The Night Circus (6 pts): Puppets on the Ends of Monochrome Strings

     Throughout my journey into The Night Circus, I had only one quote running through my head, and it wasn't even from the novel itself. It was from the first Star Wars prequel: The Phantom Menace, with the quote being Qui-Gon Jinn's, "There's always a bigger fish". At first, it seemed like my brain was just pulling up funny quotes for the hell of it, but the further I read on, the more I realized that it was referring to the amount of manipulation being done by the characters in the story.

The story begins with Prospero and the man in the gray suit pulling Celia and Marco's strings, but after the circus is established as the venue, Celia and Marco begin to pull their own strings as well. Soon enough, the entire circus staff is under their control, as well as the exhibitions of the circus itself. Yet, despite manipulation having a negative connotation, there were some people in The Night Circus who used manipulation for good deeds.

For example, Celia and Marco are in charge of manipulating the circus by creating tents for the guests, but I thought it was adorable how they made tents for each other as well. They're supposed to be enemies that exhaust their magical skills in order to outlive the other, but they chuck that all to the side in favor of romantic gestures through the tents. It was really nice seeing Celia find escape in the Ice Garden that Marco made just for her, especially seeing how her father hung around her like a shadow. They could have chosen to make spectacles that intimidated each other, but they instead manipulated the circus into a playground for their love.

Unfortunately, Celia and Marco were bound by the competition until one of them died, and I honestly thought Marco was going to die in the end. Tsukiko was all ready to kill him and then Celia literally manipulated time and space to make themselves ghosts and end the competition in a stalemate! The things you do for love!

But of course, there were those who used manipulation for their own gain, and the first example that comes to mind is Prospero. I can recall myself physically cringing when reading about how he cuts each of Celia's fingertips in order to make her heal herself, over and over again. I can't even imagine how painful that must've been. It's so obvious that he didn't see Celia as his own daughter; she was more of a pawn in his game with the man in the gray suit. We the readers can also see how much pressure her father puts on her throughout the competition, looming over her in his phantom form, trying to get her to do things his way. By contrast, the man in the gray suit leaves Marco to his own devices, not really giving him any guidance whatsoever. It almost seems like he's abandoned Marco, and yet the pressure of the competition still weighs on Marco's shoulders. It's what makes the resolution of The Night Circus feel so right- both Celia and Marco are released from the competition (as well as their overbearing and uninterested mentors, respectively), while also being able to be together.