Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus

“ A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world”

−Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde’s words illustrate that a dreamer sees the world in a softened light, rather than the bright, blinding light of the sun, but at the same time the dreamer is blinded from what is truly in front of them and is punished when he is confronted with the harshness of reality. In Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, two illusionist set into motion a competition to prove whose teaching tactics are better between the two of them. They do not, however, compete against each other, instead they select representatives to compete for them. For the illusionist who calls himself Prospero the Enchanter, it is his daughter Celia, who has a natural talent for magic. For the man calling himself Alexander, it is an orphan who eventually names himself Marco Alisdair. By binding the two chosen competitors to each other via enchanted rings, Prospero and Alexander ensure that, eventually, their two protégés will meet and compete to prove the superiority of their masters teaching skills. Add info about bailey Both Prospero and Alexander become too caught up in the challenge and as a result lose sight of reality. Bailey is fixated on joining the circus forgetting his family behind. Add info about dreams The obsession that comes with a great dream also exists in other pieces of literature such as The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Into the Wild written by Jon Krakauer. The main characters in these novels, Jay Gatz and Christopher McCandless respectively, have delusions that inevitably lead to their demise. Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus is a testament to the idea that dreams or as...

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...g methods but it is that dream that caused them to lose the people they cared for creating a dark and empty hole in their heart. Hector and Alexander are just fictional examples of individuals the get too caught up in an imaginary goal and forget the people around them.

Since the 1920’s,The American Dream has been an ideal that everyone struggled to have. The Great Gatsby is based on the idea of The American Dream, and the demise of those who attempt to capture its false goals. For Jay Gatz, the dream is that, through wealth and power, one can obtain happiness. Jay devotes most of his adult life to achieving this unattainable dream by ending and creating relationships and conjuring up a web of lies in order for him to appear wealthy and well rounded.

Works Cited

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925. Print