Rivalry and Competition Theme Analysis

At the center of The Night Circus is the competition between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who must outperform each another with increasingly complex forms of magic until one of them dies. They do not fully understand the boundaries of this game, however, because they are only pawns, forced into competition by their teachers, Hector Bowen and Mr. A.H. Both of these aging magicians—who are not only teachers but also surrogate guardians for Celia and Marco—show little affection for their young wards and have seemingly rejected emotional vulnerability in favor of the single-minded path of victory over their centuries-long rivalry. When Celia and Marco fall in love and rebel against the cruel and isolating rules of the competition, Hector and Mr. A.H. have the opportunity to grasp the value of genuine human connection, yet neither is able to make a meaningful change. Intense rivalry and competition, the novel thus suggests, are fueled by selfishness and blindness to others’ needs—and, as such, inevitably lead to isolation.

Both Hector Bowen and Mr. A.H. show distain for those outside of the world of magic, which makes it difficult for them to develop real social or emotional connections to others. While Hector simply takes advantage of his audiences by passing off his magic as illusion for money, Mr. A.H. truly shows disdain for people who don’t know that real magic exists: “what’s worse is that none of them would listen if you attempted to enlighten them […] to think it real would keep them up at night, afraid of their own existence.” And rather than allow their powerful knowledge and skills to unite them, they have developed a rivalry to determine who is the best magician and teacher. It is unclear exactly how long this competition has gone on, but the men refer to previous challenges, with Hector noting proudly that “the overall record leans” in his favor, while Mr. A.H. recalls that seven of Hector’s past competitors have forfeited the game. Tsukiko, the circus contortionist, reveals to Marco that she was the previous victor, finishing the competition “eighty-three years, six months, and twenty-one days ago,” in a duel that lasted thirty-seven years.

This competition between the magicians is played out by proxy, as they pit their apprentices against one another rather than battling each other directly. The stakes of the game are high: the magicians compete to the death, and the victor is simply the magician left standing. The fact that this particular competition pits their children—Celia, who is Hector’s daughter by blood, and Marco, who is adopted by Mr. A. H.—against one another makes it all the more disturbing; this underscores how much this rivalry has warped the elder magicians’ ability to meaningfully care for or empathize with anyone else, no matter how close they are to them. Celia points out the magicians’ cowardice, charging that her father and Mr. A.H. “fight by proxy because you are too cowardly to challenge each other directly. Afraid you will fail and have nothing to blame except yourselves.” The apprentices are puppets, allowing the magicians to show off their skills and earn bragging rights without actually taking any risk upon themselves. Again, competition is a mark of selfishness and fear of genuine engagement with the world.

Hector and Mr. A. H. each train their children/apprentices to eschew emotional connection, isolating them on purpose and perpetuating the loneliness and marginalization that they have experienced in their own lives. Celia is the child of Hector’s brief relationship with a woman whom he subsequently ignored and shunned until she committed suicide. When Celia then arrives at the theater where Hector is performing with a suicide note from her mother attached to her coat, Hector is unmoved. Instead, he only takes an interest in his daughter when he recognizes her innate magical abilities, seeing an opportunity to use his own child to win one more round against Mr. A.H. Hector’s training of Celia borders on abuse, as he slices her fingers and breaks her wrist with a paperweight in order to help her learn to use magic to heal herself. Once the competition is underway, Hector keeps an eye on Celia and often intervenes to berate her for any form of collaboration with anyone else in the circus, which only exacerbates her sense of isolation and pushes her to into a relationship with Marco. Similarly, Mr. A.H.’s apprentice is his child through adoption: he hand-picks Marco from an orphanage yet places him in almost complete isolation throughout his youth, only taking him out to attend magic shows. Mr. A.H.’s main role in Marco’s adult life is to interfere in the relationship that develops between the two competitors. He interrupts a conversation between Celia and his apprentice, to which Marco responds, “Thirteen years with barely a word and now you wish to speak with me?” Mr. A.H.’s sole objective in his relationship with Marco is to win this round of competition, even if it means sacrificing the happiness and even the life of his adopted child.

The world of magic imposes a life of solitude and secrets on its members: they must hide their true selves from the world to avoid exposing their supernatural and often terrifying powers. The rivalry between Hector Bowen and Mr. A.H. is a direct result of that imposed solitude, as each man is unaccustomed to emotional attachments, and must find solace in the company of another magician. However, rather than form a genuine friendship, each chooses to protect himself emotionally through the antagonistic nature of competition. They fight one another out of fear, not pride—they do not feel confident enough to confront one another, and they fear that a direct battle would end in the loss of each man’s only friend and companion in the world.