Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Sound Machine, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Scientific Advancements and Forbidden Knowledge
Denial and Rationalization
Passion vs. Madness
Summary
Analysis
On a summer night, Klausner is hurriedly making his way back to the “unpainted room” of the shed he uses as a workshop. He immediately goes to the “small black box” in the shape of “a child’s coffin” on the table and begins to tinker with the tangled mess of wires that make up its insides. He remains invested in this process for some time, methodically consulting his diagrams, muttering to himself under his breath, and generally working with “an air of urgency […] of breathlessness, of strong suppressed excitement.”
Dahl effectively sets up the story’s tone with his initial foreboding physical descriptions of the machine, hinting at its propensity for ruin by conflating it with a dead child. He also provides noteworthy implicit and explicit character detail for Klausner by noting his relatively unadorned workspace, the simplicity of which is distinctly removed from the restless passion he displays towards the work he conducts there, showcasing the man’s intense singular focus and drive. Whereas a similar inventor may work in a laboratory full of their past experiments, Klausner’s small shop seems dedicated to this sole purpose.
Themes
Klausner’s thoughts are suddenly interrupted by the sound of footsteps outside the shed, causing him to nervously stop working and turn to the door. He seems relieved to find that “It was Scott. It was only Scott,” the local Doctor. The Doctor greets Klausner, saying, “So this is where you hide yourself in the evenings.” He says that he couldn’t find Klausner in the house, so he ventured back to the shed. The Doctor asks how Klausner’s throat is doing and asks to take a look at it, but Klausner tersely dismisses his sore throat as “quite cured” and tells the Doctor not to go through the trouble.
The nervousness Klausner exhibits upon having his work interrupted reads differently than a typical break of concentration, making the man seem suspiciously paranoid and somewhat eccentric. It is obvious from Dahl’s use of “only” that Klausner does not deem the Doctor a real threat, though Klausner’s relief that “It was Scott. It was only Scott,” also raises the question of who else he might have been expecting. Nonetheless, Klausner still seems to bristle at the affable doctor’s presence, even to the point of brushing off his concern for Klausner’s health. It seems that Klausner would much prefer to be left alone with the machine he’s working on.
Themes
The Doctor takes note of both the tense atmosphere in the room and Klausner’s preoccupied nature, notifying him that he is still wearing a hat even though he’s indoors. Surprised, Klausner reaches up and pulls the hat off of his head. The Doctor asks if Klausner is making a radio, but the man says that he’s “Just fooling around.” The Doctor notes that it’s a “frightening-looking thing” and has “rather complicated innards,” but Klausner claims the machine is “just an idea” that “has to do with sound.” The Doctor seems incredulous at this, suggesting that Klausner has “enough of that sort of thing” in his work. Klausner simply replies, “I like sound.”
Klausner’s odd behavior, though outwardly rather harmless, lends itself to a palpable degree of tension, hinting at the mania the machine has inspired within him. Klausner’s simplistic explanation of the machine also denotes his reluctance to talk about it, and the sole, vague reference to his occupation adds another layer of mystery of his background.
Themes
The Doctor makes an effort to leave but just lingers by the door, curious about his “strange patient” and the “remarkable complexity” of the machine he is so concentrated on. He asks Klausner what the machine’s true purpose is, adding, “You’ve made me inquisitive.”
Klausner’s cageyness appears to have the opposite of its intended effect—instead of getting the Doctor to leave, Klausner’s vague answers pique the Doctor’s curiosity. That the Doctor tries to leave but can’t get himself to actually do so mirrors to the strange pull the machine also has on Klausner.
Themes
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Klausner is quiet for several moments, “gently scratch[ing] the lobe of his right ear” before agreeing to tell the expectant Doctor about his research, noticeably “having trouble about how to begin.” He finally does by noting the existence of sounds “so low-pitched or so high-pitched” that the human ear is incapable of hearing them. He uses the principle of a dog whistle as an example, noting that dogs’ heightened sense of hearing allows them to hear what to humans registers as mere silence. And beyond that, there are even higher notes—or “a vibration if you like,” he adds, “but I prefer to think of it as a note.” He hypothesizes that there may be “an infinity of notes” unavailable to human ears—“higher and higher, as far as numbers go, which is…infinity…eternity…beyond the stars.”
Klausner’s initial standoffishness fades away as he is overtaken by the urge to discuss his research, showing how passionate he is about sound. This is also clear from the romantic way he conceives of sound—to him, a sound is more like a poetic “note” than a mere “vibration.” That he invokes the concept of a dog whistle in order to explain his ideas is significant because he fails to point out that such instruments can be painful for dogs if used incorrectly. This moment subtly foreshadows the unpleasant nature of the sounds Klausner’s machine will soon reveal. This ties into the story’s theme of forbidden knowledge, as it appears that he is almost willfully ignoring the possible consequences of his fascination.
Themes
Klausner, a “frail, nervous, twitchy […] moth of a man,” becomes increasingly animated, leading the Doctor to detect “a quality of […] immense, immeasurable distance” in the small man’s “bewildered” eyes. Klausner explains his belief that hidden in “inaudible regions,” there is “a music so powerful […] it would drive us mad.” The Doctor writes off these ideas as “not very probable,” an assertion Klausner adamantly denies, pointing to a silent nearby fly and noting, “It’s got a throat!” Klausner then refers to a previous iteration of the machine which “proved to [him] the existence of many odd inaudible sounds” by recording their presence with a needle, with the new one designed to relay them at audible pitches. The Doctor is still unconvinced that “the long black coffin-box” will do such a thing. Suddenly realizing how much time has passed, the Doctor departs.
It is here where Klausner’s passion truly begins to reveal itself as more of an ardent obsession, with the juxtaposition between his waifish body and wild demeanor lending to the Doctor’s belief that the man is perhaps a little unstable. Perhaps if his explanation was less lofty and dramatic, the Doctor would be more inclined to believe him. Klausner’s dedication to the goal of unlocking these uncharted realms of sound is also given new depth by the revelation that this is not the first machine he has built, leading one to wonder exactly how long he has been pursuing this project and how many previous iterations there may have been before that most recent attempt.
Themes
After some more tampering, Klausner is finally ready to test his machine, awkwardly maneuvering it outside to the garden and brimming with excitement as he does so. He mutters “little words of comfort and encouragement to himself,” afraid the machine will not work but “afraid also of what might happen if it did.” As he stands in the garden, looking like “an ancient, consumptive, bespectacled child,” Klausner takes in the stillness of the area around him. He watches his neighbor work in her garden “without thinking about her at all.” He flicks on the machine and quickly notices a “curious sensation” accompanying the machine’s usual hum—he has the strangest sense that his ears are entering “secret and forbidden territory, a dangerous ultrasonic region where ears had never been before and had no right to be.”
Here, Klausner is described as an eccentric-looking child, harking back to Dahl’s earlier description of the machine as being the shape of a “child’s coffin.” This parallel suggests that machine will somehow be the “death” of Klausner. That Klausner is described as a child may suggest that he is naïve and innocent, and that his machine will specifically be the death of that innocence. This is further evidenced by Klausner’s sudden consideration that the results of his experiment may be something he is not quite prepared to contend with. His dedication nevertheless remains intact, as displayed by the lack of attention he pays to his neighbor even as he watches her, his primary focus being the machine itself.
Themes
Klausner is startled by “a frightful, piercing shriek” and searches for its source, believing it at first to be human. However, there is no one around except for his neighbor, who is cutting roses in her garden. Suddenly, the sound rings out again, and Klausner notes this time that it has “a throatless, inhuman […] minor, metallic quality.” As the woman next door snips another rose, the sound reoccurs, corresponding with “the exact moment when the […] stem was cut.”
The process Klausner undergoes as he comes to understand where the noise is coming from is particularly important to the story’s themes of denial and rationalization, as it begins to follow him through the motions from believing the noise to be humanlike to distinctly inhuman and “throatless,” an interesting callback to his previously impassioned reference to the fly having a throat (and the Doctor’s mention of Klausner’s sore throat).
Themes
Excited, Klausner calls to Mrs. Saunders “in a voice so high and loud that she became alarmed” and asks her to cut another rose. She is greatly disturbed by the appearance of her “peculiar” neighbor, who she now worries has gone “completely crazy,” and considers getting her husband for backup. Nevertheless, she decides to “humor” Klausner, deeming him “harmless.” As she cuts another rose, Klausner hears the sound again and, now sure of its source, pleads with her not to cut another: “That’s enough. No more. Please, no more.”
Klausner appears to be incredibly disturbed by the noise, but still requests that another be cut so he can hear it again, displaying the desensitizing influence of his scientific attitude. The introduction of Mrs. Saunders is also significant as it allows the reader another glimpse at how unstable Klausner appears to those around him, especially now that his efforts have yielded results.
Themes
Klausner frantically explains his new discovery that plants feel pain, getting closer and closer to Mrs. Saunders to the point where he is leaning over the fence, staring at her intently. Privately, Mrs. Saunders decides that in five seconds, she’ll flee. In an excitable whisper, he asks, “how do you know that a rosebush doesn’t feel as much pain when someone cuts its stem in two as you would feel if someone cut your wrist off with garden shears?” Now genuinely worried, Mrs. Saunders runs into her house.
Mrs. Saunders clearly finds Klausner to be unstable and downright threatening, as she runs into her house for safety. Klausner doesn’t exactly help his case, as he infringes on her personal space, whispers like a madman, and even makes a gruesome analogy about someone cutting off Mrs. Saunders’s wrist with garden shears.
Themes
Klausner returns to the machine and tests his hypothesis by picking another flower. Upon hearing its cry through his headphones, he begins to question whether the “curiously inanimate” sound it makes is truly indicative of pain, eventually concluding that it must be an emotion outside the realm of human understanding. He decides that it must be “something else which we didn’t know about—something called toin or spurl or plinuckment, or anything you like.” Noticing that it’s getting dark outside, he collects the machine and returns inside.
Klausner seems to be in denial of his findings, as he immediately begins to conduct more tests despite his earlier certainty of where the sounds were coming from and his discomfort at hearing the plants shriek so terribly when cut. In this passage, Klausner talks himself down from the feelings of horror the screams initially awoke in him, and he seems to take on the cold, analytical mind of a scientist. His hypothesis that the sound doesn’t reflect pain as humans know it but some other, unnamed feeling is a prime example of his attempt to rationalize the knowledge he has gained into something more ethically palatable. If he doesn’t think that he’s actively causing plants pain, he can keep doing his experiments without feeling badly about it.
Themes
The next day, Klausner wakes up at dawn and brings his machine to a nearby park, doubling back to retrieve an axe as well. He looks around “nervously,” but the park is empty since it’s only 6 a.m. He places the machine in front of a large beech tree, dons his earphones, and strikes the tree with his axe. As he does so, he hears “a most extraordinary noise,” a “harsh, noteless […] growling, low-pitched, screaming sound” that outdoes those of the roses in terms of both volume and duration. Greatly shaken by this, he caresses the wound the axe made and whispers apologies to the tree for hurting it, assuring the tree that “it will heal fine.”
Klausner’s haste to test the machine again—this time on an even bigger plant—furthers the idea that he has not truly learned his lesson about meddling with the unknown. The visceral sound the tree makes, however, seems to bring him closer to this revelation than ever before, its “harsh, noteless” quality representing a far cry from the lovely “infinity of notes” he wistfully pondered at before. Like when he ordered Mrs. Saunders to stop cutting the roses, Klausner appears to be overcome with genuine empathy and emotion for what he’s done.
Themes
After staying with the tree for a time, Klausner rushes back home and calls up the Doctor, begging him to come over quickly and hear the sound has just heard, claiming it is “driving [him] mad.” While he is unhappy at being awoken so early, the Doctor recognizes the man’s “frantic, almost hysterical” tone of voice as one signifying a true emergency. He agrees to come over right away.
Now at a point of desperation, it appears that Klausner’s previous wish to discover sounds capable of “driv[ing] us mad” has been granted, though certainly not in the way he had hoped. Indeed, Klausner’s decision to notify the Doctor is decidedly different from the tense reluctance he displayed at their meeting at the beginning of the story, signifying the depths of his need for someone else to help shoulder the weight of what he has uncovered. The Doctor’s reaction to this call further demonstrates the profound impact this discovery has had on Klausner; while the Doctor previously saw Klausner as an eccentric but harmless man, he now senses that Klausner may be in serious trouble.
Themes
As he waits anxiously for the Doctor to arrive, Klausner reflects on the noise the tree made and notes that it made him feel “sick with horror.” He contemplates what noises a human being would make in the same situation, and concludes that the tree’s noise is worse due to the “frightening, toneless, throatless” quality it possesses. He considers the sounds other forms of plant life would make, picturing the sound of a field of wheat screaming as it’s being mowed and resolving never to take his machine to one because he “would never eat bread after that.” He runs down a list of fruits and vegetables, determining whether or not they would shriek when picked.
This passage marks a definitive turning point for Klausner, as he now begins to hypothesize with horror instead of the pure, childlike wonder he demonstrated at the beginning of the story. However, even though he seems revolted by the sound the tree made, he continues to think dreadful, detailed thoughts about the sounds different plants would make, which suggests that he can’t shake his obsession. Throughout the story, Klausner’s machine represents the dark side of scientific advancement; Klausner’s innocence is now thoroughly shattered by the terrible implications that his quest for knowledge has dredged up, suggesting that some discoveries are better left unmade.
Themes
The arrival of the Doctor rips Klausner from his thoughts and he hurriedly takes him to the tree, where the machine and axe still lay. The Doctor privately observes that Klausner doesn’t appear insane, but “merely disturbed and excited.” Upon their arrival in the park, Klausner directs the Doctor to put on the earphones while he prepares to strike the tree with the axe, though dreading “the thought of the noise that the tree would make.” As he makes contact with the tree, he notices “a slight shifting of the earth beneath his feet” and hears a crack from above. The Doctor, who has torn off his earphones and is now running away, yells for the “spellbound” Klausner to move just as a 60-foot branch falls and destroys the machine.
Klausner’s discomfort with cutting the tree does indicate a slight evolution of his character. Given his profuse apologies to the tree after whacking it with an axe the first time, it seems that Klausner does conceive of the sound as one of pain and thus feels empathy for the tree. He no longer relishes the act of testing his hypothesis; it is simply a necessity to allow the Doctor to hear the sound as well. Klausner’s momentary paralysis, though, suggests that he’s still totally consumed by this project and detached from everything and everyone around him.
Themes
The Doctor rushes to check on Klausner and is relieved to find him unharmed. Klausner, looking “tense and horrified” merely removes the axe from the tree and softly asks the Doctor what he heard in the earphones. The Doctor thinks about this for a moment, “rub[bing] his neck” and “bit[ing] his lip” before he eventually answers, “as a matter of fact… […] No, I’m not sure. I couldn’t be sure.” He reminds Klausner that he had to pull off the earphones only a second after the axe struck the tree. Klausner persists in his questioning, becoming increasingly insistent and combative as the Doctor “irritably” writes off whatever he heard as merely “the noise of the branch breaking.” Klausner does not relent, getting in the Doctor’s face and observing that he “certainly seem[s] nervous.”
The Doctor’s body language and generally skittish behavior may suggest that he is lying to both Klausner and himself regarding the noise he heard. Klausner, meanwhile, grows increasingly fervent and aggressive, pressuring the Doctor into admitting that he heard the tree’s cry. After all, without the benefit of a concrete second opinion and a functional machine, he has no way of verifying his discovery. It’s possible, then, that the Doctor’s awkwardness in this passage simply stems from his discomfort at being around the increasingly unhinged Klausner, though it’s also possible that he did, in fact, hear the tree’s cry but is in denial about it.
Themes
After a moment of uncomfortable silence, the Doctor attempts to leave, but Klausner refuses to let him go without tending to the tree’s wound first, his tone becoming “almost […] threatening.” The Doctor tries to reason with the man but ultimately relents out of fear of him and complies with his wishes, delicately painting the tree’s cuts with iodine according to Klausner’s directions and keeping a keen eye on the man as he is still holding the axe, now with an even tighter grip than before. After deciding that the iodine “will do nicely,” Klausner asks the Doctor if he will return to check on the tree again the next day to put more iodine on it. The Doctor agrees, and Klausner flashes him “a wild, excited smile.” The Doctor gently takes Klausner by the arm and leads him away, telling him that it’s time to go.
Klausner’s previous propensity for making those around him uncomfortable with his passion reaches its zenith here, as he becomes actively aggressive in his desire to help the tree. In this sense, one can view his concern for the tree as an evolution of his single-minded dedication to the machine, as evidenced by his somewhat obsessive desire to continue checking up on the tree and visible excitement at the Doctor’s agreement. The way the Doctor carefully tailors this final interaction so as not to upset Klausner, however, suggests his belief that Klausner has truly gone mad. This final depiction of Klausner, crazed and wild with an axe in hand, leaves readers to question if his machine even worked in the first place, or if it was merely a delusion.
Themes
