Refund by Fritz Karinthy
About the Author
Fritz Karinthy (1887-1938) was a Hungarian satirical writer. He excelled as
a novelist, short story writer, poet, essayist, and playwright. Deeply
interested in natural sciences, he studied to be a teacher, but became a
journalist and joined the literary periodical Nyugat. Strongly
philosophically and humanistic in his outlook, he raised his powerful voice
against the barbarism and horrors of World War 1. His works such as That's
How you write (1912), Please Sir (1916), and Professor won him a lot of
recognition.
About 'Refund'
The play Refund written in 1998 is about a man of 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 learned nothing useful at
school and he is now good-for-nothing. This play was adopted by the American
play writer Percival wildlife for a general audience. Refunds bring out the
extraordinary sense of parody, and wordplay in karinthy's literary art. The
play is full of humor which deals with an extraordinarily absurd
situation.
Characters
Headmaster: He is the representation of the modern education system, who
works for 30 years and is self-satisfied. However, he is indifferent
and uncaring and is irritated by Wasserkopf.
Wasserkopf: He is the central character of the play. He is dejected and has
lost all hope of finding a job. He is so gullible that he
believes people when they tell him he knows nothing. It makes
him frustrated and angry.
Servant: He appears shortly at the beginning and end of the play
The Maths Teacher: Antagonist, shrewd, cunning, and alert person, who wants to defeat
Wasserkopf.
The History, Physics, and Geography Masters are introduced with the author’s direction. They are characteristic figures
whose oddness is exaggerated. Wasserkopf. Keeps their distinct odd
names.
Setting: The setting of the play is the school where Wasserkopf studied 18
years ago.
A plot overview of the Act Play
Exposition: Wasserkopf could not sustain his job through the school
certificate.
Rising Action: One of his friends suggested he ask for a refund of his tuition
fees.
Climax: There was a clash between Wasserkopf, the principal, and other
teachers.
Failing Action: Teachers re-examined him and justified that he got excellent
results.
Resolution: His plan failed and he returned back empty-handed.
Assimilation: At the surface, this play is quite funny and witty; compelling you to root
for the teachers and their unity as you also mock Wasserkopf for blaming his
inability on teachers that perhaps did nothing wrong. Well, that is why it's
only surface. And then, we dig deep and come to a realization; Wasserkopf is
indeed a victim. A victim of a rather inefficient education system; a system
unfortunately prevalent even today in many parts of the world and it is this
very education system that this play satires. Our education system
prioritizes memorization rather than attributes like concept build-up and
creative thinking. The school tries to cram information that students will
never apply in their professional or personal lives. In the same breath,
they're also killing creativity. Everyone is talented in something but our
toxic education system doesn't value and doesn't foster that something if it
is not related to academics. Wasserkopf may have been talented at something.
But we'll never know because his school killed it, it killed his creativity
trying to cram up useless information he never really needed.
So what does this education system mean for the students? Well, they are
going to find it extremely difficult to navigate their lives. With the
concepts like taxes and budget unclear, they cannot really take a step
towards economic stability earlier. Secondly, it also means they'll not find
a job because jobs look for creative thinkers who have a sound concepts. Our
education system also advocates for exams to be a reflection of your true
"genius". As such students only study for the sake of doing good in the exam
and getting a straight 'A' grade sheet, not to actually learn and apply
anything. The teachers aren't at fault; they are qualified in their subjects
but when the system dictates you to do something, there is simply a limit to
what you can do. This play directly shows the inefficiency of the education
system but also subtly hints at the faults of students who don't make out
the most of the resources they have. Fritz Karinthy has summed up the dark
reality of our education system and its impacts on the students in a witty
manner through skillful use of vocabulary.
Summary
Wasserkopf, a former student, arrived at the school where he studied 18
years ago. He argued with the principal that the education got from the
school never made him intelligent and able to get a job or any other
profession. So it was worthless to him. While he was wandering after he was
kicked off from his last job, his friend Leaderer, advised him to go to the
school and ask for his tuition fee back. Then, he went to his school and the
principal to refund his tuition fee. The principal was shocked to hear his
absurd argument. He had never heard of anything like that in his thirty
years of teaching career. As it was impossible to persuade the student, the
principal summoned the teacher to organize the re-examination to decide
whether he had learned anything or not. All the teachers agreed to pass him
by asking easy questions. However, wasserkopf was sure he was going to fail
the examination. The history teacher asked, "How long did thirty years of
war last"? Wasserkopf answered that it lasted seven ears. The history
teacher claimed that his answer was based on modern research. At the same
time, the mathematics teacher added the theory of relativity and the quantum
theory. He further explained how Wasserkopf's answer was correct. Then the
physics teacher asked, "Do clocks in church steeples really become smaller
as you walk away from them, or do they merely appear to become smaller
because of an optical illusion? "On asking such questions, when Wasserkopf
called the physics teacher an ass, the master said that the answer was
correct because an ass does not have an illusion of vision. Therefore,
wasserkopf had given a metaphorical explanation that human being has an
optical illusion, as a result, the clock appeared smaller as Wasserkopf
walked away from it. After that geography teacher asked what city of the
same name was the capital of the German province of Brunswick? Wasserkopf
tried to fail the exam b answering it as "same". The geography teacher
provided him right by telling the legend behind the name of the city.
Finally, the mathematics teacher asked him two questions. He answered the
first question wrongly and became happy thinking that he was going to get a
refund. Immediately, the teacher asked him to calculate the amount the
school owed him. Wasserkopf calculated the amount correctly for which the
teacher congratulated him for answering his second question correctly. Then
the principal published Wasserkopf's result saying that he passed with
distinction. The play ended with the principal's remark it would be their
proudest boast that a pupil simply cannot fail in that school.
Interpretation
Refund is a one-act play that revolves around an ex-student of a school
returning back to demand a refund for all his fees since he believes that
the professors in the school have done nothing to improve his education.
Wassserkopf, the student meets the principal and makes his demand citing
reasons such as not knowing any financial or practical knowledge. He doesn’t
know about the economy and he starts asking questions, so we can know that
he is an uninformed person. After listening to his friend Leaderer, he goes
to the school to ask for a refund. We can say that he is a frustrated man; a
man frustrated with his inability to keep a job and he takes it out on the
school that caused the inability. He takes the frustration out by behaving
rudely with all his teachers, teachers who did not prepare him for real life
as he so believes. The principal and the teachers come to an agreement to
conduct an examination and agree all his answers were correct and thus
begins a humorous competition. The teachers of different subjects ask
different questions and each time Wasserkopf answers wrong only for the
teachers to act cunningly and make it seem that it was indeed correct. The
teachers win here as they made Wasserkopf pass the examination either by
hook or crook although he was incompetent and ineligible for it. It presents
the current educational system which does not result-oriented but focuses on
passing the examination without teaching the norms, values, and practical
knowledge required in later life. I think Wasserkopf couldn’t sustain any
job due to his ill-mannered behavior and of course lack of practical
knowledge but who is to blame for it? The education system of course On a
lighter note; the teachers prove their quality as the physics teacher always
talked about the theories and principles of physics as he very satirically
talked about the law of conservation of energy theory of relativity. Maths
teacher acts as an antagonist in Wasserkopf's life as he very perfectly
failed his plan for Wasserkopf by making him pass. Similarly, the geography
and history masters are pretty well-versed in their specialty subjects.
Critical thinking
In this play, he disrespects his teacher. For what purpose? He wants
a refund of his fees and he believes his teacher did him no good. If we pay
attention to the play, we can see that Wasserkopf thinks this is the only
way to solve his problems. He was frustrated enough that he didn’t care
about what he was saying and how he was reacting. Wasserkopf believes his
stupidity was the reason for his problems and the school was responsible for
said stupidity. (Here the stupidity is his lack of practical knowledge) His
life was full of problems and he tries to solve them. He directly tries to
deal with what he thinks is the root cause of his problems. However, he
couldn’t. In my opinion, the first step to solving the problem is to be calm
and analyze the rational steps. If Wasserkopf had thought about why
Leaderer; his friend had the skills despite going to school and he didn't;
maybe he wouldn't be humiliated. If he could not figure it out, he could
have asked for the help of the teachers to guide him, then maybe he could
have gotten some help. Therefore obviously he could have some ideas to deal
with problems. On the other side, we can see how teachers try to get
him to pass the exam and they succeed. They proved all answers as being
correct even though they were wrong. As mentors, it's their responsibility
to guide their students; be they former or present. However, they did not
even try. They got irritated enough that they forgot their responsibility.
If either of the characters; teachers or Wasserkopf tried to reason
properly, Wasserkopf would have certainly found some answers and ideas to
improve.