The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass

This is the book where the Dark Tower series stops being a picaresque and becomes a tragedy with a face: Susan Delgado, the love Roland loses before the first page of his legend. King writes his best Western here—dust, bar fights, oil for war machines—while framing it inside a sci-fi Kansas and an Oz-like trap. Read it if you want to know why Roland is the way he is, and why his companions stay with him anyway.

1. 1

   Act 1

   Riddles on a Runaway Train

   Blaine the Mono, the insane, suicidal supertrain from the previous book, is barreling toward Topeka while Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy throw riddles at it for hours—and get nowhere. Then Eddie changes the rules. He feeds the computer childish jokes and nonsense riddles, 'Why did the dead baby cross the road?'—garbage that cannot be processed as logic. Blaine short-circuits and crashes at the end of its line, and the ka-tet climbs out of the wreck at the Topeka railway station with only minor injuries, several thousand miles closer to the Dark Tower. The Topeka they find is a version of Kansas from the 1980s, and it is empty. A super-flu has killed everyone; a newspaper tells them this world's Kansas City team is the Monarchs, not the Royals, and that Nozz-A-La is a popular soft drink—proof this is not the world any of them knew. They leave via the Kansas Turnpike, past abandoned cars and signs referencing the plague, a world that echoes The Stand. That night they camp beside a shimmering, unnatural mist. Roland names it a thinny—a place where reality has worn thin, where other worlds can be heard. And there, beside the wound in the sky, he begins to tell them about his youth, and his first encounter with one of these things.

2. 2

   Act 2

   The Boy in Hambry

   The story-within-the-story opens with a wound of another kind: fourteen-year-old Roland discovers his mother, Gabrielle, in bed with Marten Broadcloak, the court wizard. Enraged, he demands his guns early and fights his mentor Cort in the yard of the castle in Gilead, using his hawk David as his weapon. David sacrifices himself; Roland wins his guns. Then his father Steven reveals he already knew about the affair—and sends Roland, Alain Johns, and Cuthbert Allgood east to the Barony of Mejis on a secret mission. In the town of Hambry they meet Mayor Thorin, Chancellor Rimer, and other officials, ostensibly counting resources for the Affiliation, secretly investigating John Farson, the Good Man. Riding in, Roland first sees Susan Delgado on the road—beautiful, blonde, his age, and already promised as Mayor Thorin's concubine, to be given to him on Reaping Day. Their eyes meet, and it is instant, fateful. The boys also make enemies: in a Hambry bar, after Cuthbert insults them, they clash with the Big Coffin Hunters—Eldred Jonas, a failed gunslinger with a limp, Roy Depape, and Clay Reynolds—who mark them for death and are working with Farson. Roland and Susan begin meeting in secret, in the tall grass of the Drop and an abandoned hut, and they have sex for the first time under the stars. Roland is so consumed he nearly forgets the mission, and the rift with Alain and Cuthbert nearly splits the three friends for good.

3. 3

   Act 3

   The Glass and the Fire

   In a hut in the hills lives Rhea of the Cöos, a hideous old witch. Eldred Jonas entrusts her with Maerlyn's Grapefruit—the pink Wizard's Glass—which shows visions of the future. Rhea becomes obsessed, staring into it for hours, starving herself and her pets. Through it she discovers Roland and Susan's affair, and nearly hypnotizes Susan into cutting off her own hair with a pair of shears before Susan breaks free. Then the Hunters strike: Depape murders Mayor Thorin, Reynolds kills Chancellor Rimer, and the three young gunslingers are framed and thrown into the Hambry jail. Susan breaks them out with Sheemie Ruiz, a mentally disabled but loyal tavern boy, and they hide in the hills to plan. Farson's forces mean to fuel their war machines from the oil tankers at the Citgo oil plant, so Roland builds his trap: lure Farson's men into Eyebolt Canyon, where a thinny—a deadly, wailing mist that devours anyone who enters—lurks in a cave, then set fire to the brush at the canyon's mouth. Rhea uses the glass to tell Reynolds where Susan hides; he captures her and takes her to Thorin's house, guarded by the sympathetic widow Olive. Sheemie breaks in and rescues Susan with Olive's help, but Reynolds finds them again, kills Olive, and recaptures her. At dawn, Roland, Alain, and Cuthbert attack the oil plant, killing Depape and Jonas. Against all warnings, Roland looks into the glass taken from Jonas's body—and sees the Dark Tower, his quest, his doom, and Susan burning at the stake as a harvest sacrifice. He collapses into a catatonic stupor. They blow the tankers, flee to Eyebolt Canyon, trick George Latigo's men into following, and drive them into the thinny. The glass keeps tormenting Roland with visions of Susan's death on Reaping Day before the townspeople of Hambry.

4. 4

   Act 4

   The Emerald City

   Back in the present, the ka-tet follows the Path of the Beam to a green glass palace that looks like the Emerald City from The Wizard of Oz. Inside, a booming voice orders them to renounce the Tower and go home. The voice belongs to the Tick-Tock Man, rescued from Lud by Randall Flagg at the end of the previous book and kept alive as a grotesque, half-dead puppet; the ka-tet quickly disposes of him. Then Flagg himself reveals—he is Marten Broadcloak, the wizard from Roland's youth. He has bewitched Roland's guns to misfire against him, so Roland grabs Jake's Ruger and fires—and misses. Flagg escapes, leaving behind the Wizard's Glass. The glass shows them the day Roland accidentally killed his own mother, Gabrielle, mistaking her for Rhea. This is the test: Roland's history of bringing calamity to everyone he loves is laid bare, and Eddie, Susannah, and Jake refuse to abandon him. The ka-tet sets off again for the Dark Tower, following the Path of the Beam, bound tighter for having heard the story—and seen the worst of it.

• RRoland DeschainThe gunslinger, fourteen in the flashback, weathered in the present. He wins his guns through his hawk's death, loses Susan to the fire, and takes up the Tower obsession the glass plants in him.
• SSusan DelgadoA beautiful girl promised as Mayor Thorin's concubine on Reaping Day. She loves Roland, breaks the gunslingers out of jail, and is burned at the stake as a harvest sacrifice.
• EEddie DeanThe junkie-turned-gunslinger who defeats Blaine the Mono with childish jokes. He refuses to abandon Roland after seeing his worst sin.
• JJake ChambersThe boy whose Ruger Roland borrows when his own guns are bewitched. He sees Roland kill his mother and stays anyway.
• SSusannah DeanFormer Odetta Holmes, riddler and gunslinger in the ka-tet. She witnesses Roland's tragedy through the glass and chooses to stay.
• OOyThe billy-bumbler, the ka-tet's small loyal companion, riding Blaine and camping at the thinny with the rest.
• CCuthbert AllgoodRoland's best friend, quick with an insult that starts the bar fight with the Big Coffin Hunters. He fights at the oil plant and the canyon.
• AAlain JohnsThe steady third of the young trio, sent east with Roland and Cuthbert. He bears the rift Roland's love affair nearly causes.
• MMarten Broadcloak / Randall FlaggThe court wizard who seduced Gabrielle, and the man in the emerald palace. He bewitches Roland's guns, escapes, and leaves the Wizard's Glass behind.
• RRhea of the CöosThe hideous witch entrusted with Maerlyn's Grapefruit. Obsessed with the glass, she exposes the affair and points Reynolds to Susan.
• EEldred JonasA failed gunslinger with a limp, leader of the Big Coffin Hunters working for Farson. He is killed at the Citgo plant, and the glass passes from his body to Roland.
• RRoy Depape and Clay ReynoldsJonas's fellow Hunters. Depape murders Mayor Thorin; Reynolds kills Chancellor Rimer, later kills Olive and recaptures Susan. Depape dies at the oil plant.
• SSheemie RuizA mentally disabled but loyal tavern boy who breaks the gunslingers out of jail and rescues Susan from Thorin's house.
• JJohn Farson, the Good ManThe rebel whose plot the boys investigate, using the Citgo oil tankers to fuel his war machines against Gilead.
• MMayor Thorin and Chancellor RimerHambry's officials, secretly working with Farson. Thorin is murdered by Depape, Rimer by Reynolds, and the boys are framed for both.
• TThe Tick-Tock ManThe half-dead puppet Flagg rescued from Lud, voicing the demand to renounce the Tower. The ka-tet quickly disposes of him.
• GGabrielle and Steven DeschainRoland's mother and father. Gabrielle's affair with Marten drives the boy to his guns; Steven already knew, and sends his son east.
• GGeorge LatigoOne of Farson's employees, tricked into chasing the boys into Eyebolt Canyon and the thinny.
• OOliveThorin's widow, sympathetic to Susan while guarding her. She helps Sheemie's rescue and is killed by Reynolds.
• CCort and DavidRoland's mentor, challenged in the castle yard, and the hawk Roland uses as his weapon. David sacrifices himself for Roland's guns.

The Wizard's Glass (Maerlyn's Grapefruit)

The thinny

The Emerald City

Reaping Day

The oil tankers

The ending is a test disguised as a cruelty. Flagg escapes, but the glass he leaves behind does his real work: it shows the ka-tet Roland killing his mother, the worst thing he has ever done, in the hope they will finally abandon the man who brings calamity to everyone he loves. They refuse. Read one way, this is the book's argument for ka-tet—that chosen family survives full knowledge, not ignorance, and the bond is stronger for having heard Roland's story. Read another, darker way, the refusal is the trap: the glass showed Roland his doom at Hambry and he pursued it anyway, and now his friends have seen his doom and stay anyway. Everyone in this book who looks into the glass is changed by it; the question the ending leaves open is whether the others' loyalty will save Roland from his obsession or carry them all into it. Either way, the group walks on along the Path of the Beam, and the reader finally understands what the Tower costs, and who pays.

1. 1.Is Roland's obsession with the Dark Tower a choice or an infection? Trace the moment the glass plants it in him, and argue whether the quest is his purpose or his doom—does the book see a difference?
2. 2.Compare the two ka-tets: Susan, David, and the friends Roland spends in Hambry versus Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy, who see his worst act and stay. What does the ending claim about knowledge and loyalty?
3. 3.The book layers three genres—Western Hambry, plague-ridden 1980s Kansas, and the Oz-like palace. What does the thinny, where other worlds can be heard, do to bind these worlds together, and why does Roland tell this story beside one?

Readers who wondered why Roland is so cold, and anyone who loves a Western wrapped in dark fantasy—this is King's origin story for his gunslinger, and the emotional core of the whole series. Start here only if you have read the first three books; the payoff depends on them.

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