Characters
- William "Will" Halloway
- Born one minute before midnight on October 30, Will is described as having done "only six years of staring." (He is described as having white-blonde hair with eyes "as clear as summer rain".) Will is naturally obedient and wary of getting involved in difficult situations; nonetheless, he takes on an active role in fighting the carnival's evil power.
- James "Jim" Nightshade
- Born one minute after midnight on October 31, Jim is brooding and brash, acting as a foil for Will's cautiousness and practicality. (He is described as having wild and tangled chestnut brown hair and eyes the color of green grass.) Jim yearns to become older, which makes him vulnerable to the carnival's temptations, but he is ultimately saved by his friendship with Will.
- Charles Halloway
- A middle-aged man who starts out in the novel as quiet and unhappy. He's not very close to his son, but eventually gains self-awareness and faith while up against the carnival (defeating the "Dust Witch" and "Jed/Mr. Dark"). He becomes a fighter in his own right by the end of the novel, along with gaining the admiration, love, and friendship of his son.
- G. M. Dark
- The main antagonist, a sinister man who bears tattoos all over his body; one for each person successfully tempted into joining the carnival. Mr. Dark initially holds sway over the other main characters, but his power weakens when Charles uses positive emotions against him, something he cannot comprehend or withstand. Dark's background is a mystery, although he refers to being raised in a strict religious upbringing. When asked if he reads the Bible, he replies, "I've had every page, line and word read at me, sir!" Another, perhaps more fitting interpretation of the Bible sequence, given his dismissive nature to Charles and his array of books, would be that he is mocking Charles' belief that the Bible would have any sort of effect in either repelling or hurting him. This would indicate that Dark is not a devil or demon in the Christian sense of the term.
- J. C. Cooger
- Dark's partner in running the carnival, Mr. Cooger is a fierce, red-headed man who is first seen repairing the carousel. He catches and terrifies Will and Jim until Mr. Dark intervenes. In the guise of her twelve-year-old nephew, he is able to persuade Miss Foley to come to the carnival. The tables are turned on him, however, when Will increases the speed of the carousel as Mr. Cooger is riding it, causing him to rapidly age to the point of decrepitude. At the climax of the book he crumbles into dust and dies when the freaks accidentally drop him while carrying him back to the carousel. Like Mr. Dark, his origins are unknown.
- The Dust Witch
- A blind soothsayer with a sixth sense and the ability to perform many feats of magic, the Witch is portrayed as one of the carnival's most dangerous members. However, her increased sensitivity to the presence and emotions of other people makes her vulnerable to positive feelings. Charles uses this weakness to kill her with a bullet carved with a smile.
- Miss Foley
- A fifty-year-old schoolteacher of Will and Jim. Much like the other victims of the carnival, Miss Foley wished to become young. Her wish is granted, although she is transformed into a little girl with all her memories intact, unable to return to her former life and with no one to take care of her. It is not stated in the novel what happened to Miss Foley at the end; the best theory is that she ran away with the freaks as the carnival collapsed.
- The Skeleton
- An extremely thin, skeleton-like creature who is one of the more frequently appearing freaks. Like all of the other freaks, he once desired to be younger and was eventually tricked into joining the carnival. The Skeleton appears to be one of the more loyal freaks as, near the book's end, he takes the time to carry the recently deceased and youth Mr. Dark with him after all the other freaks ran away. He is last seen walking away into the hills that border the town.
- Tom Fury/Dwarf
- A lightning rod salesman who is turned into an insane dwarf by the carnival and is recruited into it, with no memories of his former life.
Read more about this topic: Something Wicked This Way Comes (novel)
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“Hemingway was a prisoner of his style. No one can talk like the characters in Hemingway except the characters in Hemingway. His style in the wildest sense finally killed him.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“My characters never die screaming in rage. They attempt to pull themselves back together and go on. And that’s basically a conservative view of life.”
—Jane Smiley (b. 1949)
“White Pond and Walden are great crystals on the surface of the earth, Lakes of Light.... They are too pure to have a market value; they contain no muck. How much more beautiful than our lives, how much more transparent than our characters are they! We never learned meanness of them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)