''Repent, Harlequin!'' Said the Ticktockman

''Repent, Harlequin!'' Said the Ticktockman Summary | Detailed Summary

"Repent Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman," by Harlan Ellison, is a short story set in the future which explores the relationship between the individual man and the overall system. The story begins with a short excerpt from "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau theorizes that men exist to serve the state, some with their manual labor and others with their brains. Still there are others, the great few, who serve with their consciences. These men are called martyrs, heroes, and reformers and are rarely celebrated for their service.

Ellison does not explain the excerpt by Thoreau or its place in his story; rather, he does explain that he will begin in the middle of his story. An unknown man was becoming a nuisance to those who controlled the system. At first he was just a blip on the radar, but now his antics are cause for concern and have been brought up to the Ticktockman, whose job it is to keep track of all of the time. The Ticktockman holds the cardioplate of the menacing man and demands, softly, yet authoritatively, that he must know who the Harlequin is.

Meanwhile the Harlequin himself is hovering in his airboat high above the city. He watches smiling as one labor shift leaves the Timkin and another arrives at work. Suddenly, he lowers the airboat so that it will fluster the proper ladies walking below. As he passes them he sticks his fingers in his ears and wags his tongue. The traffic on the automatic sidewalk is disrupted briefly but soon resumed its normal activity.

Harlequin shifts the airboat so that it is positioned above the workers at which time he drops his load, $150,000 worth of jelly beans, above them. The jellybeans bounce off the hardhats of the women, roll onto the sidewalk, and gum up the machinery. This is more than a simple distraction; it is chaos! Everyone is laughing, eating the brightly colored candy when they should be on schedule. The disruption causes a 7-minute delay. The shift, the time people leave for home, and ultimately the master schedule is delayed 7 minutes. Seven minutes may not seem like a significant delay, but it is in this society that is driven by the clock. Thus, the Harlequin is ordered to the Ticktockman's office. The word is sent that he must be there at precisely 7 pm. However, he does not show until 10:30 pm and with no remorse. He even sings a song about a mysterious place called Vermont before quickly leaving.

The question still remains as to who the Harlequin is. The greater question is how someone has been allowed to become such a disruption and how he had found so many jellybeans. The joyous candy has not been made in over a century.

The author, having finished the middle of the story, starts on the beginning. It had begun slowly. People were more and more regimented in their schedules and intolerant of tardiness for any reason. Eventually, people lived their lives by the numbers on the clock. By the year 2389, the office of the Master Timekeeper had figured a way to keep track of the time of everyone through the processing of their individual cardioplates. For every minute of time a person is late an equal amount of time will be taken from their life. If you are late too often then your time is expired and you are simply "turned off."

That night Pretty Alice shows her husband, the Harlequin, the wanted poster calling for his capture. She does not understand his need to dress in his clown costume and disrupting people's routines. He tells her before he leaves that he does not know why, he just needs to. Soon after he leaves his wife, the Harlequin fires a rocket into the sky announcing his intention to arrive at the 115th Annual International Medical Association Innovation at 8pm. He surprises the authorities, who naturally think he will be late, by arriving 20 minutes early. The authorities are frightened and end up getting caught in their own traps. The physicians are laughing at the silly clown and the authorities trapped in the nets.

Later, the Harlequin goes to the "Efficiency Shopping Center" and addresses the crowd with his bullhorn. He questions the authority of time that everyone is beholden to and tells them to enjoy life. The shoppers are confused and nervous that this Harlequin has thrown them off their schedules. The disruption causes the purchasing and production schedules to be unbalanced.

The Ticktockman orders his men to capture the Harlequin using any methods necessary. Finally, the authorities succeed in capturing the simple man, Everett C. Marm, the Harlequin. The Ticktockman orders Harlequin to repent his sin; however, Everett refuses by declaring that he would rather be dead than live under the watch of a tyrant. The Ticktockman argues that he is merely doing his job and that the Harlequin must adjust to the world around him. Furthermore, he argues, most people enjoy the order of the city and do not appreciate the disruptions that he has been causing. The Harlequin disagrees, stating that most people find joy in the unexpected relief from the stress of time that he provides.

The Ticktockman once again threatens to turn Everett off, but when the Harlequin remains unfazed, the Ticktockman decides he will instead send him to the Coventry. There, in the Coventry, Everett is brainwashed through various techniques known to those who have read Orwell's, 1984, which no one in this society has. He returns announcing that he was wrong and that everyone must obey the schedule and the supremacy of time. Everett may not have been turned off, but his spirit was destroyed. This is often the case when martyrs, heroes, and reformers work to foment change.

Some time later, a worker tentatively approaches the Ticktockman. He had been 3 minutes late and now the whole schedule is off. The Ticktockman is taken aback and orders the worker to check the time again.