Analysis

The analysis of the short story “The Knife Thrower” by Steven Millhauser shows that it follows a linear, chronological plot structure. The plot revolves around the performance of the knife thrower and the audience’s reaction to it. The story begins and ends with the audience’s reflections on Hensch, giving it a circular structure. 

The main characters are Hensch, the knife thrower, and the audience as a collective character, from whose perspective we witness the events. Hensch’s performance fuels the inner conflict of the audience which remains unresolved at the end. 

The physical setting is a theater in an unnamed town, where Hensch’s performance takes place. The location and time period are deliberately vague to highlight the universal nature of these events. The social setting explores issues such as circus performances and how the audience reacts to them, as well as more general issues of how crowds react to controversial events.

The story is told from the first-person point of view of the collective character which makes up the audience, referred to by the first-person plural: “we”. The narrator is subjective and unreliable.

The language is informal, and the tone is conversational. There is very little dialogue, and the text reads like a monologue where the narrator addresses the reader directly.

You can read a more detailed analysis in the following pages.

Short story analysis

I denne vejledning får du Studienets hjælp til at analysere noveller (short stories) i engelsk.