Something Wicked This Way Comes is a wonderful novel full of suspense and action. It is also a novel full of archetypes and mythological symbols. By the end of the prologue, it is already established that there would be abundant symbolism in the novel. Will, Charles Halloway, and Mr. Dark, follow the old archetypes of hero, wise old man, and trickster throughout the novel.

William Halloway is surrounded by millions of symbols and archetypes. In the broadest picture, Will follows the archetype of hero who goes on a quest, performs “impossible tasks, battle[s] with monsters, solve[s] unanswerable riddles, and overcome[s] insurmountable obstacles in order to save the kingdom,” or in this case the neighborhood, Jim Nightshade, and his father (Guerin 166). Will is described as a “golden boy,” a boy with blonde hair, blue eyes, and has more innocence and childishness than his best friend Jim. Jim is Will’s foil. Opposite of Will, Jim has dark hair, green moody eyes, and is enthralled with death and “grown-up” things. They are like the Yin and the Yang. One is dark, one is light. They perfectly match one another. They are the same in many ways, and different in many others, which make them a perfect pair. The novel at first seems to revolve around Jim; the lightning rod salesman talks mainly to Jim and gives him a lightning rod. Jim is also the one who instigates and demands to explore the mysterious carnival. It is not until the frightful scene of the Dust Witch coming to find them that Will takes on the role of hero. Will, at the beginning, was very scared and apprehensive about anything that happened. He seemed to want to forget he saw anything and was refusing to grow up, until he made the decision to defeat the Dust Witch. With a vengeance he took charge and battled the Dust Witch, tried to help victims of the carnival, and destroyed the carousel that caused so much trouble. Like a typical hero, he came about obstacles: being only thirteen, being essentially alone in his quest, and battling super-natural monsters of the carnival. It is here where the wise old man comes into the story to help save the day along side the hero.

Charles Halloway is a silent but present figure through the first half of the book. Depressed about being old, he is a ghostly figure until Will is forced to confide in his father. Charles Halloway is set up to be the perfect wise old man of the novel. He is passing the times of mid-life crisis and is settled on being older than he should be. He works as a janitor in the town library and spends many nights reading and absorbing life through the pages of a book. There is a hint that he used to be a little wild, more like Jim, but in the end, he is closer to Will, a quiet person who shut out real life for the majority of his existence, living a depressingly moral life, never truly living. Now is his time to shine. When Will and Jim are truly being hunted by the freaks of the carnival and the whole town is out looking for them for one thing or another, Charles Halloway takes charge. He comes up with a plan, studies the carnivals, and finds the real truth behind the “autumn people.” With his rambling speeches and philosophical thoughts he fills the boys up with half wisdoms. When the boys are caught and the Dust Witch comes to kill Charles Halloway, he finds the weapon that would defeat any monster or autumn person -- a smile, happiness, laughter. When he saves Will from defeat, he passes on this knowledge, and Will saves Jim and defeats Mr. Dark, the ringleader of the carnival monsters.

Mr. Dark, the archetypal trickster, is the ultimate con man. The trickster can be both bad and good in a story. Both can be seen in one way or another in Mr. Dark. The bad image of a trickster is showing he is “subhuman and superhuman...mischievousness, unexpectedness, disorder, amorality” (Guerin 164). Mr. Dark is definitely those things. He has the image of the devil about him: a tall, skinny man wearing a black suit with a blood red vest. The suit is made from “boar-bramble, clock-spring hair, bristle, and a sort of ever glistening dark hemp” (73). Mr. Dark is the illustrated man in the carnival: covered in tattoos of snakes, worms, and eels -- symbols of evil and corruption. The tattoos were purple, black, green, and lightening-blue -- symbols of evil, truth, and the unknown. Towards the end of the novel, we find that Mr. Dark has tattoos of all his victims. He can inflict pain on the tattoo, and it inflicts pain on the victim. Mr. Dark shows both the subhuman and superhuman qualities. He is evil, which makes him subhuman, and he has great strength and powers that do not seem normal, but rather superhuman. He creates disorder, amorality, and unexpectedness throughout the town by using his freaks and carnival rides to show people truths about themselves, creating unhappiness throughout the people whose truths were shown, and then disfiguring them when they sell their souls for a ride on the carousel. In spite of all of this disorder and evil that is created by Mr. Dark and his carnival of freaks and time changing rides, there are good aspects of a trickster too. In defeating the trickster many good things happened: Charles Halloway and Will became closer as father and son; Will and Jim became closer as friends; Jim decided that he did not want to be older; Charles Halloway became happy with being old. Because of the trickster, happy endings were sought in the quest and unexpected events became bonds between father and the boys.

The novel, Something Wicked This Way Comes, is filled with mythological symbols and archetypes. Each character has their own archetype, but only three were discussed here. Will is the hero, who defeats the trickster, Mr. Dark, with the help of the wise old man, Charles Halloway. Every page of this book has something to offer -- a hidden meaning behind every word and description, every metaphor and dialogue which all create a complex and enjoyable reading on any level. This book is perfect for any reader because it has so much to offer: for those who analyze, there are symbols galore; for those who read to find messages to put towards life, there are lots of those too; and for any reader who just likes to read and feel the excitement of plot, this book is perfect.