The Allusion of Martyrs

An allusion that is constantly repeated throughout the opening 125 pages of the novel Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter is that of Jesus Christ. Just like Christ, numerous of the characters are portrayed as martyrs, those who suffer for the benefit of others. The two notable examples of such characters are Fevvers, the aerialist who sacrifices her own comfortable life at the Battersea ice cream shop dignity to become one of the girls under the charge of Madame Schreck, the head of a brothel that ‘caters for those who were troubled in their…soul’, and Buffo the Great, the leader of the troupe of clowns in the Colonel’s circus, the Ludic Game. Both of these characters have different reasons for becoming a martyr like Christ however; Fevvers is pushed by the need to help her new adopted family, the cousins of her trusty mother-figure, Lizzie; Buffo has become by choice, a ‘subject of laughter’ who’s personal feelings does not matter. Having made his decision to adopt a face that is not his, Buffo, whose real name is George Buffins, has ‘condemned [himself] to be “Buffo” in perpetuity’ and be the ‘subject of laughter’ for the rest of his life. Like wise, by making the choice to enter Madame Shreck’s house, Fevvers appears to have condemned herself to a life of ‘sorrow of exile and of abandonment’ yet she still proceeds with the hope of making money for her starving and sickly adoptive family. In their roles as martyrs, both characters also become whores, albeit different kinds. Fevvers has become a whore for the men with damaged souls, who seek to satisfy their twisted fetishes by observing ‘freaks’ of human nature (ranging from a dwarf woman to a woman with eyes instead of nipples) whilst Buffo has become, like all other clowns, a ‘whore of mirth’, obliged to appear joyful and silly at all times for the benefit of others, while suppressing his ‘constant companion’, despair (thus resulting in his alcoholism). It will be interesting to see if Carter decides to portray more characters in her novel as martyrs and relate them to other scapegoat figures of history such as Socrates, who died for his philosophy, and Nathan Hale, who acted as a spy for the Americans during the revolution against the British.