That is why the Magician says in the text that the demon he picked out like vermin belonged to Gip’s father. He carries the burden of family responsibility and literally and metaphorically – his own ‘demons’. Gip’s father is a man of the world, and yet, he is not of it. He finds the magic done by the Magician too real and plausible for his taste.
However, his father is getting a bit unnerved. The boy Gip is fascinated by all the Magician’s many marvels. Packages being packed with string emerging from the mouth of the Magician, et al.Noses being drawn out like a telescope and being turned into this red whips.Animals emerging from coat pockets, boxes, and hats like rabbits and pigeons.Glass balls appearing magically from every part of the Magician.The story is highly fantastical, with a hint of modernism in its form and structure. If a person or child managed to see and enter the magic shop, then that meant he was destined to become a magician or a conjurer. So, the intention of the story is clear enough. Notice that Gip’s father gives his son space to be with the Magician but is equally possessive of Gip when he realizes that Gip was holding onto the Magician’s finger in the same way that Gip used to hold on to his father’s finger. We realize this because of how the whole story is crafted, especially the points where the Magician keeps on speaking silent whispering words to Gip. The Magician knew that it was essential for him to not to scare Gip with his magic but to allure him into its enchanting world so that one day he would take up the profession. Probably he sees the future of yet another magician in Gip’s wonderstruck eyes.
He is a gentle soul and feels one with Gip. He is in charge of this magic shop and takes center stage in this story as a performer of the most wondrous forms of white magic possible, almost equal to a wizard. The man who we shall call the Magician appears magically behind the counter where no one seemed to be there a moment ago. Indeed, the magic was too real even for the father of Gip to digest.
Only pure souls with receptivity to magic and its wonders were allowed into the ‘Magic Shop.’ The story’s central theme is magic, especially the genuine magic enacted by a true conjurer. They were not proud, arrogant, and spoilt like the child Edward who could see the magic shop but could not get in. As mentioned several times in the story, this is because they were genuine good souls. They see it because they are ready to be inducted into the world of magic. One fine day, they manage to perceive and identify the magic shop situated between the patent incubators and a picture shop. We realize that it was not only Gip who was a special boy who could have been inducted into the world of genuine magic but also his father, a grown-up little boy who is humble and tender a person as Gip was. It indicates to us that magic is the central theme of this short story. This is a bit of a conjuring element that even before the story commences is already playing in Gip’s father’s mind. However, he always thought it was ‘somewhere else’ and not where he last saw it. The story starts with Gip’s father, declaring that he had personally seen through the magic shop window several times. Underlying themes of man’s existence in this world and the baggage or burdens he carries with him throughout his life are also present in this short story. It will also indirectly affect them and their viewpoints about magic and how unreal the world seems when genuine magic is performed. They don’t realize that what they are about to witness in the magic shop will change both their lives forever. ‘The Magic Shop’ is one such fantasy piece about Gip, a little English boy who wanted his father or ‘daddy’ to take him into a magic shop they found along their way as they were walking. Wells wrote a lot of fantasy fiction, almost bordering on magical realism. He was one of the greatest late Victorian and early Edwardian science fiction writers, if not ‘the greatest’.
The magic window short story full#
Wells, whose full name was Herbert George Wells. ‘The Magic Shop’ was penned in 1903 by the father of science fiction H.
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