Harvey's Personification Of Evil In 'The Thief Of Always'

The Thief of Always, by Clive Barker, is a complex book with many different ideas and characters. It seeks to introduce the notion of time on a relative scale, and to show that wasting one’s moments can lead to one’s life passing by in an instant. In The Thief of Always, a theme has shown itself multiple times, that being Clive Barker developing evil. There are three main examples of the that topic, those being Hood’s personification of evil, Harvey’s potential for evil and Carna’s evil existence as well. Evil is one of the main themes throughout The Thief of Always.
Hood, the house, is highly evil. He has two main characterizations that show how evil Hood actually is. The first way that Hood shows his evil is when it is revealed that he

steals children’s souls. Ms. Griffin, the curse broken on her, says to Harvey, “There’s such a terrible emptiness inside [Hood]. He wants to fill it with souls, but it’s a [bottomless] pit.” (181). Ms. Griffin saying that Hood has “a terrible emptiness inside” shows why he needs souls to fill it up. Ms. Griffin also explains that it’s a “bottomless pit,” which explains why, after all the children coming through, Hood’s soul is still empty. Also, because Ms. Griffin is saying this, she is probably correct as she’s known Hood for the longest of anyone in the story. The second point is that Hood has no heart. When the robes that cover Hood are ripped off by Lulu, Barker narrates, “There was no great enchantment at [Hood’s] heart. In fact, there was no heart at all.” (215). Because Hood has no heart he may be evil. Hood is defeated by his vanity to cover up his lack of a heart, and as described earlier steals children’s souls to try to fix it. Having no heart is a result of being evil, but it is that that conquers him. Those points are the main points that illustrate Hood’s evil, but he is not the only character with evil. Harvey also has evil potential, despite having good in him.

While Harvey is the one who destroyed Hood and saved the day, he has evil tendencies as well. The first main point of evil in Harvey is his prank with Wendell that nearly got out of hand. When Harvey is pranking Wendell, and Jive is edging Harvey on to eat Wendell, Harvey thinks, “Who [is] this ridiculous boy Wendell anyway... He was just a tasty morsel. Any vampire worth his wings would chew [him up] as soon as [they looked] at him. And yet... “ (98-99). The fact that Harvey was having those thoughts shows that he wanted to eat Wendell up. That is magnified especially by Harvey thinking, “[Wendell] was just a tasty morsel.” Although, when he thinks, “And yet..” it implies that Harvey was having doubts about doing the evil deed; that is probably Harvey’s goodness coming through. Another point that shows Harvey’s evil is his obsession with vampires. When Marr is molding Harvey to look like a vampire, right before he pranks Wendell, Harvey says, “Yeah, I want to have fangs, like a wolf, and a red throat, and white skin, like I’ve been dead for a thousand years.” (89). The fact that Harvey listed so many details shows that he knows a lot about vampires, because someone who didn’t know much about vampires would probably say just “Oh,

I want to look scary!” Seeing that Harvey knows a lot about vampires, we can assume that he finds vampires awesome. By awesome, however, Harvey means awe-inspiring fear. In conclusion, there is definite proof that Harvey has an evil potential in him. However, he has some good in him. Although, not all characters have good in that evil. Carna, for example. Carna is a flying beast in the Thief of Always that consistently hinders Harvey’s progress. It has evil as well. Carna does evil deeds for Hood. When Harvey is in the attic of the Holiday house, and meets Hood, Hood says, “‘But if you will have what’s yours, have death. Carna?...Devour [Harvey]!’]” (205). Seeing that Hood said to Carna, “Devour [Harvey]!” that indicates that Carna will kill and eat Harvey. In most literature, killing is an evil act. Also, the fact that Hood said “Carna?” in an offhand manner suggests that this wasn’t unusual, and that Carna does his bidding. Because Hood, as shown in the first body paragraph, is evil, therefore the creature doing his evil bidding is probably evil, or is the tool of evil. The second point proves Carna’s evil is when it is destroyed by kindness. After Hood has told Carna to destroy Harvey, and it’s about to, Barker narrates, “But is was Harvey who [kindly] laid his hand upon [Carna]...and its body suddenly flew into a thousand pieces.” Because Carna had died from an act of kindness from Harvey this shows that it is evil because in most western literature, evil is the opposite of kindness. Also, because it flew apart from such a small act of kindness this proves that it had never had an act of kindness before, thus making it eviler and eviler. There is much evil in things that are made for evil, Carna one example of many. In the Thief of Always, there is much development of evil. But that is for a reason. Barker’s theme shines from these depths. At the end of all this,one can see the development of evil in the plot. However there is one thing in common with all this evil: love. Love is what is conquering this evil. Hood? He had no heart. He could not love, so he was killed. Harvey? He had evil in him. However, he turned his evil on Hood. He used his powers of good to turn around his evil. Carna? Carna was destroyed by a single act of compassion. Thus this essay arrives at the point: Evil, however destructive or powerful, can be conquered by love.