Who are the anarchists?
Most of the central council consists of undercover detectives, each unaware that the others share his mission.
Who is Sunday?
The novel deliberately leaves him multivalent: he is linked to the police chief and to a divine creator, but never reduced to a literal explanation.
Why does Gregory accuse him?
Gregory represents suffering outside the celebratory pageant and demands that authority justify the pain it permits.
Was it a dream?
Syme wakes in a recognizable setting, yet the book treats the nightmare as a genuine transformation in how he sees ordinary life.
Themes and What the Ending Means
Order and anarchy: The conflict is metaphysical and aesthetic more than programmatically political.
Disguise: Every mask produces fear until recognition turns the stranger into an ally.
Suffering: The final question asks whether cosmic order can claim innocence of the pain beneath it.
Wonder: Syme's defense of order comes from seeing existence itself as improbable and beautiful.