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Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Something Wicked This Way Comes, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Good vs. Evil
Age, Time, and Acceptance
Love and Happiness
Fear, the Supernatural, and the Unknown
Summary
Analysis
From the empty library, Charles hears the painful shriek of the train’s whistle and the “disjointed calliope hymns.” He goes to the window and sees Will and Jim running towards home, and in the distance, he can see the carnival “waiting.” Charles can see a carousel with “night beasts hanging midgallop” and a Mirror Maze. “Three o’clock…” Charles says out loud as his skin becomes “lizard’s skin” and his stomach “fills with blood and turns to rust.”
The mention of three a.m. again carries connotations of evil and witchcraft, and the carousel horses described as “night beasts” reflect the evil and danger of the carousel. Ironically, Charles immediately takes note of the Mirror Maze, which will prove to be, for him at least, the most dangerous attraction. The maze makes Charles appear older than he is, thereby making him desire youth even more.
Themes
“I’ll go there,” thinks Charles. “I won’t go there.” He leaves the library and passes the empty shop with the block of ice claiming to hold the most beautiful woman in the world. The sawhorses are “abandoned,” and between them is a puddle of water. Only a few ice shards remain and attached to them are strands of long hair. Charles “sees but chooses not to see” and heads in the direction of home.
Charles’s desire to both go and not go to the carnival reflects Bradbury’s argument that everyone has the capacity for evil. The melted block of ice and rogue hairs imply that Mr. Fury has indeed melted the ice to get to the Most Beautiful Woman in the World, while Charles can simply walk away.
Themes
