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Chapter 43
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
Back inside the library, Charles’s hand feels as if it has been placed in a “white-hot furnace.” Suddenly, he hears the door open and close again. “Old man, old man, old man, old man,” the Dust Witch calls. The Witch can hear his breathing and feel his pain, and he knows that it is no use to hide. “Damn you!” Charles yells. “Get it over with! I’m here!” As the witch approaches, he can feel his heart slow down and “stumble.”
It is no use for Charles to hide, because the Witch’s supernatural powers and “special blindness” ensure that she will find him wherever he is. His heart slows and “stumbles” because the Witch has the power to stop his heart using only her mind. At this point the evil powers of the carnival seem unstoppable.
Themes
As the Witch moves in closer for the kill, Charles is struck by a strong and inexplicable desire to laugh. “Why?” he thinks. “Why am I…giggling…at such a time!?” Charles breaks out into uncontrollable laughter and the Witch “swoons back,” as if in pain. “You!” he laughs. “Funny! You!” His laughter increases, and the Witch grabs at her face as if she has been burned. Suddenly, she turns and runs out of the library. “What’s happened?” Charles thinks to himself in disbelief. He follows and runs out into the street.
Charles begins to laugh for apparently no reason at all, as he himself is confused when the sound escapes his mouth. However, the happiness that his laughter implies is incompatible with the Dust Witch’s very existence, and she responds as if it causes her physical pain. This reflects Bradbury’s argument of the power of happiness and laughter to overcome evil.
Themes
