Week of April 21, 2013 - MacGuffin, A Study in Words

MacGuffin’s are a form of fictional prestidigitation. You’re meant to look at the MacGuffin being manipulated in one hand, while the plot is being developed in the other hand. The best MacGuffin stories make use of the plot device in such a way that it doesn’t take you so far astray of the plot that you lose track of the story.

MacGuffin Defined

MacGuffin is a noun defined as an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance. One example of a MacGuffin is the briefcase that became the object of the film “Pulp Fiction” that kept getting passed around throughout the movie. Your never really find out why everyone wants this briefcase or even what’s in it, only that everyone wants it bad enough to steal it and keep it away from everyone else who wants it.

History of the Word Magoffin

Alfred Hitchcock coined the word MacGuffin  as  a word for such a plot device. He borrowed the concept from an old story about a mysterious package brought aboard a train by one of the passengers. When fellow passengers began asking questions about the package, the package owner replied that it was a “MacGuffin” used to capture tigers in the Highlands of Scotland.

When the other passengers replied that there were no tigers in Scotland,  the package owner answers back, “Well, then, it must not be a MacGuffin.” Throughout the story, this MacGuffin really hand no purpose, but it kept the readers’ attention and built suspense so greatly, because readers followed the mysterious package the entire time, waiting on the edge of their seats for the solution. That ibis what intrigued Hitchcock so greatly, that something that grabbed everyone’s attention and held it so intensely, and that it would turn out to be irrelevant. He realized that he could use the concept of the MacGuffin like a magician’s trick to distract his audience with his MacGuffin hand while setting up the real plot  with the other.

Synonyms of MacGuffin

There aren’t many synonyms for MacGuffin, but the few I found that really seem to fit the bill are: red herring, clue, diversion, evidence, wild goose chase, merry dance, decoy, trick, ploy, lure, deviation, device, plot device, distraction, trap, and bait.