Genre
science fiction, historical fiction
Setting and Context
Great Britain, circa 1980
Narrator and Point of View
Narrator: Thursday Next
Point of view: first person
Tone and Mood
Tone: indirect
Mood: adventurous
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: Thursday Next; Antagonist: Acheron Hades
Major Conflict
A known criminal and villain Acheron Hades makes his appearance known to LiteraTechs. After a confrontation with him Thursday barely makes it out alive and Hades seemingly dies, but Thursday believes that he survived. After capturing Thursday's inventor uncle Mycroft, Acheron starts murdering the characters from famous literary works. One of his main targets turns out to be Jane Eyre.
Climax
Acheron dies in Jane Eyre, gets killed by Rochester's mentally ill wife, and the world, both literary and real, is finally safe from his menace.
Foreshadowing
"Reality, to be sure, was beginning to bend."
-Rochester starts to appear in front of Thursday once again-she entered Jane Eyre as a young teenage girl and never since. Thursday takes this as a sign of things to come.
Understatement
"Don't ever call me mad Mycroft. I'm not madm I'm just...well, differently moraled, that's all."
-Acheron Hades
Allusions
The entire novel is filled with allusions to historical events, such as the Crimean war, and allusions to famous literary works.
Imagery
Imagery of Thursday's father as an ambiguous entity that travels through time and has a face to stop a clock is present every time he makes an appearance.
Paradox
"True and baseless evil is as rare as the purest good."
-Acheron Hades
Parallelism
"Money came first to Goliath and nobody trusted them farther than they could throw them. They may have rebuilt England after the Second War, they may have reestablished the economy."
Metonymy and Synecdoche
"He was always Dad to me."
Personification
"I stared at the wolf, which stared back at me with an intensity I found disconcerting."
