THE SOUND MACHINE

The Sound Machine is a short story written by Roald Dahl, published in 1949 as a
part of his collection “The Complete Short Stories. The story narrates an episode in
the life of Klausner, the protagonist, who is obsessed with sounds, so much so that
others often find him to be out of his mind. Through his instability, the author
highlights the theme of appearance vs. reality, making the reader wonder if there
was indeed, like Klauser believed, an existence of a world beyond what we see or
whether everything other than what can be seen is a mere illusion. Another
prominent issue highlighted in the story is that of the ill-treatment of nature by the
humans, especially the pains afflicted by us on the trees and plants without any care
for their feelings. Though Kalusner’s concern for the trees and his efforts to relieve
and protect them from further suffering at the hands of humans might appear to be
absurd, the underlying spirit of a peaceful co-existence amongst all creations of God
is quite sincere, and as a matter of fact, the need of the hour.
As the story begins, we are introduced to the central character, Klausner who
harbours a deep interest in sounds that exist around, almost to the point of being
labelled as a fanatic. He has developed a make-shift laboratory in a shed in his
garden wherein he works upon his invention– a sound machine, which appears like a
small coffin filled with numerous interconnected wires and tubes. He devotes
extensive time to this project, fiddling with the wires and drawing diagrams, almost
like a scientist, and displays unwavering concentration as he works and tests the
device he has created. He keenly studies the mechanism occurring inside the box as
he twiddles the dials of his radio-like sound box and it seems, from his state of
nervous excitement, that he is nearing a breakthrough, which meant that his sound
machine was finally ready to be put to use.
So engrossed is he in his work, that the arrival of his friend and doctor, Scott, startles
him. The doctor tells him that he was passing by the house and so thought of
checking on his throat, which was earlier giving him some trouble. Upon inquiry by
the doctor regarding the complicated looking box, Klausner reveals that the device is
related to his love for sounds and talks about its purpose and working. According to
Klausner, there exist numerous sounds around us which, due to their high-pitch, are
inaudible to the human ear. Now, this is technically correct, as humans can only hear
sounds that range from 20 Hertz to 20 Kilo Hertz. Bats can hear within a range 9 kHz
to to 200 kHz while dolphins can hear upto 160kHz! Heck, even your dog can hear
much higher frequencies than you, at 45 kHz. And if you’re a cat person, your feline
furball beats the doggos at 65kHz. So, what Klausner is talking about is technically
correct and he’s not talking bollocks at his point at least.
The machine, which he has spent many hours developing, aims to record these
vibrations and to then convert them into a scale that can be heard by humans. Cool!
After having made some final changes in his device, Klausner believes that it is
ready to be put to use and is very excited to test it. So, after the doctor leaves, he
takes the box outside into his garden, plugs in his earphones (its definitely isn’t an
airpod though), turns the dial meant for tuning the apparatus to the desired
frequency ranging between 15000 to 1000000 vibrations, and waits to hear some
new sound. The anticipation makes him both anxious and exhilarated, all at once
and he listens, with utmost attention, for any sound other than the low humming of
the machine itself.
Suddenly, he hears a shrill scream, like that of a woman shrieking in agony, piercing
through the otherwise still air. Looking around to identify the source of the sound, he
sees no one except his neighbour, Mrs. Saunders, who is cutting flowers in the
garden. Seeing her bend down to snip a rose stem he is convinced that she was not
the one he heard, when all of a sudden, he hears the same screaming sound again
at the exact moment when the stem is cut. Seeing this, an idea strikes him and
eager to test his theory, he asks Mrs. Saunders to cut another stem.
Apprehensive of her peculiar neighbour, Mrs. Saunders thought it better to comply
with his request. As soon as she cuts another stem, Klausner heard the same shrill
scream again. Now fully convinced that it’s really the flowers that had screamed out
in pain as the sharp scissors cut through them, he runs to Mrs. Saunders and tells
her about his discovery, beseeches her to not harm the flowers any further.
He further tests his theory on daisies and when that also yields the same results, he
is certain that the sounds he’s heard are coming from the plants who, when hurt, let
out a scream. However, he realises that the scream, which he had earlier imagined
to be a cry of pain, was in fact devoid of any expression or emotion known to
humans. This, he assumed, is something of which we hadn’t the slightest idea,
something known only to the trees and plants.
Early next morning, Klaunser tries his sound machine on a tree at his neighbourhood
park. So, he switches on the machine, plugs in his earphones to an axe (it’s not a
Samsung Earbud either), and strikes the tree at its base. As soon as the blade cuts
the tree, he hears a new sound, unlike the one that came from the flowers. The cry is
harsh and low-pitched, and fills Klausner with a sense of horror at the pain he felt he
had inflicted on the tree.
Extremely regretful about his action, he apologizes to the tree and then, as if struck
by a sudden thought, runs off to call Dr. Scott, asking him to come urgently to the
garden. Upon his arrival, Klausner demonstrates the working of the sound machine
to him, asking him to listen to the sound coming from the earphones plugged into the
machine as he struck the tree. He implores the doctor to do as asked and assures
him that the sound that he had heard is truly coming from the tree and not something
he had imagined.
Though hesitant at first, the doctor complies with his wishes as he sees the thought
driving Klausner crazy. However, just as the blade of the axe strikes the tree, a
branch breaks off and falls, nearly crushing both the doctor and Klausner. Thankfully,
both of them manage to save themselves, especially Klausner who is saved just in
the nick of time. However, the sound machine is destroyed beyond repair.
Frightened and alarmed on having just escaped a serious accident, the doctor tries
to leave the place but is opposed by Klausner who keeps insisting him to make
certain that he had heard the tree scream. To his dismay, the doctor tells him that he
was hardly able to make out any sound in the commotion caused by the branch
falling upon them. Now Klausner is completely distraught and is filled with empathy
for the extreme pain he believes to be felt by the trees and plants as humans
thoughtlessly cut them. Thus, devastated by the utter insensitivity of mankind,
Klausner is filled with remorse, and is beside himself with the guilt of this realisation.
In such a state of frenzy, he asks the doctor to heal the tree’s wounds and apply
iodine on it, maybe as a means to absolve himself from some guilt and to undo some
of the wrong, albeit very little, that he had caused the tree.
Thus satisfied with helping the tree, Klausner is somewhat relieved and the story
ends with him asking the doctor to keep a check on the tree’s recovery.
Overall, the story very powerfully conveys the message of being mindful of our
exploitation of nature. While the actions of Klausner may seem absurd to others, it is
definitely based on the idea of empathy which many individuals lack in relation to the
environment. The sound machine therefore is both a work of science fiction as well
as environmental ethics. Thinkers like Peter Singer have focussed on the idea of
suffering as a basis for ethical treatment of animals. The Sound Machines extends
this line of thought to include plants as well. One may read this story as one that
emphasizes on the ethical treatment of plants and seeks to inspire people to curb the
mindless destruction of trees and plants.
The story also delves around the idea of Identity and what it means to be a Self that
is largely misunderstood by others. Not only does this apply to the trees and plants
whose suffering cannot be understood by humans, it also applies to the character of
Klausner, who despite being viewed as an odd fellow is deeply empathetic about his
surroundings and fellow creatures. It is a matter of irony that the branch of the tree
destroys the very machine with which it had been possible to know about its
suffering. However, one may also view it as a commentary on the limits of which it
may be possible and the inevitable opposition between the natural world and
humanity’s artificial inventions and technology, which all said and done have done
more harm than good to the natural order of things.
In this The Sound Machine short summary, we will briefly go over the plotline. The
mad inventor, Klausner, who is obsessed with sound, has a theory. This theory
states that beyond the realm of sounds that humans can hear lies a whole
undiscovered body of sounds. These sounds are produced at such a high frequency
that the human brain cannot possess them. And hence, to be able to hear these
sounds, he creates a machine – a black box the size of a child’s coffin with wires,
silver tubes, and dials that can together convert these high-frequency sounds to
lower-frequency notes that humans can hear. He shares this idea, reluctantly, with
his doctor Scott who deems it implausible.
However, Klausner tries to test his machine in the garden, where he hears a painful
shriek in his earphones. Looking around, he discovered that the shriek only came
when his neighbour Mrs. Saunders cut the stems of the yellow roses in her garden.
Convinced that plants and trees made noises when getting cut, he goes to a park to
repeat the same experiment on a tree. As he swings his axe on the bark of the tree,
it produces a long-drawn sob that sounds like a horrible growl. Nervous and
flustered, he asks the only person who knew about his experiment, Doctor Scott to
hear the sounds he had heard on his machine to confirm their presence. However,
as he tries to repeat the experiment again, swinging another blow at the tree, a great
branch of the tree falls off, smashing the machine into pieces. More concerned about
his safety, Doctor Scott removed his headphones and fled his spot, unable to hear
the sound that the tree had made. Disappointed at the failure of his experiment,
Klausner requests the doctor to rub some iodine on the gashes of the tree. Seeing
the crazed state his patient was in, Doctor Scott agrees to Klausner’s demands. He
rubs iodine on the tree, and then carries Klausner back home.

The Sound Machine Summary

This The Sound Machine summary provides a detailed overview of the events that
take place in the story.
On one warm summer evening, Klausner heads over to his workshop – a wooden
shed at the back of his house to work on a small black box the size of a child’s coffin.
As he bent over the box, he began tinkering with a mass of colourful wires and silver
tubes that rested inside. For about an hour, he kept glancing back and forth at a
paper and tugging gently at the wires to test the connections. With deep focus and
buoyed upon a wave of breathless excitement, Klausner muttered to himself while
his hands urgently moved inside the box and over the three dials at the front of the
box.
His work was interrupted by a visitor – his doctor, Scott, who had dropped into
Klausner’s residence to check on his throat that had been bothering him. The doctor
could sense the tension in the room, and he remarked to Klausner how he still had
his hat on despite being indoors. He then peered into Klausner’s black box, and
asked if he were making a radio. Not satisfied with Klausner’s vague response that
he was just fooling around, and thoroughly intrigued by the complicated frightening-
looking innards of the box, Scott insisted on knowing more. Awkwardly and
reluctantly, Klausner agreed to divulge what he was working on. He revealed to Scott
that he was trying to check the practical validity of a theory that he had. Klausner
mentioned how the human ear was only capable of processing sounds that lay within
a certain frequency bracket, which led to a whole unquantifiable body of low-pitched
and high-pitched sounds that humans could not hear. Highly animated by his own
train of thoughts, a nervous and flustered Klausner added that he believed that in the
realm of sounds outside of human reach, new exciting music was always being
made – music so powerful that it would drive people mad, if only they could hear it.
When a disbelieving Scott professed to Klausner that his ideas sounded rather
implausible, Klausner tried to change his mind by explaining to him how his
invention, the sound machine, worked. His machine was designed to pick up on
those high-pitched sound vibrations that the human ear could not hear, and convert
them into a scale of tones audible to humans. Klausner then added that he was
going to try to test his machine that night.
That night, Klausner took his machine to the garden. Consumed by excitement and
nervousness, he plugged his headphone into the machine, pressed a switch to turn
the machine on, adjusted the knobs on the machine, and bent forward intently to
listen to sounds from that forbidden ultrasonic region where no ear had ever been
before or had any right to visit. The little needle on his machine moved slowly, and
Klausner jumped and almost fell off his seat as he heard a frightful piercing shriek.
He studied his environs to spot only his neighbour Mrs. Saunders in the garden next
door, cutting yellow roses. He then heard the scream again – sharp, short, clear,
cold, and with a slight metallic quality to it. Searching frantically for the source of the
sound, Klausner watched Mrs. Saunders bend again to snip a rose. And right at that
moment when the rose was cut, he heard the same frightening shriek again.
Klausner then rushed over to Mrs. Saunders, who was headed back towards her
house, and frantically begged her to cut another rose. Mrs. Saunders, who had
always thought of Klausner as a strange peculiar person, wondered if her neighbour
had gone crazy. Nonetheless, she humoured him and proceeded to cut another
rose. Once again, Klausner heard the same terrifying scream of pain, and in a
nervous fit began telling Mrs. Saunders how she had been cutting through living
things, making them scream in the most terrible way. Seeing how consumed
Klausner was with the eccentric idea of rose stems crying out in pain, Mrs. Saunders
thought it best to rush back to her house.
To test his findings further, Klausner uprooted some white daisies in his lawn. Once
again, he heard the same high-pitched cry, but this time he wasn’t sure if it was a cry
of pain. The cry to him, sounded neutral – a single emotionless note that conveyed
nothing. Realizing that it had been the same with the roses, he concluded that
perhaps it was not pain that the plants felt but some other emotion unknown to
mankind.
Next day, early morning at six, Klausner carried his machine to a park to carry out
his experiment on a large beech tree. And as he swung hard with an axe at the base
of the trunk, cutting deep into the wood, he heard an enormous scream that was like
a low-pitched growl – a drawn-out sob that lasted a minute. Scared by the pain he
might have inflicted on the tree, he held the tree’s gash with his hands and
apologised profusely to the tree.
Klausner then ran over to his house and telephoned Doctor Scott. He wanted
somebody other than him to confirm his hypothesis. And although it was too early in
the morning to leave the house, hearing the hysteria in Klausner’s voice, Scott
decided to help his poor patient out with whatever he was struggling with.
While waiting for the doctor to arrive, Klausner’s mind began imagining the different
horrific sounds different plants would make when being cut. He thought of the horror
of hearing a wheat field getting mown, and the horrible noises potatoes would make
when getting yanked out of the ground. Klausner’s thoughts were put on hold with
Scott’s arrival. He insisted that the doctor followed him to the tree he had maimed to
hear what he had heard, for Scott was the only person who knew about Klausner’s
experiment. However, this time when Klausner swung the axe hard, the severe blow
caused a great branch to get severed and come crashing down on the machine. The
doctor ripped off his headphone and moved away just in time to escape the blow.
However, Klausner’s sound machine could not be saved and was smashed into
pieces.
Klausner then turned to the doctor to ask him what he heard. The doctor replied that
he had managed to hear nothing for he only had his headphone on for a second
before making a mad dash for his life to prevent the branch from falling on him. A
frustrated and dangerously insistent Klausner kept trying to coax more out of the
doctor about anything extra-ordinary he might have possibly heard, but in vain – the
doctor had stepped away from the scene too soon.
An exasperated Klausner asked the doctor to stitch the trees wounds up in a
threatening tone. When Scott explained that it was impossible to stitch through
wood, he insisted that the doctor at least rubbed some iodine on the tree’s gashes.
Seeing that Klausner was in a possessed irrational state, the doctor agreed to his
demands. Klausner then asked if the doctor would pay a visit to the tree the following
day to check on it. Scott once again humoured Klausner to calm him down, and
readily agreed. Then the doctor carried Klausner back to his house, to help him
recover from the episode he had just had.

The Sound Machine Plot

The Sound Machine plot has for its exposition a frantic inventor Klausner trying to
work on his machine – a device that can make audible to humans those sounds of
very high frequency that the human ear cannot ordinarily hear. The exposition ends
with Klausner’s doctor Scott paying him a visit, and Klausner telling him about his
invention. The rising action of the plot begins when Klausner takes his sound
machine to the garden to test it. He hears a painful shriek every time his neighbour
Mrs. Saunders cuts a yellow rose from its stem. He tries to test his theory the next
day on a big tree in the park, and summons Scott to hear the sounds his machine
were producing and confirm his hypothesis. The conflict stage of the plot begins
when Klausner’s experiment to get Scott’s confirmation fails. When he tried to hit the
tree with an axe, a branch of the tree fell, smashing the machine of Klausner into
pieces. The climax of the plot comes when Klausner forces Doctor Scott to rub
iodine over the tree’s gashes. In the falling action, Scott obeys Klausner’s orders,
and the resolution of the plot takes place with Doctor Scott carrying his patient home
to recover from the episode that had left him in a crazed state.
The Sound Machine Analysis and In-depth Explanation
In this The Sound Machine analysis, we will explore the short story at a deeper level.
The Sound Machine falls under the genre of science fiction, being a story that
unravels the experiments of a crazed inventor who believes that he has invented a
machine that can turn high-frequency sounds to notes audible to the human hear,
such that they can venture into the territory of strange sounds, so far unheard by
humans.
This short story poses two pertinent questions. The first is whether or not Klausner
was indeed successful in recording the sound trees and plants make when they are
being cut. Nobody except Klausner hears those sounds, and before Doctor Scott
could confirm Klausner’s hypothesis, his sound machine was shattered to pieces.
This makes readers wonder if indeed there was any validity to Klausner’s claims;
and if he were just a lunatic, so possessed with the idea of documenting high-
frequency sounds that he imagined his machine doing the same.
The second question posed by the story is the impact we humans have on the plant
world. If indeed Klausner’s claims were correct, and if plants and trees do cry out in
pain when they are being cut, we are posed with the thought of the implications our
actions of ruthlessly cutting plants, hacking trees, and mowing fields bears. The
passage when Klausner imagines five hundred wheat plants screaming together in
pain as they are being mown is indeed a nerve-wracking one. It makes one wonder
about the pain we must cause plants and vegetables when they are uprooted by
humans for consumption.
Another fascinating aspect of this short story is the human treatment provided by
Dahl to the tree. When Klausner swings his axe across a beech tree, and it cries out
in pain, he apologizes to the tree as if it were a real person. In fact, he also asks his
doctor, Scott to rub iodine over the gashes inflicted on the tree – as if the tree were a
real wounded person. This sympathetic attitude of Klausner towards the tree triggers
sympathy within us for these inanimate living things that cannot communicate their
emotions. However, on the other hand, the readers also constantly question the
soundness of Klausner’s mental state, as he was acting insane enough to ask his
doctor to stitch up the wounds of the tree. This also makes us question if any of
Klausner’s claims could be believed in, for they all could be a product of his
imagination and obsession with sounds.
The story is narrated in third person, from the point of view of an omniscient narrator.
Suspense has been sustained well throughout the plot, and the readers are kept
wondering all along about the mystery of the sounds Klausner hears, which remains
unsolved till the very end. The language used by Roald Dahl is simple and
straightforward, with lengthy details about the main character and detailed
commentary on the events that take place in the story.
The Sound Machine Character Analysis
In this Sound Machine character analysis, we will study the peculiar character of the
mad inventor Klausner, and his only confidante Doctor Scott.
Klausner is described in the short story as a dreamy small man, who always looks
like his mind is not where his body is. This is because Klausner is always consumed
with sound, trying to discover different realms of music that the human ear cannot
process. His obsession with strange sounds forbidden to the human ear lead to his
invention of a sound machine, which he claims can record sounds of high
frequencies inaccessible to humans. However, his obsession with his machine takes
the shape of madness when we find a flustered Klausner, almost threatening Scott to
tell him what he heard when he hit a tree with an axe in order to confirm his
hypothesis that plants let out a painful shriek when being cut. We understand that
Klausner’s touch with reality is weak when he insists Doctor Scott to rub iodine over
the gashes on the tree. On one hand, this gives us insights into Klausner’s deeply
sensitive character. However, one the other hand, this gesture of Klausner also
makes us question his mental state. Readers are left wondering if Klausner is a
lunatic – something that both his doctor and his neighbour wondered as well.
Klausner’s unstable mental state also makes us question if the sounds he heard on
his machine were real, or were a product of his passion-drunk imagination.
Doctor Scott comes across as an understanding man, who despite finding Klausner’s
theories about sound implausible, humours him, thus enabling him to open up about
his sound machine. Doctor Scott has great empathy for minds like that of Klausner
that are completely consumed by obsession to prove something. Hence, he attends
to Klausner’s call to confirm his experiment, even during the wee hours of the
morning. Instead of judging Klausner harshly when he was having an episode and
asking for iodine to be rubbed on the gashes on the tree, Doctor Scott humours him
in order to pacify him, and then safely tries to escort his crazed patient back to his
house.
The Sound Machine Theme
Obsession, tending towards insanity is a prominent The Sound Machine theme. In
this short story, we have the character of a crazed inventor Klausner, who is
consumed with his idea of turning very high-frequency sounds audible to human ear.
His deep passion is such that he goes into a dreamy dazed state every time he talks
about his idea. He loses all sense of social decorum when conducting his
experiments, urgently asking his neighbour to cut flowers for him to study the sounds
made by plants and later asking his doctor and confidant Scott to meet him early in
the morning to confirm his hypothesis. So consumed was Klausner with his sound
machine, that he lost all touch with reality, focusing only on the results of his
experiments. This is why he lost his cool when Scott told him that he had not heard
any sounds on the machine for he was busy saving himself from the branch that was
about to fall on him. Scientists are often portrayed as mad beings possessed by their
ideas. With obsession as the central theme of the short story, Klausner’s
characterization is no exception in this regard. He is indeed the prototype of a mad
scientist trying to focus on his experiment, completely disconnected from the world.
Empathy is another major theme that is explored in the short story. Although
Klausner hurts flowers and trees in the process of his experiment, he is not without
empathy and his heart cries out for the plight of the plants and trees that are cut. He
has great empathy for wheat fields that are mown, and hence decides never to
experiment his sound machine on wheat fields for the sound of a host of wheat
plants crying would drive him crazy and he would never be able to bread thereafter.
Empathy is a trait we also find in Doctor Scott, who despite understanding that
Klausner was playing with madness, humours him and his experiments. Sometimes,
people consumed by their madness only need an audience, and Scott provided the
same to Klausner.
The Sound Machine by Roald Dahl is a brilliant piece of science fiction that explores
the theme of obsession and the possibility that plants feel pain when they are being
cut for use or consumption. Through this short story, we discover the workings of a
passionate mind that is devoted to proving a hypothesis to the point of madness. The
short story also raises issues concerning the maddening pain plants go through
when they are cut from their roots. The way Roald Dahl has spun this fantasy of a
crazed inventor makes for a truly engaging read that explores ideas humans don’t
necessarily think about.