The Spectacle of Her Gluttony shed light on something I hadn't put much thought to while reading the novel, but looking back on it, the themes of eating and appetite are very present. Seeing the emphasis on appetite is even more fascinating upon learning that Carter herself struggled with anorexia. There is constant reference in the novel to food and hunger and eating, as well as to Fevvers' significant size. There is one moment in the novel where Fevvers is "off her food," which comes as a surprise to the reader.
One of the most interesting things about the novel was how the smaller the places they went to got, the more the circus disintegrated. In London, there doesn't seem to be much wrong at all. The whole circus company is there and well. but as the story progresses to St. Petersburg and Siberia, the circus begins rapidly losing members of its company, from clowns to tigers to elephants to dogs. The significance of the animals is fascinating as well - they have thoughts and feelings in an almost human-like way. The female tiger is so jealous of her mate dancing with Mignon that she attacks. With Sybil the pig, it is at times easy to forget she isn't human. The elephants work to put the fire out with their trunks. The animals are almost as human as the humans. Throughout the whole novel, there is a strange lack of separation between animals and humans. Fevvers is half human and half bird, which ties the animals and the humans together. The animals are quite human-like, while the humans, at times, become quite animalistic, like Walser after he loses his memory.
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