In “Something Wicked This Way Comes”, Ray Bradbury uses a variety of mythological, literary, and biblical allusions. An example of a literary allusion is when Mr. Holloway vents to Will about his thoughts when he says, “I asked myself, why would Mephistopheles want a soul?”(Bradbury 203). This alluded to Mephistopheles, a fallen angle spirit of the devil, in the novel Dr. Faustus. Mephistopheles preys on people who are in dark despair and people with un healable wounds so they can sell their souls to the devil. Bradbury made this allusion because Jim was willing to sell his soul to the carnival so he can become older just like how Faust sold his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures.
An example of a mythological allusion is when Bradbury says the “Medusa gaze of Mr. Dark”(Bradbury 245). This alludes to the mythological monster Medusa who would turn the people who look at her face into stone. Mr. Dark gave this gaze that froze will yet Jim was already frozen from the gaze of Mr. Dark, which left him in a trance.
An example of a biblical allusion would be when Will …show more content…
Bradbury uses the number 3 as a symbol of death through “three A.M.! Doctors say the body’s at low tide then.”(Bradbury 58). This shows how three is the time where the body is the closest to death because the blood moves slow and the soul is out and this is why Will is worried about Jim and the carnival. Bradbury uses 3 as a symbol through “Three in the morning…Why did the train come at that hour?”(Bradbury 57). This shows how the time of the carnivals arrival was unusual and how it can make Jim leave Will in order to come to the carnival because he does not know any better. Bradbury also said “And so they ran. Three animals in starlight”(Bradbury 99) which symbolizes death because going back to the carnival can get them killed. Following the nephew can result in death of