
German city), a German province (प्रान्त). Wasserkopf answers as ‘same’.
The master proves the answer to the correct one by claiming the city has
another name as ‘Same’
too. According to a legend (पौराणिक कथा), the emperor Barbarossa (बार्बरोसा) was once riding in the city and met
a peasant (किसान) girl. He asked her the name of the city after wishing her
‘God Bless You’. The girl answered ‘same to you sir’ only as she was munching a
bun (पाउरोटी) in her mouth. But the emperor
mistook the city name as ‘Same’. So they mark Wasserkopf excellent in
geography.
Finally, the mathematics master comes
forward to ask his question and declares (घोषणा गर्नु) about asking Wasserkopf an easy
question and a difficult question. First, he asks him an easy question on the
circumference {सर्कम्फ्रेन्स} (परिधि) of 109 degrees sided polyhedron {पोलीहेड्रन} (बहुफलक) with irrelevant (अप्रासंगिक) data for the calculation. Wasserkopf
gives an incorrect answer. The mathematics master gets angry and declares that
his answer is incorrect. So he tells that Wasserkopf deserves the refund of
tuition fees back. Then, he asks the exact amount which he has to get.
Wasserkopf without realizing the trap tells them the exact amount 5682 crowns
(A crown is a unit of currency used in the Czech Republic, Iceland, Norway,
Sweden and Denmark) and 38 hellers. At that time the mathematics master
declares that was his tough question and the answer is correct.
Thus by justifying all his answers to
be correct, they mark him distinction in all the subjects and throw him out of
the school. The play also shows the ability of the school teachers to manage
the absurd situation and how they tackle (सामना गर्नु) Wasserkopf without spoiling their
school’s reputation.