Something Wicked This Way Comes: Analysis of Major Characters
"Something Wicked This Way Comes" is a novel that explores the interplay of youth, friendship, and the nature of evil through its major characters. Central to the story are Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, two boys navigating the temptations of adolescence amidst the arrival of a sinister carnival in their hometown. Will, born just before Halloween, embodies caution and naivety, fearing the carnival's allure, while Jim, born a minute later, represents the darker curiosity of youth, drawn to the carnival's promise of quick maturity.
Their relationship is tested as they confront the malevolent forces of G. M. Dark and J. C. Cooger, who thrive on human suffering and discontent. Will's father, Charles Halloway, serves as an intellectual and protective figure, ultimately discovering that love and laughter are the keys to defeating the carnival's dark influence. Other characters, such as Miss Foley, reflect the dangers of longing for lost youth, as she becomes ensnared by the carnival's deceptive promises. Through these interactions, the novel delves into themes of growing up, the acceptance of time, and the moral choices that define one's character.
Something Wicked This Way Comes: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Ray Bradbury
First published: 1962
Genre: Novel
Locale: Green Town, Illinois
Plot: Fantasy
Time: A week before one Halloween in the early 1930's
Will Halloway, a boy of almost fourteen, born one minute before midnight on October 30. He is the best friend of Jim Nightshade. The less adventuresome of the two, he is frightened by the hypnotically attractive carnival that appears in Green Town, Illinois, just before Halloween. He is still very much a young boy, in contrast to Jim. His experience with the evil Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show helps to teach him about the value of friendship, the importance of his father, and the nature of evil. He brings down the wrath of Cooger and Dark by jamming the carousel's controls in the forward position while Cooger is riding the machine, thus turning the man into an ancient, dying being. Will eventually acquires the courage necessary to fight off the sideshow freaks and help his father save Jim Nightshade.
Jim Nightshade, Will Halloway's best friend, born one minute after midnight on October 31. His father has died. In contrast to Will, Jim is the dark side of youth and is very much attracted to the carnival and its mysterious and threatening sideshow and rides. Jim is eager to grow up and falls under the spell of the promise of adulthood held out to him by the carousel, which ages a person one year for every one of its forward revolutions. By the novel's conclusion, he has learned that growing up takes time, and he is content to let time run its course naturally.
Charles Halloway, Will's father. He married late in life and considers himself an unworthy man. He works as a janitor in the Green Town library and is a man of tremendous intellectual curiosity and learning. Despite his negative self-image, he loves his family and wants to protect his son from the dangers he perceives in Cooger and Dark's carnival. Halloway discovers that the carnival is as old as time and that it has kept itself alive by feeding on others' dissatisfactions, hopes, and foolish wishes. It is Halloway who discovers how to defeat the dark forces of the carnival: by means of laughter and love.
G. M. Dark, a man covered in sinister tattoos and one of the owners of Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show. Dark is intent on capturing as many gullible persons as he can because the people of the carnival feed on human suffering. Dark and Cooger depend on people's fear of death and suffering to bring them willing victims. He, like his followers, fears death; he exists in a perpetual limbo between living and dying. He manages to entice Miss Foley into meeting her demise on the carousel and nearly captures Jim.
J. C. Cooger, the other carnival proprietor. He first rides the carousel in reverse to become Robert, the phony nephew of Miss Foley. Eventually he rides the carousel forward and is trapped in the body of a dying old man because Will prevents him from getting off the machine. He becomes a grisly parody of old age, kept alive by G. M. Dark's black electric chair. He serves as a horrible example of what results from falling prey to the carnival's dark promise of eternal life.
Tom Fury, the enigmatic lightning rod salesman. He sells Jim a lightning rod just before the carnival appears in town.
Miss Foley, Will and Jim's unhappy, unmarried seventh grade teacher, in her fifties. She is a well-intentioned woman who is kind to the local children. Because she has no family, she is empty and dissatisfied with her life. Cooger and Dark's carnival holds out to her the promise of recapturing her lost youth and another chance to lead a fulfilled life. Because she is so intent on attaining her goal, she betrays Jim and Will to the carnival owners and to the police. She becomes lost in the carnival's mirror maze and is trapped as a member of the carnival, an adult woman in the body of a young child.