Something Wicked This Way Come Analysis

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury is a story about two young boys, Jim and Will, in Green Town, Illinois who encounter a mysterious and sinister carnival. Characters such as Jim and Will represent a benevolent tone, while other characters contribute to the book’s overall frightening tone. These tones identified in the novel can be compared to the painting Death and the Miser by Hieronymus Bosch.
Death and the Miser depicts many imps and demons, which can be easily connected to the characters involved with the ominous carnival. Two men named Cooger and Dark own the carnival. Almost two-thirds of the way into the novel, Charles, Will’s father, explains to the boys that the pair uses people’s fears to provide themselves “fuel” to

continue running the carnival. “‘When it’s frozen you stiff, it plays that fine sweet soul-searching music’” (Bradbury 205). Cooger and Dark offer their prey remedies to their fears, like a magical carousel that has the ability to change someone’s age. However, these remedies only result in more negative emotions such as guilt, which ultimately pulls people into the carnival. The carnival’s victims represent the painting’s scattered imps, while the monster offering gold to the miser is connected to Cooger and Dark as the monster is promising the miser salvation, but only Hell awaits him.
The miser in the painting has parallels to the character Miss Foley.

Miss Foley is introduced in the first part of the novel as Jim and Will’s teacher. She meets the boys at the carnival and goes into the Mirror Maze, where she proceeds to shriek hysterically in terror. Afterwards, Mr. Cooger uses the carousel to change his appearance to pretend to be Miss Foley’s nephew. Will and Jim witness this transformation and check in with Miss Foley twice. Due to Mr. Cooger’s presence, the boys cannot directly warn Miss Foley about the threat in her house, but they ask how she is doing after the Mirror Maze incident. Although Miss Foley tells the pair that she is fine, later that night “she could feel the mirrors waiting for her in each room…” (Bradbury 121). Miss Foley is still clearly disturbed by her experience in the Mirror Maze. A few days later, Jim and Will encounter a young girl under a tree, who they realize is a transformed Miss Foley. The pair walk away to discuss how they should help her, but when they return Miss Foley has disappeared. Further into the novel, a discussion between Jim, Will and Charlie heavily imply that she was taken away by the carnival, but her ultimate fate is uncertain, adding to the disturbing tone. Like the miser, Miss Foley is confronted by an evil force, the carnival, and a good force, the boys. The miser also shares Miss Foley’s ambiguous fate, which is illustrated by the miser reaching for the offer of

money.
The angel in the painting is a benevolent force that shares similarities to Jim, Will, and Charles. Will and Jim try whatever they can to protect those they care about, including Miss Foley and Charles. The goodness of the trio is especially shown towards the end of the novel as they defeat the malevolent freaks that are a part of the carnival. After the freaks disappear, “black tent poles lay in elephant bone yards with the dead tents blowing away like the petals of a great black rose” (Bradbury 287). The goodness of the trio helps destroy the carnival. This exhibits a tone shift in the novel from frightening to benevolent and serene. In the painting, the angel is standing behind the miser and shows him a crucifix in the window where a light is shining through, trying to lead the miser away from evil (Death).
The man in the foreground is shown to have connections to the devil, which is similar to Cooger and Dark’s relationship with evil. In the middle of the novel, it is revealed that Cooger and Dark’s carnival has been around for centuries. “‘If men had wanted to stay bad forever, they could have, agreed?’” (Bradbury 196). Charles poses this question to the boys to imply that Cooger and Dark gave up their goodness to live on forever. This adds to the creepy tone as people are desperate enough to be immortal, even if it means giving up their humanity. According to the overview of Death and the Miser on the National Gallery of Art website, the man in the foreground represents the miser in his younger days, who is giving money to a rat-like monster while fondling his rosary beads, illustrating hypocrisy. However, this can also represent how the miser is working for the devil to get the benefits he would not normally recieve living in God’s way, similar to Cooger and Dark.
Death is a significant theme in the novel that also adds to the story’s terrifying tone. One of the ways Cooger and Dark manipulate people is by exploiting people’s fear of death. “‘Fifty?’ purred Mr. Dark ‘Fifty-one?’ he murmured. ‘Fifty-two? Like to be younger?’” (Bradbury 212). Mr. Dark even tries to prey on Charles’ insecurities about being old by offering him rides on the magic carousel. However, Charles has already explained to the boys that “‘Death doesn’t exist. It never did, it never will….we’re more afraid Nothing than of Something’” (Bradbury 205). This plays with the concept of how people are afraid of the uncertain, and death is the perfect representation of the unknown. In Death and the Miser, death is personified by the skeleton on the left, creeping in through the door with the arrow aimed at the miser (Death).
Something Wicked This Way Comes and Death and the Miser share chilling yet benevolent tones. Bradbury uses his characters to help expressing the tones of his novel, while Bosch uses the figures in the painting to convey the tones in his piece. Whether it is Cooger and Dark and the man in the foreground, Miss Foley and the miser, or the boys and the angel, these resemblances are uncanny. These masterpieces exhibit how different creators from disparate time periods could produce work that are parallel in ideas and concept.