Mosher, John (November 25, 1939). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. New York: F-R Publishing Corp. p.83.

At the Circus - Wikipedia At the Circus - Wikipedia

Lizzie speaks with a young intellectual outlaw whose demeanor is shaped by his overwhelming optimism and faith in the inherent good of mankind. Lizzie doesn't believe in inherent goodness or in the concept of souls. The irony of her words here is that she too claims to be a skeptic, while being a practitioner of prestidigitation. She espouses the philosophy that seeing is believing, when her whole way of life depends on illusions. But when she finishes bathing, Rosencreutz denies Fevvers clean clothes unless she solves his riddle. He repeatedly refers to her as Azrael, the name of an angel of death, and regards her as an angel. His riddle is that she "must come out of the water neither naked nor clothed" (76). She considers the riddle for some time and ultimately decides to use her long, flowing hair to cover up, she says, "in the same way that Lady Godiva insubstantially yet modestly clothed herself on her celebrated ride through Coventry" (76). Rosencreutz seems both impressed and disappointed that she found a solution. Once clothed, Fevvers takes her dinner—it is fowl, which she would normally never eat because it feels to her like cannibalism; but she figures that in her current situation, she shouldn't make a fuss. Fevvers escapes Rosencreutz's compound and flies to Battersea, where she reunites with Lizzie. Following her escape, she's hired by a circus and begins her world tour until she eventually catches the eye of Colonel Kearney, and he recruits her to join his Grand Imperial Tour.Before Buffo’s downfall, he offers frequent tutorials during communal meals of his personal philosophy of clowning, and, by extension, performance in the circus. “Under these impenetrable disguises of wet white, you might find, were you to look, the features of those who were once proud to be visible.” He continues to say that the clown's disguise “invites the laughter that would otherwise come unbidden” (119). Buffo proposes a theory that performance is a type of protection, an armor against the hostilities of the world. Though she’s not a clown, this analysis applies to Fevvers, too, whose persona as a winged woman and larger-than-life aerialist has lifted her and her loved ones out of constant poverty; this persona also allows her to “fly away” from the conflict and oppression with which she’s faced. Time, Aging, and Mortality

Nights at the Circus Themes | GradeSaver Nights at the Circus Themes | GradeSaver

First place, what is this soul of which you speak? Show me its location in the human anatomy and then I might believe in it. But, I tell you straight, dissect away how much you like, you won't find it. And you can't make perfect a thing that don't exist. So, scrub the "soul" from out of your discourse. Lizzie, p. 239 It's an extraordinary, delicious feast. The characters were delightful: funny and horrific at the same time. Colonel Kearny is an American businessman who hires Fevvers for his Grand Imperial Circus that travels across Russia into Japan. He takes pride in doing that which no circus has done before, traveling further and wider than even the great generals of antiquity. Like Fevvers, he will do virtually anything for money and fame, and he's driven in large part by greed. He tells lies about his performers to get publicity for the circus, and the creature he cares most about in the world is his beloved pet, partner, and confidante: his teacup pig, Sybil. Sybil In Fevvers' recounting of her childhood, she describes to Walser the moment her wings spread. At this point in the retelling, Fevvers quotes Ma Nelson, who casts metaphorical significance on Fevvers' wings. Nelson's words loudly underscore Fevvers' role as a symbol of women's liberation. Throughout Part 1, Fevvers exerts her power over the narrative to ascribe symbolic and allegorical significance to her biography, often making subtle allusions and refracting her life story through characters from literature, poetry, and theology.

Retailers:

Samson – The strong man of the circus and Mignon's lover before she falls in love with the Princess Oh, my little one, I think you must be the pure child of the century that just now is waiting in the wings, the New Age in which no women will be bound down to the ground." Ma Nelson, p. 25 In 2006, it was adapted for the stage by Tom Morris and Emma Rice for the Kneehigh Theatre Company. The play was performed at the Lyric Hammersmith in London and the Bristol Old Vic before touring. Countess P. – a cruel and rich woman who kills her husband, gets away with it, but feels bad about the crime nonetheless. She builds a panopticon in Transbaikalia and tries to reform other murderesses but only succeeds in turning both the prisoners and the guards against her