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Chapter 23
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
Inside a “coffin sized phone booth” Will phones the police and an ambulance. Minutes later, Jim is leading the police and ambulance attendants down the midway, talking wildly. “He’s got to be alive,” Jim says. “We didn’t mean to do it!” When they arrive at the carousel, Mr. Cooger is nowhere to be found. “He was here, we swear!” cries Jim. He starts yelling for Mr. Cooger in the direction of the tents. “We brought help!” Jim screams. Suddenly, the lights tun on in the Freak Tent and they slowly enter.
The phone booth, described as a coffin, reflects the fact that Will and Jim fear that they have killed Mr. Cooger, but Jim’s hope that he is still alive is not a reflection of his guilt. Jim still wants to ride the carousel and he is worried that he will get in trouble and be kept from the carnival. His obsession with the carousel is growing.
Themes
As they enter, Will sees four men playing cards at a table. One of them is a Dwarf so small, his face cannot be fully seen from behind his cards. The Dwarf seems familiar to Will. “Where? Who? What?” Will thinks. The tent is filled with freaks, and near the back, Mr. Dark sits shirtless and illustrated, adding another tattoo to the palm of his left hand. Behind him lurks a large electric chair. Suddenly, the Dwarf drops his cards. “The lightning-rod salesman,” thinks Will. “Oh, God, what they’ve done to him!”
Will thinks that the Dwarf looks familiar, but he doesn’t fully identify him as Mr. Fury until his able to see his face and his eyes. Just like when Mr. Cooger transforms into Robert, the eyes do not change. It’s suggested that the salesman is effectively trapped inside the body of the Dwarf and is being held against his will by the evil Mr. Dark. This has larger implication regarding where all the “freaks” come from.
Themes
“Gentlemen!” Mr. Dark cries. “We’re rehearsing all our new acts!” The police look past Mr. Dark to the figure sitting in the electric chair. “Who’s he?” they ask. Mr. Dark explains that it is Mr. Electrico, the new act. “One hundred thousand volts will now burn Mr. Electrico’s body!” claims Mr. Dark, and the shock will spark him to life. Mr. Dark flips the switch near the chair and the old man “blazes like a blue autumn tree.” Suddenly, the old man comes alive.
Mr. Electrico “blazes like a blue autumn tree,” mirroring Bradbury’s association between autumn and evil. The earthly authorities of the police seem to have no power in the face of Mr. Dark’s supernatural abilities.
Themes
“…welcome…mmmmmm…” Mr. Electrico stammers. “I…sssaw…the…boysssss…ssssneak into…thee…tent…tttttt…” he begins. He goes on to tell the police that he had only pretended to be dead to scare the boys. “Oh, sure,” one of the policemen says. “Fine show.” Mr. Dark approaches Will and Jim and gives them a dozen free passes. “Your names?” he asks. “Simon,” Jim lies again “Simon Smith.” Will follows suit. “Oliver,” he says. “Oliver Brown.” Mr. Dark looks down at them. “Free rides. Free rides. Come any time. Come back. Come back” he says. Will and Jim grab the tickets and run out of the tent. When the police get in their car, the boys are “huddled in the back.”
Again, Mr. Dark gives the boys free passes to entice them and encourage them to ride the carousel—but it’s suggested that when they do, they too will become one of Mr. Dark’s freaks. The carnival cannot survive without new souls to fuel it, and Mr. Dark senses the boys’—especially Jim’s—desire to instantly be men and skip childhood. Still, both boys lie and offer false names, showing their fear of Mr. Dark and the carnival.
Themes
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