Fifty-One Tales · Character

Time

Great clumsy Time, who has carried away the seven gates of Thebes, now dallies foolishly at the feet of a painted Sphinx.

supporting

Also known as Great clumsy Time

First appearance: Time and the Tradesman

As a supporting figure in Fifty-One Tales, Time is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.

Implied as the court where the poet's chaplets are meant to be worn.

In the storyThe AssignationOpen this moment free

See Time in The Assignation Book page

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Time has spared no painted face in all the world except the Sphinx's, and there he lies in the sand with his foolish hair spread about her paws, smiting cities when he should be smiting her. The narrator dreams of blinding him, shutting him in the Pyramid of Cheops, and making him ripen corn and do menial work—if only the Sphinx will betray his secret. But the same dream fears that in his ultimate anguish Time may blindly pull down the House of Man. He is the tale's tyrant and its fool, and the tension between those two is the whole story.

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The fuller portrait of Time sits in Reading Lens — open the free preview to keep reading with notes on the page.

See Time in Time and the Tradesman

Character Web

2 connections

A slice of how Time sits in the book — open the reader for the full interactive map.

Relationship types

Other

Character groups

Mythological and Cosmic Figures
Protagonist

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Narrative arc

Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.

Setup
Escalation
Breaking point
Aftermath
Closing

The emotional and psychological peak occurs when the black-clad figure (a rook or crow) confronts the existent…

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In the story

Time appears across 10 companion beats. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.

The Assignation
Implied as the court where the poet's chaplets are meant to be worn.
The Sphinx at Giza
Time is depicted as a fool dallying at the Sphinx's feet, smiting cities and carrying away beautiful things, but potentially vulnerable to being bound.
The Raft-Builders
Time is depicted as a monstrous whale that consumes small songs and overthrows ships.
Time and the Tradesman
Prowls the world, enters a furniture shop, and punishes the tradesman for imitating his work by aging him.
The Unpasturable Fields
Time is mentioned as wearing the feet of the mountains and stumbling upon their rocks, emphasizing the mountains' endurance against him.
The Worm and the Angel
The worm's three-thousand-year struggle implies the passage of time.
The Latest Thing
The river of Time is the setting, and Time's flow brings debris from uncleanly cities.
Alone the Immortals
Time and his centuries kneel in vassalage at the feet of the immortal years.
The Lonely Idol
Portrayed as a malevolent force that crushes beauty and hastens decay, the adversary the narrator asks the idol to oppose.
Nature and Time
Strides triumphantly through Coventry, indifferent to surroundings, and reassures Nature that he has not forgotten her.

Chapter companion notes

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See Time in Time and the Tradesman

See Time in The Assignation