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Charles Halloway
Mr. Cooger’s partner and one of the proprietors of Cooger and Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show. He is also the leader of the sideshow freaks and serves as the show’s Illustrated Man. Mr. Dark is the antagonist of Something Wicked This Way Comes, and he functions as the personification of evil within the novel. He uses the carnival to lure unsuspecting souls to evil, and once the carnival goers succumb to their desires and the temptation of the carnival, they are transformed into one of Mr. Dark’s sideshow freaks. The carnival’s sinister carousel and its ability to make a rider older or younger depending on which direction it spins is Mr. Dark’s main source of temptation, but he also employs the carnival’s Most Beautiful Woman to tempt Mr. Fury and turn him into the freakshow’s Dwarf. Mr. Dark is covered with tattoos of the pictures of those whose soul he has taken—he even has two new tattoos of Will and Jim on the palms of his hands—and he can inflict pain on others simply by pinching or pulling the corresponding tattoo. While Mr. Dark certainly would be glad to have Will’s soul, he is especially intent on tempting Jim to evil, and Mr. Dark twice gives him free tickets to ride the carousel. After Mr. Cooger is transformed into Mr. Electrico, a man well over one hundred years old, Mr. Dark isn’t sure that he will survive, and he wants to make Jim his new partner. “Dark and Nightshade, Nightshade and Dark,” he says as he tries to entice Jim to instant adulthood. He never does succeed in obtaining the boys’ souls, and he is later killed by Charles. After Will pulls Jim from the carousel and saves his life, Mr. Dark transforms into a nine-year-old boy name Jed and tries to escape, but Charles discovers his disguise and destroys him by holding the boy close and poisoning him with goodness.
Mr. Dark / The Illustrated Man / Jed Quotes in Something Wicked This Way Comes
The Something Wicked This Way Comes quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Dark / The Illustrated Man / Jed or refer to Mr. Dark / The Illustrated Man / Jed. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 39
Quotes
“Oh gosh,” said Will. “It’s hopeless!”
“No. The very fact we’re here worrying about the difference between summer and autumn, makes me sure there’s a way out. You don’t have to stay foolish and you don’t have to be wrong, evil, sinful, whatever you want to call it. There’s more than three or four choices. They, that Dark fellow and his friends don’t hold all the cards, I could tell that today, at the cigar store. I’m afraid of him but, I could see, he was afraid of me. So there’s fear on both sides. Now how can we use it to advantage?”
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Chapter 52
Quotes
He gathered the boy somewhat closer and thought, Evil has only the power that we give it. I give you nothing. I take back. Starve. Starve. Starve.
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Chapter 54
Quotes
“Will!” His father savagely jabbed a finger at him and at Jim. “Damn it, Willy, all this, all these, Mr. Dark and his sort, they like crying, my God, they love tears! Jesus God, the more you bawl, the more they drink the salt off your chin. Wail and they suck your breath like cats. Get up! Get off your knees, damn it! Jump around! Whoop and holler! You hear! Shout, Will, sing, but most of all laugh, you got that, laugh!”
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Mr. Dark / The Illustrated Man / Jed Quotes in Something Wicked This Way Comes
The Something Wicked This Way Comes quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Dark / The Illustrated Man / Jed or refer to Mr. Dark / The Illustrated Man / Jed. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 39
Quotes
“Oh gosh,” said Will. “It’s hopeless!”
“No. The very fact we’re here worrying about the difference between summer and autumn, makes me sure there’s a way out. You don’t have to stay foolish and you don’t have to be wrong, evil, sinful, whatever you want to call it. There’s more than three or four choices. They, that Dark fellow and his friends don’t hold all the cards, I could tell that today, at the cigar store. I’m afraid of him but, I could see, he was afraid of me. So there’s fear on both sides. Now how can we use it to advantage?”
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Chapter 52
Quotes
He gathered the boy somewhat closer and thought, Evil has only the power that we give it. I give you nothing. I take back. Starve. Starve. Starve.
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Chapter 54
Quotes
“Will!” His father savagely jabbed a finger at him and at Jim. “Damn it, Willy, all this, all these, Mr. Dark and his sort, they like crying, my God, they love tears! Jesus God, the more you bawl, the more they drink the salt off your chin. Wail and they suck your breath like cats. Get up! Get off your knees, damn it! Jump around! Whoop and holler! You hear! Shout, Will, sing, but most of all laugh, you got that, laugh!”
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
