Refund - One Act Play:

Refund - Fritz Karinthy

Posted by  Jana  at  4:42 AM  Labels: One Act Play

The play refund is full of humour which deals with an extraordinarily ludicrous
situation. The main character in the play is Wasserkopf. He is forty years old. He
could not get any employment and wherever he went the people told him that he is fit
for nothing and nothing worth while he has learnt when he was studying.

One day he met a Lederer and asked him about his business. When the Lederer told
him about foreign exchange and Hungarian money, he was not able to understand
anything and started asking questions about foreign exchange to the Lederer. For
which the Lederer said when you don’t know the silly thing what have you studied,
you better go to your school and get your tuition fees back. Wasserkopf who was
jobless and didn’t have any finance, this idea sounded something beneficial to him
and so he went to the school where he studied once.

When he asks for the refund of his tuition fees, the principal is shocked because after
eighteen years he has come to the school thinking that he has learnt nothing
worthwhile and so he can get his tuition fees back.

The principal is in a peculiar situation now and he calls for an urgent meeting with all
other staff members. They decided to keep a re-examination for Wasserkopf and
agreed that whatever answers he gives weather it is right or wrong they will prove
him right. One by one each teacher questions him and justified his wrong answer to be
correct one and they mark him excellent. Though Wasserkopf gives wrong answers
and use abuse words to each teacher, they don’t show their anger because they have to
prove him as an excellent student to chuck him out.

At least the mathematics master asks him a difficult question and an easy question.
For the easy question he gives wrong answer and the master gets angry and says that
he has failed on his examination so he should be given his tuition fees back. The
master says that we have decided to give you your tuition fees back and now can you
tell as the exact amount which we have to give you. Wasserkopf without knowing that
he is going to fall into their trap gives them the list of exact amount. So the
mathematics master says that was my difficult question to give the exact amount of
your tuition fees for which you gave the right answer. 
Now he is proved excellent in the entire subject and they throw him out without
allowing him to say anything further. The play is full of humour and full of ludicrous
situation. It also shows the ability of the teachers to manage the situation and how
they tackle Wasserkopf without spoiling the reputation of their school.

The Refund is an unusual story. A student who was a bad performer in school comes
back to the school as a young man and wants a refund of all the fees that he paid. He
jeers his professors, calling them names and tells them that they were as much “good
for nothings” as he was and since he did not derive any value from them, it is only
rightful that he be paid back all his tuition. He also threatens the school with legal
action if they don’t return his money. The Principal is livid, but the Maths teacher
sizes up the situation quickly and proposes a solution.

She says that each of the teachers would administer an oral quiz to him and if he gets
even one question right, then he is deemed to have passed all his exams and so he will
not be entitled to any refund, otherwise he can be given a refund if he fails to answer
ALL of the questions correctly. According to her plan, every professor should ask him
two questions – one easy and the other hard. The young man agrees to this proposition
since he is determined to get his money and so he looks forward to answering every
question incorrectly even if he knows the right answers to some or all of them. So,
one by one, the teachers quiz him – the Biology professor, the English professor, the
Chemistry professor and the Physics professor but he answers all of them incorrectly
and is quite delighted at the progress he is making. The Principal feels uneasy but the
Maths professor assures her that she can handle it. Finally it is the turn of the Maths
professor. She says she is going to ask him the easy question first.

Her first question is, “If we represent the speed of light by X and the distance of the
star Sirius from the Sun by Y, what is the circumference of a one-hundred-and-nine-
sided regular polyhedron whose surface area coincides with that of the hip-pocket of a
state railway employee, whose wife has been deceiving him for two years and eleven
months with a regimental sergeant major of hussars”.

The young man is flummoxed with this question but recovers quickly and says “28
apricots” as the answer. There is tension in the air as the Principal and other
Professors look expectantly in the direction of the Maths Professor, who coolly says
that it is the wrong answer and that the correct answer is 27 apricots. The young man
is greatly relieved and looks extremely happy in flunking this quiz. The Maths teacher
turns around to the horrified Principal and coolly says that the young man is right
about asking his fees back and that the school should refund him.
The Maths teacher turns to the young man and asks him how much the school owes
him. Overjoyed at the prospect of getting some money, the young man goes over each
year and the fees for that year in detail and comes up with the final amount the school
owes him. All along as he is counting mentally and saying what is due to him, the
Maths teacher writes the figures down on a piece of paper and calculates the total.
Finally the teacher acknowledges to the young man that his mental arithmetic adds up
correctly. The young man says that they can bet on it since he has it all worked out.

That is when the Maths Professor drops the bombshell that her asking him what the
school owed him was her “hard” question and that since he got it right, he has now
passed his course with flying colors and so the school doesn’t owe him anything now.
That is when the young man realizes that he has been tricked and as he prepares to
leave the school in disgust, he is mocked at by each of the professors in turn. 

15. REFUND
FRITZ KARINTHY

INTRODUCTION:-

Refund was written by Fritz Karinthy one of the most famous Hungarian writers. His
works such as You Write Like this, A Trip around My Skull and Professor, won him a
lot of recognition. Refund 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.

EXPLANATION:-

The play is about a good- for- nothing fellow called Wasserkopf who goes back to the
school in which he had studied and demands a refund of the fees he had paid. He
claims that he had learnt nothing at school.

Wasserkopf, a former student of a school, tells the principal that as he has not learnt
anything.  He is entitled to a refund. A re-examination says, would prove his claim
that he had not gained any knowledge.

The principal is taken a back. He describes the matter with the teachers. All of them
are puzzled. The maths teacher says that all the teachers must ensure that Wasserkopf
some has passes in the examination. Even if Wasserkopf gives wrong answer, he
should not be failed. Otherwise other students too might ask for a refund. All agree to
this suggestion. Thus, while Wasserkoff is determined to fall, the teachers are equally
determined to make him pass.

The teachers understand that Wasserkopf objective is to fail in the re-examination as

he wants a refund. So they decide before hand that they should accept whatever
answers Wasserkopf may give and ensure that he passes.

The History teacher asks Wasserkopf how long the thirty seven meters. All the
teachers unite to justify their answer. The physics teacher asks a question about
optical illusions. In reply Wasserkopf call the teacher on ------. but this is accepted as
the correct answer. The Geography teacher asks what the capital of Brunswick
province is Wasserkopf answer that the answer is “same”. The teachers claim it is the
right answer.

The teacher ask very easy questions. Though Wasserkopf gives ridiculous answers
they justify every answers. The mathematics teacher then asks a meaningless question
and Wasserkopf gives an equally meaningless answer. The mathematics teacher says
that Wasserkopf has failed. She tells Wasserkopf to calculate the amount of that
should be refunded. Delighted, Wasserkopf makes calculations and reaches the
figures of 6,450 crowns. The mathematics teacher then says that his calculation was
actually a question in the test. She says that Wasserkopf is a mathematical genius. The
teacher declares that Wasserkopf has passed the exam. In this way they succeed in
activity Wasserkopf.

CONCLUSION:-

A single exam is used to assess the capabilities of the student. Then too, fivolus
excessively elaborate questions may be asked. The career of the student hinges on his
performance in this exam. The dramalist polices from at teachers too. Some teachers
are not bothered about the welfare of the students. They may also be under
tremendous pressure to make undeserving students pass as their job and promotion
may depend on the “pass percentage” of students.