Literary Analysis

In “Repent Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman, you read about a short story that is just like the novel 1984. The Harlequin's name was Everett and he was considered a nonconformist by the Ticktockman. He was really just a free minded man who wanted to fight against government control. Like Winston in 1984, Everett was eventually taken by the government and brainwashed to conform to their ways. Harlan Ellison wrote this short story in 1965, which was a time when the nation was worried about a nuclear war happening at any moment. This dystopic short story could be based off of how the nation was during the time era. Many people just did what the government told them they needed to do. In “Repent Harlequin!”, the Ticktockman is the person who keeps everyone on time and in check. He is the authority that is being called into question. Whenever someone is late to work or an appointment, the schedule is thrown off and everything becomes unbalanced. When Everett releases the jelly beans, the master schedule is thrown off by seven minutes and the Ticktockman orders him to appear before him at seven o' clock on the dot. He doesn't show up until ten thirty though, throwing the schedule of even more. The Ticktockman begins to 'obsess' over finding out who the Harlequin is. He orders a city wide search for him after one of his pranks at a construction site. When he is finally captured, he and the Ticktockman have a verbal fight over why what the Harlequin did was wrong. Everett tells the Ticktockman that he hates this world and that other people do too. The Ticktockman rebuttals this by telling him that his companion, Pretty Alice, was the one who told the authorities where to find him. In the end, Everett is taken by the government and brainwashed until he conforms to their ways. At the end of the story, the Ticktockman is three minutes late and has thrown the master schedule off in the process. When a worker tells him this, he declares it impossible with a sheepish grin hidden behind his mask. As he walks away you hear him murmuring “mrmee, mrmee, mrmee, mrmee”. This could suggest that the Ticktockman was shown a side of life that he hadn't known until the Harlequin and his shenanigans and that he is just like him.