In reading Nights at the Circus, I felt as though I was absorbed by the pages, sucked into the plot itself, being encapsulated within the magically world of the characters. The entire book was the epitome of the carnivalesque, with obscure ideas, language, and an inexplicable effect which made it come to life. I found this book a bit of a difficult read in that I had to re-trace my steps and re-read some parts, trying to wrap my mind around the content and rich vocabulary. This book also brought up contrasting effects of both normalizing "freakishness" and also enhancing the defect. The carnival factor brought emphasize to Fevvers deformity as she was put on display as magical and unusual, while the aspect of norm falling for freak and vice versa seemed to normalize her and bring her back to a level in which one could relate.

"Only a bird in a gilded cage..." was a line which appeared frequently in this novel, so I decided I would look up the official definition of gilded. The first of the two definitions was 'covered or highlighted in gold', and the second was 'having a pleasant or showing appearance the conceals something of little worth'. I found this interesting that this quote was one which Fevvers 'foster mother' Lizzie said to her often. Does she mean that Fevvers is of little worth? More likely she is simply stating that Fevvers is a normal girl, covered up with a mask of the phenomenal; a bird in a cage dressed in gold to make that relatively normal bird seem magnificent, or a freak.