Nights at the Circus 3/19/12

The allusions to Shakespeare in the London section of Nights at the Circus are many and varied. Though not all are direct, they bring Shakespeare to the reader's mind. They begin on page 33: "'Midsummer,' said Lizzie. 'Either Midsummer's Night, or else very early on Midsummer Morning.'" This is, of course, reminiscent of A Midsummer Night's Dream, both because of the word choice and because the time between the time periods stated (night and morning) is the time most closely associated with dreams. Shakespeare's story is about fairies, which is also reminiscent of Nights at the Circus, because of Fevvers' fairy-like qualities and the magical aspects of the stories. Four pages later, on page 37, Fevvers' sword is referred to as "her wand, like Prospero's." this brings Shakespeare's The Tempest in as well, again relating to Nights because of its magical content. The audience is reminded of The Tempest again on page 43, where Fevvers' voice is referred to as "a voice made for shouting about the tempest." The language here seems deliberate - another word, such as "storm" could have been used. On page 53, Fevvers directly mentions Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and how they wept at it. On 62, she says, "Then the old hag herself comes tottering down the cellar like Lady MacBeth," which is, of course, a reference to MacBeth. On page 70, she says, "like Hamlet, I would think: 'What a wonderful piece of work is man!'" The character Christian Rosencreutz brings to mind Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of Hamlet, but is more similar to 17th century founder of the Rosicrucian Order, Christian Rosenkreuz. Shakespeare obviously carries some importance both to the novel and to Carter.

There are also many allusions that are reminiscent of familiar fairy tales, namely Snow White and Cinderella (with the clocks at midnight).