Exploring the Complexities of Narrative Structure and Cycles of Illusion and Reality in Morgenstern’s The Night Circus

This paper deploys Bremond's theory, The Logic of Narrative Possibilities, to examine the narrative structure of Morgenstern’s The Night Circus. This research analyses the dynamic of the narrative structure of the plot, focusing on the intricate relationship of micro and macro events in The Night Circus and how characters' lives cycle between amelioration and degeneration. This analysis illustrates how the narrative structure is made up of enclaves and couplings, and how the characters' journeys are constructed by intervention, negotiation and aggression, leading to cycles of illusion and reality. Analysis of the non-linear narrative of the novel, use of alternative perspectives and embedded timelines have been employed to demonstrate the layered complexity of its narrative structure. Using the interpretivist methodology and narrative-structure analysis, the present research provides insight into the interaction between narrative functions and logical possibilities identified by Bremond. This study can advance the discourse in storytelling structures and analysis in narrative through Bremond's notions.