The Night Circus
by Erin Morgenstern
Contents
Darkness and Stars
Overview
A ticketed patron enters Le Cirque des Rêves through a striped curtain and is immediately swallowed by darkness, separated from the crowd. Star-like lights guide the patron through a twisting tunnel that disrupts any sense of distance or direction. The passage ends at a velvet-soft curtain and a burst of blinding light, underscoring the circus’s power to control perception from the first step inside.
Summary
A circusgoer with a ticket waits in a steady line outside Le Cirque des Rêves, watching the black-and-white clock move with rhythmic precision.
Past the ticket booth, the only entrance is a heavy striped curtain. People step through one at a time and disappear from sight.
When the circusgoer pulls the curtain aside and enters, the curtain closes behind them and the space becomes completely dark. After a moment, pinpricks of light appear on the walls like stars.
Although the crowd was close only seconds earlier, the circusgoer finds themself suddenly alone, feeling forward through a twisting, mazelike tunnel with only the star-lights for guidance.
At last, the circusgoer reaches another curtain, softer than velvet, and parts it with ease. The light beyond is blinding, marking a sharp transition from disorientation to revelation as the entrance releases them into the circus.
Who Appears
- Circus patron ("you")Second-person visitor who enters the circus, navigates the star-lit dark tunnel, and emerges into blinding light.