The Night Circus

Marco Alasdair is the other main protagonist of the novel. He is Celia Bowen’s magical opponent and eventual lover. When he is nine years-old, he is taken from an orphanage and trained by the Man in Grey in the arts of illusion and magic. He is isolated until the age of 18 from human contact in order to prepare and practice his magical abilities. His magical skill is mind control. He is capable of controlling the thoughts and memories of others. His most unique ability is his power to transport others into his imagination. When he is eighteen, Marco meets Isobel Martin, a young woman he falls in love with and eventually moves in with. Once he finds out that Celia Bowen will be his magical opponent, he sends Isobel to the circus to spy on her. He also uses a bonfire as a touchstone at the circus, so that he can spy on the circus from a distance. After he meets and comes to know Celia, Marco falls in love with her and is willing to trade his life to be with her. He attempts to sacrifice himself but Celia ultimately saves him by throwing them both into the bonfire together and granting them immortality. 

Isobel Martin is Marco’s girlfriend before he meets Celia Bowen. Marco sends Isobel to work as a tarot card reader at the circus so that she can spy on Celia. Over the course of several years, Isobel learns through her tarot cards that Marco is in love with Celia, and not her. Isobel also casts and maintains a magical spell that provides the circus with balance and keeps everyone within it safe. When Marco tells Isobel that he is in love with Celia and not her, she lashes out and destroys the spell she had cast, unwittingly setting in motion the destruction of the circus. 

Prospero is Celia Bowen’s father and mentor. Prospero was once a world famous magician who passed off the real magic he possessed as mere illusion. Prospero now exists as a ghost, after an invisibility experiment went wrong and destroyed his physical body. However, he continues to exist as a spirit that haunts the various places he used to inhabit. He was once the student of the Man in Grey, who is now his rival. They pit their students against each other in duels. These duels, which have been waged for years, result in the duel between Celia and Marco. 

Chandresh Christopher Lefevre is the designer and original owner of the Night Circus. While he was once passionate about the circus, he has begun to slip into alcoholism and madness. He feels that there is something disturbing about the circus, unaware that he is under the influence of Marco’s mind control. While drunk, Chandresh accidentally kills Herr Thiessen when Isobel’s spell over the circus is broken. However, in a gesture of goodwill, Isobel erases the memory of the murder from Chandresh’s mind and frees him from his alcoholism and Marco’s mind control.

The Man in Grey is a mysterious character throughout the novel. He is known to be an ancient magician and was a mentor to Prospero the Entertainer until their magical styles and theories came into conflict. He is cold and violent and shows no emotion toward Marco, whom he trained as a magician. A “real” magician in practice, he wishes to protect those secrets of magic from the world that the circus might reveal, though he eventually agrees to Prospero’s request to hold the duel between Celia and Marco there. 

Bailey is a young boy who falls in love with the circus when he is twelve years-old. Accepting a dare from his sister to break into the circus and return with evidence of his deed, he meets and falls in love with Poppet. Bailer remains in love with Poppet for the rest of his life. Many years later, Poppet convinces Bailey that he is intrinsically linked to the circus and that it requires him to survive, which eventually leads to Bailey taking over the circus. 

Penelope Aislin Murray, known as Poppet is one of the red-haired twins – her twin brother is Winston Aidan Murray, or Widget—who were born on October 13-14 of 1886, the night the circus opened. She possesses the ability to see into the future. She foresees Bailey’s eventual ownership of the circus and the murder of Herr Thiessen, events which she does not understand and is unable to prevent.

Winston Aidan Murray, also known as Widget is one of the red-haired twins—his twin sister is Poppet—who were born on October 13-14 of 1886, the night the circus opened. He possesses the ability see into the past. His sister, however, has the ability to see into the future. 

Herr Fredrick Thiessen is the designer of the Wuschhtraum clocks that stands at the center of Le Cirque de Reves. While he exchanges romantic letters with Celia, the relationship between the two never develops and Thiessen is accidentally killed the night before Halloween in 1902, which deeply upsets Celia.