“The Night Circus” Summary & Analysis Summary “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern is a compelling tale of two people raised to be opponents in a to-the-death mercurial battle who fall in love amidst their unique circumstances. It begins when five-year-old Celia’s mother commits suicide and she is passed on to her father, Hector Bowen, a performing magician with very real abilities. Bowen notices that his daughter has great potential in the magical arts and calls his friend and rival, Alexander, to a dual between his daughter and any child Alexander chooses to match her. Alexander takes Marco, an orphan boy, as a student and the two children are bound to their fates. Marco and Celia are raised for years under the instruction of their respective teachers until a “suitable arena” can be found. This arena is fashioned when Alexander and Hector Bowen influence Chandresh, an incredibly wealthy entrepreneur, to create Les Cirque des Rệves, a new, ambitious breed of circus meant to inspire awe among every visitor. Marco is put into place as Chandresh’s personal assistant and Celia as the circus’s very own performing magician. On the night of the circus’s grand opening, Marco casts a spell on the circus so that he may monitor from afar, and at the exact moment of its inception, the Murray twins, Poppet and Widget, are born. As a result of their newborn interaction with the circus’s magic, they develop psychic abilities: Widget sees the past, Poppet sees the future. Celia and
The Night Circus written by Erin Morgenstern depicts the tale of two lovers bound by a challenge that forces them to compete against each other. It is a romantic tale, from which the reader can develop a strong sense of emotion with the two lovers. Morgenstern uses the character Bailey to demonstrate the ideas of, love, passion vs obsession and magic in this novel. She engages the reader with an exciting story line and uses a lot of symbolism.
As a child daydreaming and imagining was essential to survive the extensive abominable days of summer, or the weekends. Likewise, in the texts “Red Cranes” by Jacey Choy and “The Firefly Hunt” by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki two children who still express their imagination and creativity, have to realize the harsh realities that everyone must incorporate. In the texts “Red Cranes” and “The Firefly Hunt” they express the ambition and creativity of a child’s mind. However, the development of the two characters dealing with the realities in their adolescent years, varies tremendously between the two stories.
The Monkey Garden by Sandra Cisneros tells the story of a young girl’s loss of childhood innocence. The story is narrated by a mature woman remembering her initiation into adolescence through the images and events that occurred in an unused neighborhood lot. She is not ready to mature into adolescence and uses her imagination to transform the lot into a fantasy garden--a place where she can hide from the adult world.
Circus performers are people of great courage. They have to make a living out of entertaining people that pay good money to watch them and want to get their money's worth. They have a lot of pressure from that, as well as peer pressure from their fellow performers. Not only do they have pressure from that, they have to worry about the very acts being preformed from playing with swords and fire to hanging from a wire hundreds of feet in the air. If their not focused on what they are doing, they can be killed in a instant.
Sperber, Murray. Beer and Circus: How Big-time College Sports Is Crippling Undergraduate Education. New York: H. Holt, 2001. Print.
The Night Circus written by Erin Morgenstern depicts the tale of two lovers bound by a challenge that forces them to compete against each other. It was a romantic tale, from which the reader can develop a strong sense of emotion with the two lovers. In this novel, Morgenstern uses the character Bailey to demonstrate the ideas of love, passion vs obsession and standing up for yourself. Love is a very influential idea in the story, without it Bailey wouldn’t have taken over the circus. However, Bailey’s obsession with the circus makes him abandon his family.
Throughout the story there is circus imagery, which is significant to the story in several ways. A circus is commonly known for being the entertainment for a large group of people and is also characterized by a variety of acts and events designed to arouse the awe and fascination of the crowds. The young African-American men in the story are forced to participate in a variety of events designed for the sole purpose of entertaining the crowd of white men. This is effective because it is very compelling in the way whites used to treat blacks. They looked at them such as "circus animals" and felt empowered to do whatever they wanted, making them look like clowns.
Love affects the choices everyone makes without realization or much thought put into it, love is lost when life intervenes, also love can only open when realized its sustenance of its existence is lost. The Night Circus by Erin Morgentern, is a story of two lovers constrained by a magic challenge forcing them to compete against each other in a fight to the death. Love involves sacrafice as Marco save's Celia and sacrifices himself by not dying; instead living in the central fire that is in the circus, another example of love involving sacrifice shown in the book is Hector sacrificing Celia for the sake of competition knowing that she could potentially die, also another example of love involving sacrifice is when Poppet asks Bailey to leave everything he knows at home to come with the circus.
Marlena and Jacob are very attracted to each other . The circus requires an elephant named rosie. August violently tries to train rosie but doesn't succeed so Jacob work with august to train the new addition to the circus family. Camel becomes very ill and is put at hiding because his position will be lost if that is found out. Jacob and marlena take care of
In The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern symbolizes the characters lack of free will by comparing the circus and their lives to birds being held in cages. Celia and Marco lost their privacy and freedom at a young age because they were forced and manipulated by Hector and Alexander. They are like birds stuck in a cage, unable to go where they please, controlled by their masters. They are not the only ones who are stuck though. Bailey entered a tent, “no longer a door to be found” (142).
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is about two young illusionist whom are pitted against one another in a challenge in which only one will survive yet no one understands what the challenge is. “Magic,” the man in the grey suit repeats, turning the word into a laugh. “This is not magic. This is the way the world is, only very few people take time to stop and note it… Not one of them has even an inkling of the things that are possible in this world… They want to believe that magic is nothing but clever deception, because to think it real would keep them up at night, afraid of their own existence.” (Morgenstern, 504)
Gothic Literature is different from other normal works because of the elements that are not usually used in other tales. Gothic stories use elements that can cause the reader to feel emotions they are unfamiliar with. A prime example of these amazing tales would be The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. In this tale, the use of suspense and mystery adds to the effect of the story and makes the story come to life.
The Artist D. Stanley created an etching on paper called Night Moves back in 1977 on April fourth. Stanley was actually a student at Indiana State back in the late 70’s.
In order to appease the people, one must give them bread and circuses. In ancient Rome to avoid riots, Emperor Augustus feed the people bread and gave them entertainment in the form of the gladiatorial games. “ The Musical Brain” by Cesar Aira puts a spin on a well known phrase panem et circenses, bread and circuses. In this peculiar story, the narrator’s thirst for knowledge, and normalcy echo throughout the whole book.
Rituals and theater, which are both cultural performances, have similarities such as serving the purpose of entertaining teaching the audience, belief from audiencce, use of props, use of space, and repesentaion. Since during this time period many commoners did not know how to read, the church had to present these rituals in order to teach them about events in the bible like the Crucification of Jesus Christ. Similaritly, a play will serve the purpose to teach the audience a certain idea that the playwright believes is necessary for the audience members, the audience vary depending on the time this play was written, to learn or understand. Unlike a play, which has no certain time frame to be perform, a ritual is perform during certain time of the liturgical year; for example, the passion of the cross