Nights at the Circus | Themes & Symbolism

Nights at the Circus Significant Topics

Women's Rights

The book is built around the issue of women's rights. Each female and male character represents a different facet of the rights women have or lack. The reader is presented with the women's rights movement directly through Lizzie. She is an advocate and a rebel, and aside from her love for Fevvers, no other characteristics define her. Through every chapter in the novel, Lizzie never stops her campaign. Lizzie is the character who bombs buildings and sends secret letters to exiles. She is willing to go to all lengths for what she believes in.

The prisoners in Siberia are used to show the difficulties the women's rights movement tires to overcome. Women who defended themselves and chose their lives over that of their husbands are punished. The government doesn't see anything wrong with separating mothers from their children and placing them in seclusion. The prisoners at the Countess' camp have...
(read more)