WEEK 7: WELCOME TO THE CIRCUS

Last week I read The Night Circus, a fantastical and incredibly visual novel by Erin Morgenstern. Before I start my response on the moral ambiguity of the characters, I would like to preface with the fact that I am a huge fan of circuses. And not just your typical neighborhood-fair-kiddie circuses. Far from it actually. I have always been greatly fascinated with the darker, more whimsical and bizarre aspects of circuses, so you can imagine how exciting this read was for me. The way that Morgenstern wrote this book really brought the reader into this wonder world that she created, breaking the story into nonlinear segments where it’s written in second person and then switches to third. I definitely got major “The Prestige” vibes from this novel as well, which is a great read with a great film adaption if you haven’t heard of it. But anyways, let’s get on with the real content!

To start off, I believe that the biggest moral complication in this novel was the competition itself. Celia and Marco were both brought into this long-waging battle between their “caretakers” without a choice. To twist the mindset of young children like those two is morally corrupt and unjust, which makes it a no-brainer as to why the two end up in such a complicated situation. It seemed as though the supporting characters, as quirky and fun as they were, tested their moral compasses and tried to persuade them in different directions. Tsukiko especially brought a great sense of moral ambiguity. Because of her own past experiences, she deters Celia and even tries killing her loved one. However, she does all of this for Celia’s sake and has good intentions. Throughout the book, I was expecting Tsukiko to be a villain, but she turned out to be another tortured soul.

To put this in context of the real world: when you push the limits of someone and force them to be what you want, you end up pushing them completely off the edge. In Celia and Marco’s case, they technically ended up dead. Yes, this ending is a “happy ending” since they end up together to haunt the circus for all of eternity, but did it really have to go that far just for them to be happy? However if there was no moral ambiguity in this book, it wouldn’t have been as riveting as it was.

- ☽Stacy Moon☾