The audience

Outer characterization

The audience is a collective character, referred to from the beginning of the story “The Knife Thrower” by Steven Millhauser by the first-person plural “we”. The audience is apparently made of many people (p. 48, ll. 2-3), perhaps a significant part of the population in a small town where everybody knows each other. This is also suggested by the fact that Susan Parker, the first volunteer, is known to them all (p.52, l. 13). Susan is described as “a high school girl, who might have been our daughter” (p. 52, ll. 13-14), indicating that most of the audience members are middle-aged.

Inner characterization

The main trait of the audience is their mixed feelings about Hensch. This is shown from the beginning, when they only know Hensch by reputation: “we admired his daring, even as we deplored his method and despised him as a vulgar showman” (p. 47, ll. 36-38), also suggesting their hypocrisy. During Hen...