definition of obsession

                I believe that the line between obsession and commitment is at the discretion of the observer. For example, in sports many people train hours and hours every day to get better, trying to make it to the next level, some might think this is obsession but to the person putting in the time to get better it’s just his or hers own commitment to the sport. Many think that obsession occurs when you sacrifice your own family for the thing that you are doing, but to some people family isn’t the most important thing in their lives, to some family comes a close second to other maybe more important things.

                When you look at the movie The Prestige, you notice that the two main characters are going to great lengths to perfect what they do. The story follows Robert Angier and Alfred Borden, rival stage magicians in London at the end of the 19^th century. With the goal of creating the best stage illusion, they engage in a competitive warfare of magic with tragic results. The rivalry started when both of these men were working for the same person and Angier’s wife was killed by Boren when and allusion went wrong because Borden tied the wrong knot in a water cell trick causing Angier’s wife to drown. After this event Angier discovers Borden doing some low end magic in a saloon. When Borden’s assistant Fallon is choosing a helper from the crowd a disguised Angier is selected to help Borden by shooting an un loaded gun at him so he can perform a bullet catch. Angier knowing of the unloaded gun slips a projectile down the barrel to fire at Borden blowing his pinky and ring finger off of his left hand. This is when you could say the rivalry began because here after, they both attempt to sabotage each-others illusions and one-up each other.

                We start to see the true dedication of these two men when Borden and Angier begin to perfect the illusion of the transported man, but both have different methods of preforming it. When Angier first sees Borden perform the trick he vanishes in one cabinet and his double (later found to be his twin) appears out of another.

Angier picks a person off the street who looks remarkably similar and cast’s him to be his double so he too can perform the trick. After Borden corrupts Angier’s double things in Angier’s show begin to go wrong. One thing that happens is the bad to catch Angier when he vanishes below the stage is missing and ends up hurting his leg severally causing him to have a limp. Another thing that happens is when Angier vanishes below the stage, he sees Borden standing in his doubles place to go out before the audience and when Borden does he promotes his own show while displaying a trapped Angier (his double) hanging from the ceiling.

When Angier learns of Nikola Tesla (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla) he travels to Colorado Springs in America to have this man make a machine that can truly transport him. Nikola is successful in this attempt at such science but the machine makes a duplicate of the object and either transports the duplicate or the original which we may never know, either way this is some crazy stuff. Anyway, Angier brings this machine with him back to London and demonstrates it to a theatre owner. The owner agrees to allow him to do his show here. Angier has a trap door set up right under the machine so that when it is finished making a duplicate or original the “thing” standing on the trap door will disappear into a glass box full of water and left to drown, Angier gets away with this by hiring a blind stage crew and never reveling his secret to anyone. When Borden is at one of his shows he notices the trap door and goes back stage to confront Angier or maybe sabotage it (we may never know) and see the duplicate or original in the locked glass box. Seeing what he assumes is Angier he tries to break the glass box and when people hear it they rush back to see a dead Angier and a guilty Borden. Borden is then put on trial and sentenced to die for murder. Borden is given Angier’s journal to translate his trick and then he discovers it was Angier’s plan all along to frame Borden for his death so he would hang, while the duplicate or original Angier is out running around. Borden is then hung , but his twin brother is still left and he shows up to an all alone Angier and shoots him.

                I believe both of these men were border line obsessed with magic. I understand that they wanted to be the best but they took being the best to an extreme. I don’t think Angier would’ve done any of this had Borden or his brother not killed Angier’s wife. However Borden was also playing a double life the entire time he was in London. Both of the twins were in love with different girls to the point where the double life began to conflict each other. In this case these two men were trying to be the best they could be. So I personally don’t believe they were obsessed.