Eisenheim the Illusionist; Stephanie Anderson

Eisenheim the Illusionist

Eisenheim the Illusionist By: Steven Millhauser Summary-

Eisenheim the Illusioist A Short Story

Eisenheim is a magician, and the best of his time. He started out as a regular magician, but soon he started to amplify his tricks to confuse the audience's mind even more than normal. After he played two different people for an enormous act, he took a break. During this time he discovered more about himself and once he came back, he returned as a magician and an illusionist; one who performed acts that no one had seen before. These acts represented dark magic, and Eisenheim ended up feeding off of the audience's fear. Using this fear, he kept performing acts that became

scarier as his new talent was summoning and communicating with the dead. Once this act was performed a few times, a police officer was involved due to the suspicion that eisenheim was working for the devil and the audiences who would watch him were in danger. At the end of the story, Eisenheim himself turns into an apparition, leaving the audience and police officer in more shock and confusion then they were in before.

Setting- The story is set in a time when the Hapsburg Empire “was nearing the end of its long dissolution” as magicians and illusionists became increasingly popular (Stearns20). The late 19th century.

Hapsburg Empire before the collapse

Theme or important issue-

Profitting of the fear of others/abuse of power. During eisenheims time as a magician, he continually darkened his acts. Once he realized the fear it had inflicted on his audiences, he fed off of this. Once he realized people were interested in his darker acts, as well as terrified, he took advantage of this and expanded his show.

The Illusionist 2006 Director: Neil Burger Summary-

Eisenheim and Duchess von Teschen, Sophie, were childhood sweet hearts. They were from different income families so sophies family did not want her hanging around a poor boy. They were separated weeks after their relationship. Years later, Eisenheim emerges in Sophies neww town as the new magician. Sophie and Eisenheim then reconnect, but there is a problem that they need to take care of before they can be together. Sophie is engaged and needs to leave that relationship before she continues her relationship with Eisenheim. As Sophie

attempts to leave her fiance, he becomes enraged and violent. He goes after her and she is later found dead. As Eisenheim grieves and continually grows irritated as he knows the police put the wrong man in custody, he finds a new dark talent within himself. He has now figured out how to "raise the dead" so to say. He starts by raising kids that no one recognizes but then ups his talent to summon Sophie. She doesnt clearly state who killed her but said that it wasnt the guy who is in jail because the murderer was in the theater. After this Chief Inspector Uhl tried to arrest Eisenheim because of fraud and fails. He later tries to arrest him again during a show because he raised Sophie again, but this attempt went wrong as Eisenheim himself disapeared into thin air as he was then an apparition as well. At the end of the movie, Inspector Uhl puts together Eisenheims trick. Sophie never died, it was all planned. Blood was planted and he fed her a potion that would make her appear dead for a couple hours. Then when he dissapeared he would go to her, wherever she went when she "died". He framed Sophies fiance for the murder which lead to his secrets of overthrowing emperor and general staff being leaked to the throne itself. This causes leopald, sophies fiance, to kill himself which was not part of the

plan but it worked in there favor. The final scene shows Eisenheim greeting Sophie at a house and emerging in a hug.

Setting-

Vienna, Austria in the 1900's

Late 19th Century Vienna, Austria.

Theme or Important Issue-

This movie has over all the same theme as the short story; Profitting of the fear of others/abuse of power. He continually darkens his acts as he feeds off of the audiences fear and interest in the movie just like in the book, but there is an additional them within the movie. In the movie there is a theme of doing whatever it takes for the ones you love. In the movie, Eisenheim goes to extreme lengths to protect his lover, Sophie. He performs acts that no one would think to do to keep her safe.

Key differences between the short story and the movie -

Key similarities between the short story and the movie-

• The movie involved a love story when the short story involved challengers
• The short story gave more background information revolving around Eisenheim then the movie
• The short story focused more on the magic tricks themselves while the movie focused more on the romantic relationship between Eisenheim and Sophie
• In the short story, Eisenheim was never arrested. He was close to it but never actually was and the reason for the arrest was because people thought he served the devil. In the movie he was arrested once, let go, then almost got arrested again at the end of the movie. In addition, he was arrested for fraud
• When Eisenheimed dissapeared at the end in the short story, the story ended, but in the movie it showed what had happened to him
• The movie had an additional theme of doing whatever it takes for the people you love

• Both involved corrupt magic at the end
• Both explained some of Eisenheims tricks
• Both involved Inspector Uhl for the arrest of Eisenheim
• Both has a main theme of profitting off of the fear of others/abuse of power.
• The background that was shared about Eisenheim was relatively the same
• Eisenheim dissapered at the end

What universal theme(s) do the movie and short story address and how can they relate to todays problems? Explain.

Feeding off of people's fears and taking advantage of power given. During eisenheims time as a magician, he continually darkened his acts. Once he realized the fear it had inflicted on his audiences, he fed off of this. He made his acts darker and scarier. His talent now was summoning and talking with the dead. Once he realized people were interested in this as well as terrified, he took advantage of this and expanded his show. He

summoned more spirits and instead of the apparitions standing there and slightly responding to eisenheim, he made multiple of them appear at the same time and connect with each other. So instead of watching him communicate with the dead, they were now watching the dead; watching what they do “behind the curtain”. This lead people to believe he was working for the devil, some people were interested in it and some people were terrified. This can relate to today's problem of police brutality as recently too many police officers have been taking advantage of the power they have and have been using it to target people. An increasing number of people are being arrested and met with violence for no reason. Recently, “A [black and latino] second lieutenant in the U.S. Army” was pulled over for a traffic stop (Tom Foreman Jr.). Caron Nazario was met immediately with force. The two police officers on the scene “immediately drew their guns and pointed them at Nazario as he sat in his SUV” (Harper). As Caron stayed in the car, the officers grew irritated. “Nazario repeatedly asked what was going on but got no response. Frightened and unsure what to do, he told the officers he was scared to get out” (Harper). One officer responded by saying “yeah, you should be”. “The officers then attempted to pull Nazario out of the vehicle”, but when caron asked to call a police supervisor the officer “pepper sprayed Nazario multiple times'' (Harper). Because of the pepper spray, the 27 year old was temporarily blinded and had a burning sensation in

his lungs. In addition, his dog that was in the backseat began to choke as well. When Caron finally got out after fighting through pain and expressing that he was scared to even reach for his seatbelt the officer “responded with "knee-strikes" to his legs, knocking him to the ground… The two officers [then] struck him multiple times, then handcuffed and interrogated him” (Tom Foreman Jr.). Another example of this cruel abuse of power within the police system is about a woman who was arrested at a vigil for a fallen sister, Sarah Everard, who was abducted, raped, and killed by another police officer. “Patsy Stevenson was detained by police as officers clashed with attendees at the event organised to remember the life of the murder victim” (O'Reilly). “Stevenson was [only] one of several women led away by police in handcuffs - to shouts and screams from onlookers” (O'Reilly). When Stevenson was asked about why she was arrested and what the officers did she explained how she wasn't doing anything and how the officers were cruel and aggressive with her and many others. In her statement she said "I was arrested by police for standing there. I wasn’t doing anything, they threw me to the floor...Several police were on my back trying to arrest me. They arrested me in cuffs and dragged me away surrounded by 10 police officers.” (O'Reilly). These vicious and unwarranted arrests have been happening repeatedly over the past year and a half and it hasn't slowed down. These are just two people out of hundreds who have been forced under the abuse of police power. This connects to the theme of Eisenheim the Illusionist as one of the main important issues is about abuse of power. Just like how Eisenheim abused his power of magic to scare people, police men and women have been abusing their power to put away or detain people who they don't like because of skin color, or actions, even those that are not illegal. Although both the movie and short story included this theme, the movie also included the theme of doing whatever it takes to help and protect your loved ones. Eisenheim went through great lengths to protect sophie, and this can relate to how people are coming together to protect eachother from corupt police officers. Because of the abuse of power many cops have been acting on as stated above, protests across the world have happened. These protests dont just contain people of the same color and sex though, they include everyone. The people in these protests who are not of the colored community or are not the sex that is being targetted, are risking their lives and careers as well to stand in solidarity with the targeted.

What can someone learn from this story and/or movie? Just because an individual is given a specific amount of power doesn't mean they have the right to take advantage of that power to profit off of the fear of others. Just because Eisenheim had the power to scare people, didn't mean he should have taken advantage of that and caused more emotional trauma to people. Just because police officers have the power to arrest people, doesn't mean they get to abuse that power and arrest people because they don't like them or something that they are doing that isn't even illegal, like standing in solidarity at a vigil.

Works Cited-

Harper, Jane. “2 Windsor police officers threatened and assaulted a man during an illegal stop, lawsuit claims. And it's all on video.” pilotonline.com, The Virginian-Pilot, 08 April 2021, https://www.pilotonline.com/news/crime/vp-nw-windsor-police-20210408-a4ynzlmqpjgq3a755hlgpk4qqe-story.html. Accessed 29 April 2021. Millhauser, Steven. Eisenheim the Illusionist. 1998. O'Reilly, Luke. “Woman arrested at Sarah Everard vigil hits out at 'disgraceful' police.” Evening Standard, Evening Standard, 14 March 2021, https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/sarah-everard-vigil-woman-arrested-police-b924054.html. Accessed 29 April 2021. Stearns20. “The Fantastic in Fiction.” The Fantastic in Fiction, 31 October 2017, http://fif2.blog.sbc.edu/2017/10/31/steven-millhauser-eisenheim-the-illusionist/. Accessed 3 May 2021. (Stearns20) Tom Foreman Jr., Associated Press. “Armed officers suggest Black Army lieutenant would face execution during traffic stop: Lawsuit.” ABC7 Los Angeles, KABC-TV, 12 April 2021, https://abc7.com/virgina-police-pepper-spray-army-lieutenant-caron-nazario-video-black-at-gunpoint-arrested-virginia/10504779/. Accessed 29 April 2021.