Something Wicked This Way Comes: Perfect Love Casts Out All Fear
Uploaded by Jookychik on Sep 12, 1999
In Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, it is suggested among several other themes in the novel that "Perfect Love casts out all fear." This quote taken from the Gospel of John illustrates the point that where there is unconditional love, and one loves and is loved in return, there is no fear. This can be believed, because when a person loves life and is content with what he or she has, there is no room for regret. Likewise, when one loves a person and is loved in return, there is trust in trust there is no doubt, and therefore there is no fear. In the novel, Mr Halloway conquers his fear through the love of his son and is eventually saved, whereas Miss Foley us ruined by her preoccupation with fear and failure to love.
Mr. Halloway's life is plagued by the constant thoughts of his ever nearing death. As he approaches his middle age, he feels that he has failed as a father to his son, William. Speaking to Will, he tells him, "(I am) always looking over your shoulder to see what's coming ahead instead of looking at you to see what's here." He fears that death is going to come to him and he would have missed out on his son's life as well as his own. Meanwhile, a carnival comes into Green Tree, Illinois, offering eternal youth while at the same time threatening with fear in the form of death. When Mr. Halloway is lost in the carnival's Mirror Maze, the mirrors show him aging and slowly dying as they "bled him lifeless (and) mouthed him dry." His will is weakened by that image and he is at the point of near surrender when his son cries out to him, proving his "perfect love" for him. "Oh, Dad, I don't care how old you are, ever...Oh Dad, I love you!" With those words, Halloway realizes that he is! not a failure and that despite his age and other flaws, Will has always loved him. With the power of this newfound love of his son, he is able to overcome his fear by destroying the reflections with the most powerful weapon against evil, the laugh. Focusing on living a content life rather than regretting the past, and learning to love rather than fearing that love, Mr. Halloway has cast out his fear with the perfect love.
Miss...