T mann mario and the wizard summary. What did Thomas Mann warn about in Mario and the Wizard? Artistic features of the novel “Mario and the Wizard”

It’s painful to remember our stay in Toppo di Venere and the whole atmosphere there. From the very beginning, there was irritation, excitement, tension in the air, and in the end this. the story of the terrible Cipolla, in whose face, in a fatal and at the same time impressive way, everything that was specifically malignant in this mood seemed to find its embodiment and threateningly condensed. The fact that our children were present at the terrible denouement (a denouement, as it seemed to us later, predetermined and, in essence, natural) was, of course, regrettable and impermissible, but we were misled by the hoax resorted to by this very unusual person. Thank God, the children did not understand when the acting ended and the drama began, and we did not lead them out of the happy delusion that it was all a game.

Torre is located about fifteen kilometers from Porteclemente, one of the most popular resorts on the Tyrrhenian Sea, metropolitanly elegant and crowded most of the year, with an elegant esplanade lined with hotels and shops along the sea, with colorful booths, flags of sand castles and tanned bodies, a wide beach and noisy entertainment venues. Since the beach, bordered by a grove of pine trees, overlooked by nearby mountains, is covered along the entire coast with the same fine sand, comfortable and spacious, it is not surprising that a less noisy competitor soon appeared a little further away. Torre di Venere, where, however, you will look around in vain for the tower to which the village owes its name, is like a branch of the neighboring large resort and for a number of years was a paradise for the few, a haven for connoisseurs of nature, not vulgarized by the secular crowd. But, as is usual with such corners, the silence long ago had to retreat even further along the coast, to Marina Petriera and God knows where; the light, as we know, seeks silence and expels it, pouncing on it with ridiculous lust and imagining that it is able to combine with it and that where it is, it can also be; what can I say, even having set up his fair in her abode, he is ready to believe that silence still remains.

So Torre, although he is still calmer and more modest than Porteclemente, has already become fashionable among Italians and visitors from other countries.

People no longer travel to the international resort or do not travel to the same extent, but this does not prevent it from remaining a noisy and crowded international resort; they go a little further, to Torre, it’s even more luxurious, and besides, it’s cheaper, and the attractive power of these advantages remains unchanged, although the advantages themselves have disappeared. Torre acquired a “Grand Hotel”, countless guesthouses with pretensions and simpler ones proliferated, so that the owners and tenants of villas and gardens in a pine grove, above the sea, can no longer boast of peace on the beach; in July - August there is exactly the same picture as in Porteclemente: the entire beach is teeming with buzzing, noisy, joyfully cackling bathers, whose skin is torn off from their necks and shoulders in rags by the raging sun; flat-bottomed, poisonously colored boats with children sway in the sparkling blue, and the sonorous names with which mothers who are afraid of losing them call out to their children saturate the air with hoarse anxiety; and to this add the peddlers of oysters, soft drinks, flowers, coral jewelry, cornetti al burre, who, stepping over the outstretched arms and legs of the sunbathers, also offer their goods in guttural and unceremonious Southern voices.

This is what the beach in Torre looked like when we arrived – colorful to say the least, but we still decided that we had arrived too early. It was mid-August, the Italian season was still in full swing - not the best time for foreigners to appreciate the charm of this place; What kind of crowd is there after lunch in open cafes on the promenade along the sea, at least?

“Esquisito”, where we sometimes went to sit and where we were served by Mario, the same Mario I am going to talk about! You can hardly find a free table, and the orchestras - each, not wanting to reckon with the others, plays their own! In addition, just after lunch, the public from Porteclemente arrives every day, for, of course, Torre is a favorite destination for country walks for the restless vacationers of a large resort, and, due to the fault of the Fiats rushing back and forth, the bushes of laurels and oleanders along the sides of the highway leading from there are covered, like snow, an inch layer of white dust - a strange, but disgusting picture.

In fact, you need to go to Torre di Venere in September, when the general public has left and the resort is empty, or in May, before the sea warms up enough for a southerner to risk plunging into it. True, even in the off-season it is not empty, but it is much less noisy and not so filled with Italians. English, German, and French speech predominates under the awnings of cabins on the beach and in the dining rooms of boarding houses, while back in August, at least in the Grand Hotel, where we were forced to stay for lack of private addresses, there was such a dominance of Florentines and Romans that a foreigner feels not only like an outsider, but also like a second-class guest.

We discovered this with some annoyance on the very first evening upon arrival, when we went down to dinner at the restaurant and asked the head waiter to show us a free table. There was, in fact, nothing to object to the table assigned to us, but we were captivated by the glassed-in veranda overlooking the sea, which, like the hall, was filled, but where there were still empty seats and light bulbs under red lampshades were burning on the tables. Such festivity delighted our little ones, and we, in the simplicity of our souls, declared that we preferred to dine on the veranda - thereby, as it turned out, revealing our complete ignorance, for they explained to us with some embarrassment that this luxury was intended for “our clients,” “ ai nostri client! To our clients? Therefore, to us. We are not some one-day butterflies, but boarders who have arrived for three weeks or a month. However, we did not want to insist on clarifying the difference between us and the clientele who have the right to eat under the light of red lights, and ate our pranzo at a modestly and casually lit table in the common room - a very mediocre lunch, impersonal and tasteless hotel standard; the kitchen of the boarding house "Eleanor", located some ten steps further from the sea, later seemed to us incomparably better.

We moved there after only three or four days, even before we had properly settled into the Grand Hotel - and not at all because of the veranda and the red lights: the children, immediately making friends with the waiters and bellhops, wildly enjoying the sea, very soon and forgot to think about the colorful bait. But with some of the regulars on the veranda, or, rather, with the hotel management, who groveled before them, one of those conflicts immediately arose that can ruin the entire stay at the resort from the very beginning. Among the visitors was the Roman nobility, a certain Principe X and his family, these gentlemen’s room was located next door to ours, and the princess, a high-society lady and at the same time a passionately loving mother, was frightened by the residual effects of whooping cough, which both of our children had suffered shortly before and were weak echoes of which still occasionally disturbed the usually undisturbed sleep of our youngest son at night. The essence of this disease is not very clear, which leaves room for all sorts of prejudices, and therefore we were not at all offended by our elegant neighbor because she shared the widespread opinion that whooping cough is contracted acoustically - in other words, she was simply afraid of a bad example for her children . Proud as a woman and reveling in her nobility, she turned to the management, after which the manager, dressed in the usual frock coat, hastened with great regret to inform us that in these circumstances our relocation to the hotel wing was absolutely necessary. It was in vain that we assured him that this childhood illness was in the last stage of extinction, that it had actually been overcome and no longer posed any danger to others.

Thomas Mann

Mario and the Wizard

It’s painful to remember our stay in Toppo di Venere and the whole atmosphere there. From the very beginning, there was irritation, excitement, tension in the air, and in the end this. the story of the terrible Cipolla, in whose face, in a fatal and at the same time impressive way, everything that was specifically malignant in this mood seemed to find its embodiment and threateningly condensed. The fact that our children were present at the terrible denouement (a denouement, as it seemed to us later, predetermined and, in essence, natural) was, of course, regrettable and unacceptable, but we were misled by the hoax resorted to by this very unusual person. Thank God, the children did not understand when the acting ended and the drama began, and we did not lead them out of the happy delusion that it was all a game.

Torre is located about fifteen kilometers from Porteclemente, one of the most popular resorts on the Tyrrhenian Sea, elegant and crowded most of the year, with an elegant esplanade lined with hotels and shops along the sea, with colorful cabins, sand castle flags and tanned bodies, wide the beach and noisy entertainment venues. Since the beach, bordered by a grove of pine trees, overlooked by nearby mountains, is covered along the entire coast with the same fine sand, comfortable and spacious, it is not surprising that a less noisy competitor soon appeared a little further away. Torre di Venere, where, however, you will look around in vain for the tower to which the village owes its name, is like a branch of the neighboring large resort and for a number of years was a paradise for the few, a haven for connoisseurs of nature, not vulgarized by the secular crowd. But, as is usual with such corners, the silence long ago had to retreat even further along the coast, to Marina Petriera and God knows where; the light, as we know, seeks silence and expels it, pouncing on it with ridiculous lust and imagining that it is able to combine with it and that where it is, it can also be; what can I say, even having set up his fair in her abode, he is ready to believe that silence still remains.

So Torre, although he is still calmer and more modest than Porteclemente, has already become fashionable among Italians and visitors from other countries.

The only concession we made was permission to bring the case to the court of medicine; the hotel doctor - and only he, and not someone invited by us - could be called to resolve the issue. We agreed to this condition because we had no doubt that in this way the princess would calm down and we would not have to move. The doctor arrives, he turns out to be an honest and worthy servant of science. He examines the baby, finds that he is completely healthy, and denies any danger. We believe we have the right to consider the matter settled, when suddenly the manager declares that, despite the doctor’s conclusion, we must vacate the room and move into the outbuilding.

Such servility outraged us. It is unlikely that the treacherous stubbornness we encountered came from the princess herself. Most likely, the obsequious manager simply did not dare to report the doctor’s report to her. Be that as it may, we notified him that we preferred to leave altogether, and immediately, and began to pack. We could do this with a light heart, because in the meantime we managed to casually visit the Eleonora boarding house, which immediately attracted us with its friendly, family-like appearance, and met its owner, Signora Angiolieri, who made the most favorable impression on us.

Mario and the Wizard - novella, published in 1929.

"Mario and the Wizard" analysis

The main idea of "Mario and the Wizard"— condemnation of fascism and dictatorships in Europe at that time.

Genre "Mario and the Wizard"- short story. In a work of small content, through an intense, dynamic plot - events during the narrator's rest, an unexpected denouement of Cipolla's session, not only the spiritual and psychological atmosphere of the 20-30s in Italy, in Europe, but also a way out of this situation is recreated.

Mario and the Wizard Theme: reproduction of a disturbing atmosphere imbued with the ideas of fascism

The work as a political allegory. The essence of the allegory is an internal comparison of a certain phenomenon with another, where a specific image is a form of disclosure of an abstract idea, judgment, concept. This particular image in the novella is Cipolla, whose actions make it possible to imagine the policy of the fascists, the policy of the totalitarian regime.

Scene. The Italian resort Toppe di Venere means Tower of Venus. Venus is the goddess of love. This name is associated with the pinnacle of love, with the city protected by the goddess Venus herself. Toppe di Venere is a city that was considered an idyllic corner for the few, a repository for those who love peace. The city was attractive due to its former silence, “which has not been here for a long time.”

The main characters of "Mario and the Wizard": The narrator and his family, the waiter Mario, Mrs. Angiolieri (owner of the boarding house "Eleanor"), Giovanotto, the hypnotist Cipollo

Narrative form. First person - narrator; a subjective account of an eyewitness to an event who tells it after some time.

Composition “Mario and the Wizard”

Part I - Acquaintance with the Toppe di Venere resort.

Part II - Depiction of the events that happened to the narrator’s family.

Part III - Cipolla's session, the culmination of which is an indecent dance of hypnotized spectators, and the denouement is the death of Cipolla.

The first part organically absorbs the other two: the reader learns that dramatic events occurred during the narrator’s rest. All these parts are united by the narrator's story.

Two plot plans. The external one is the story about Cipolla’s session, and the internal, symbolic one is the type of “strong personality” explored in the “magician” phenomenon.

Two worlds. The world of children and the world of adults: the narrator tries to protect children from dramatic events in the world of adults. Day - Night: the second part tells about what happens during the day, and the third - in the darkness of the August night.

Main thought. The influence of the inhumane essence of the totalitarian system on universal human norms of behavior, faith in the victory of healthy principles.

Problems "Mario and the Wizard"

Moral and ethical issues:

changes in people's behavior, universal moral values, relationships between people;
the problem of human destinies;
the problem of good and evil of the inhumane essence of the ideology of totalitarianism, Nazism and fascism, manipulation of the crowd, depersonalization of people;
internal freedom of the individual;
human rights to choice in extreme situations;
the ratio of the crowd and the tyrant;
how could society allow such a confident advance of fascism across European countries, is it capable of stopping this madness

Conflict: good and evil, impulse towards freedom and enslavement, intelligent healthy principles and demonism, harmony and chaos, light and darkness.

Artistic features of the novel “Mario and the Wizard”

Modernist ideological content with an outwardly realistic form.

— Signs of realism: a lot of descriptions (description of Italian resorts), psychological analysis (experiences, thoughts, state of mind of the narrator and his family), naturalistic details (depiction of Cipolla’s victims).

— Features of modernism in the work: landscapes-symbols, allegories, based on a natural picture, show generalizations of the form of human existence; picturesqueness of the work, sharpening of contrasts (impressionism), images of characters, moods, feelings of heroes (expressionistic elements), symbolism (Cipolla's session and a description of the magician's appearance, and his death), philosophical and allegorical.

Essay based on a novella T. Mann "Mario and the Wizard". German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (1929), author of philosophical and intellectual novels, essays, short stories. The theme of art and the personality of the artist is visible in his work. T. Mann's popularity was brought by his first novel “Buddenbrooks” (1901), for which he would eventually be awarded the Nobel Prize. In the 40s, T. Mann created his best modern novels: “The Magic Mountain”, “Lotte in Weimar”, “Doctor Faustus”. The work “Death in Venice” is considered a masterpiece of short stories. The writer raised the problems of the fight against totalitarianism, in his works he managed to convey the alarming atmosphere of the pre-war situation in Europe; he believed that every person has the right to express his own “I”, to preserve himself as an individual. In the short story “Mario and the Wizard” (1938), the writer through allegory showed how strong individuals try to manipulate the crowd, how a totalitarian regime distorts personality.

Novella by Thomas Mann I was amazed. I understand that in the human world, injustice, good and evil, honor and dishonor, death and the thirst for life have always lived and will live side by side. But when pictures of contempt for people appear so vividly in front of you, even mockery of them, undisguised contempt, you want to scream, resist, awaken the sleepy kingdom of the sleeping brains of those who do not want to see how they are openly and shamelessly zombified. In a short work, T. Mann, a German writer and humanist of the 20th century, managed to recreate the alarming atmosphere of the pre-war era - before the start of World War II. Events take place in Italy. It was from this country that the spread of fascism began, this “brown plague” that affected people. And not only individuals, but also nations!

T. Mann in the short story "Mario and the Wizard" shows a hypnotist who went on stage to entertain people. He has a silver whip hidden under his clothes. Are people really animals that a whip is used on them? But no one pays attention to this. A magician, a magician, a magician, a trickster - that’s what interests and attracts people. They wait for entertainment and do not notice how they are losing themselves. The hypnotist reveals his complete power over the audience: some woman is already traveling around India, someone is dancing merrily, someone is writhing in unbearable pain - and all this is only because Cipollo ordered, ordered, wanted. He controls people, takes away their own will.

And they laugh. Cipollo calls the waiter Mario, this simple, sincere, bashful boy, onto the stage, and publicly penetrates into the secret of his love. The magician forced the young man to imagine that in front of him was his beloved girl Sylvester; and Mario, in deceptive happiness, kisses the ugly hunchback...

A moment of bliss - the sound of a whip
and Mario "awake, from him."
And people laugh...

Everyone's having fun, the hypnotist’s spell envelops people in a thick fog who don’t even think about what’s happening. They are having fun. T. Mann so vividly described the performance of the magical virtuoso, the “master of entertainment”, that you want to run away from this evening so as not to see or hear how the “respected audience of Trre di Venere” admires the “amazing” “stunning phenomena”. It’s good that at least Mario didn’t allow himself to be laughed at. “Already at the bottom, Mario suddenly turned around, raised his hand up as he ran, and two short deafening shots broke through the applause and laughter.”

Mario killed the wizard. Some people don’t understand: why? And for the fact that Cipollo used it as some kind of thing, for the fact that the magician does not take into account human dignity, for the fact that everyone has the right to their own secret. Who allowed Chipollo to get into a person’s soul? Did he have the right to do this?

At the literary Mario there was a prototype - a waiter with whom such a trick was actually performed on stage, but the real “hero of the day” did not suffer from this at all. The writer was haunted by everything - he wanted to reach the minds and hearts of people, to open their eyes to the horrors that such mass deception of people entails. The Italians were “hypnotized” by Mussolini, the Germans by Hitler, the Soviet people by Stalin, there are such “hypnotists” in our lives today. All of them had and still have a symbolic whip with which they lead the crowd.

But if we- we are free people and want to live in a democratic state, we must learn to live without coercion and without whips, to see people as equals, to respect each other. The meaning of Mario’s rebellion is precisely this, he seems to be saying: “People, come to your senses, since you are people!” With his shot, Mario knocks down the arrogance of “superhumans”, wakes up the sleepy, encourages those who are still thinking about an active position in life.

“Mario and the Wizard” characteristics of the heroes of the novel by Thomas Mann

"Mario and the Wizard" characteristics of the heroes

"Mario and the Wizard" characteristics of the narrator

The image of the narrator. The narrator is a thinking, intellectual person who is worried about the changes he sees in Italy. He repeatedly reminds that these events take place in the country of Homer, drawing an analogy between the culture of Italy, which was the cradle of Europe, and Italy, which became the center of fascism. The narrator reacts painfully to manifestations of evil. This is a philosopher, analyst, humanist, respectable person, does not perceive cruelty, violence

"Mario and the Wizard" characteristics of Cipolla

Cipolla is portrayed in the unity of his two guises - as a “strong personality,” that is, an image associated with the political realities of the 20-30s, and as a semi-fantastic character, in tune with evil wizards from ancient legends. These hypostases are already found in the description of the magician’s appearance. His face amazes with the stern sharpness of his features, his movements with energy and self-confidence, his manner of behavior with the audacity of a man accustomed to rule. At the same time, this hunchback in a cavalier costume resembles an 18th-century fairground charlatan. This duality of the hero is emphasized by two details of his performance: Cipolla conquers the “experimental subjects” to his will and replenishes his supply of demonic power.

Each session of Cipolla’s “black magic” is aimed at conquering the audience, breaking their will, destroying all signs of individuality in them, and establishing total domination over them. At the same time, T. Mann is interested in the psychology of society’s capitulation to a force that is disastrous for it. The vast majority of the public is an amorphous mass, which Cipolla actually fascinates with his supernatural gift and at the same time deceives with his poisonous demagoguery.

Cipolla skillfully plays on the nerves of the national feeling of the crowd. As the exposition of the novel shows, absolutely everyone in Torre di Venere is susceptible to national-patriotic hysteria. Children are sick who, through twisted patriotic ideas, have lost their natural ability to find mutual language with foreign peers. The authorities are sick, accusing parents of neglecting the laws of morality and hospitality of Italy just because they allowed their eight-year-old daughter to run naked a few meters to the sea. The hypnotist and the audience are united by the “idea of the nation,” which was one of the components of fascist ideology.

Mann reveals a not obvious, but important connection between the “owner of the crowd,” who is the hypnotist, and the crowd itself. In the part of the session where Cipolla guesses thoughts, his amazing ability to be filled with the energy of the audience, to feel its smallest emotional impulses, turns out.

The writer leads the reader to the conclusion that a “strong personality” is not just a person capable of controlling the human masses, but also an ideal conductor of their conscious and unconscious desires. Therefore, the advancement of such a person to the pinnacle of power is not only a consequence of his own efforts or someone else’s patronage. It is also an indicator of the spiritual climate of a society or, so to speak, a flesh-and-blood response to the need of this society to be a mass directed by a “leader.”

So, at first glance, the pathetic, jester-like crippled hunchback Cipolla forces young, strong and beautiful young men to obey his will. Thanks to his great hypnotic power, he is able to impose his will on the crowd. In this way, the hypnotist achieves boundless submission, respect and recognition of his strength and power, reminiscent of an evil wizard.

The novella depicts Cipolla's hypnotic session, where he demonstrates his extraordinary ability to conquer people through hypnosis. His goal has nothing in common with the goals of ordinary digital magicians, designed to give the audience a good mood. The main thing for Cipolla is mockery of people, demonstration of his power over everyone present.

Enjoying his own power, he exposes their holy feelings to ridicule.

But the problem lies not only with Cipollo, but also with the crowd itself. The phenomenon of the “leader” and the phenomenon of the crowd are two sides of one phenomenon, which can be called the phenomenon of power.

The “leader” needs the masses to implement his plans, and the crowd, for its part, feels the need to obey, it is always ready to become controlled by an army of like-minded people if a person appears who is capable of uniting the masses with his will, ideology, and willingness to take responsibility.

The audience recognizes “one of their own” in the “naughty man” and supports him, approving everything he does with applause. It is their support, their belief in his “exclusivity,” their condescension “to his little shortcomings” that gives the hypnotist power over the “crowd.” Cipolla humiliates people more and more, even mocks them, but the audience no longer notices this.

The angry and pompous Cipolla, using the power of hypnosis (ideological), mocks his victims, forcing them to make funny movements and freeze in humiliating poses. He experiments on the defenseless souls of people who are under his power; their innermost thoughts arise naked. Cipolla - or rather a mirror of totalitarianism - selected people for his dirty manipulations under pressure and his own will. He said to Giovanotto: “I already noticed you. I like people like you better because they might be needed.”

This ruthless wizard, who has not a drop of humanity or conscience, with the power of his magic turns many people into automata, submissive to his satanic will.

"Mario and the Wizard" characterization by Giovanotto

Using the example of Giovanotto, the writer shows how, under the influence of a magician-hypnotist, the destruction of personality occurs: impudent and arrogant, he, having experienced humiliation in front of the “crowd,” is ready to humiliate anyone. It is Giovanotto, Cipolla’s first oppositionist, who at the end of the story becomes his first assistant.

The magician forced Giovanotto, a young man who hoped for Cipolla's greeting to the public, to “show ... his tongue to the very root”, gave him severe colic in his stomach - “the young man slowly raised his hands, crossed them, pressed them to his stomach, His body leaned forward and began to bend lower and lower, almost to the ground, his legs turned his heels outward, his knees came together, and Cipolla insultingly called him “a dirty fool,” “salt fish,” “sea turtle.”

"Mario and the Wizard" characterization of Mario's image

Mario is the son of a small clerk and a washerwoman, a guy of about 20, strong, plump, short-haired, with green-yellow misty eyes and a flat nose covered with freckles.

Portrait of Mario: “Imagine a strong guy of about twenty. Short-haired, with a low forehead and heavy eyelids over hazy gray eyes with green and yellow tints. I know well what his eyes are like, because we often talked to him. The upper part of the face with a flat nose and freckles... with thick lips, between which, when he spoke, wet teeth were visible; those lips and eyes gave his face an expression of naive melancholy, which is why we sympathized with Mario. His appearance did not seem simple at all, primarily thanks to his narrow, good hands, aristocratic even for a southerner - it’s nice to be served by such hands.”

Attention is focused on facial expression, which indicates what kind of shock must be experienced in order to carry out such an act in the finale. The antithesis emphasizes the antagonism of the wizard and the waiter with a system of contrasting details: eyes, hands, appearance, physique.

Mario “... thought for a while and forgot everything in the world. And then he hurried to smooth over his guilt with helpfulness. He behaved importantly, not gloomily, without any politeness; rather, he didn’t even try to be polite, because he didn’t hope that anyone would like him.”

“The whole evening, with his arms crossed or thrust into his pockets, he stood ... carefully, but not very cheerfully, watching the scene, hardly understanding well what was happening there. He was clearly unhappy that at the end they also invited him to participate in the play.” And when Cipolla beckoned him with his finger, then “... he obeyed. This was his professional habit; and besides, apparently, psychologically it could not have happened that such a simple guy as him would not listen to Cipolla.”

When the magician began to talk to Mario about how good it was that he came for the evening and “wrapped such a beautiful scarf around his neck... few girls... could resist him...,” Mario shrugged. “Or maybe with that movement he wanted to hide his true feelings...” Mario’s good human qualities appeared when he tried to help Cipollo determine his former profession: “But before that, I was a salesman in Porto Clemente for some time,” he added, as if making excuses. In his words there was a purely human desire to help the clairvoyant, to give him a guiding thread.”

When Cipollo said that Mario was sad because of love, the guy shook his head decisively. But the gentleman, having chosen the most great topic, which he had never touched before, allegedly read the name of his beloved, which Giovanotto shouted, and quickly drew her verbal portrait: “heavenly angel.” Saying passionate words, he began to attract Mario: “It’s time for you to see and recognize me, Mario, my beloved...” It seemed to Mario that this was his beloved “Sylvestra...” he whispered in sincere delight, “Kiss me!” “Said the hunchback... The illusion caused a feeling of boundless happiness... The hunchback slammed his whip... and Mario, waking up, recoiled from him.”

The young man received cruel humiliation and felt terrible pain: “He stood with his eyes staring into emptiness, leaning back with his whole body and pressing first one or the other hand to his defiled lips, suddenly hit himself on the temples with his knuckles, turned around and rushed down the stairs... . Already at the bottom, Mario suddenly turned around as he ran, raised his hand up, and two short, deafening shots burst through the applause and laughter.”

Mario's shot is natural. He put an end to the evil spell of the “strong personality”, and showed the prospect of inevitable punishment for any owners of the crowd: “A terrible, fatal outcome. And yet he brought liberation - that’s how I felt then, that’s how I feel now, and I can’t do otherwise.”

Nobody likes to be not only deceived, but also exposed to ridicule in front of everyone. It's hard to find a greater humiliation. Therefore, Mario finds only one opportunity to restore his self-esteem - to kill the hypnotist. Before the event at the performance, we learn little about this man, we know practically only that he serves in the Grand Hotel, from where a family of vacationers were thrown out for nothing, but unlike other employees, they only recognize the power of money and force, and behaves like a normal person. man and even became friends with an eight-year-old girl, who unwittingly became the cause of a big scandal. All we know is that he did not succumb to the other form of mass hypnosis that fascinated most of the inhabitants of Torre. Mario's dignity and intelligence turn out to be stronger than hypnosis.

He becomes a killer - but also a winner. Murder was his only option. And not only for him - there are crimes that can only be stopped by the use of force. In order to stop another, mass hypnosis, it is also necessary to destroy the device that performed it.