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Septa Roelle's influence on Brienne

Brienne put his age at ten, but she was terrible at judging how old a child was. She always thought they were younger than they were, perhaps because she had always been big for her age. Freakish big, Septa Roelle used to say, and mannish.

...

Septa Roelle once told her that it was meant to show that they had nothing to hide from the Father. “Can’t the Father see through hair?” Brienne had asked. A stupid thing to say. She had been a slow child; Septa Roelle often told her so.

(Chapter 9, A Feast for Crows)

Septa Roelle, the main female influence in Brienne's childhood, was a governess who criticized her appearance, and often put down her curiosity with harsh remarks. As a result, Brienne internalizes her comments and genuinely believes them, even many years later - She calls herself stupid in her internal narration (Perhaps Sansa Stark was dead ... How better to conceal her murder than by sending some big stupid wench from Tarth to find her?), and describes herself to the Elder Brother as 'the freakish one, not fit to be a son or daughter.' But it only gets worse :

When I was a little girl I believed that all men were as noble as my father. Even the men who told her what a pretty girl she was, how tall and bright and clever, how graceful when she danced. It was Septa Roelle who had lifted the scales from her eyes.

“They only say those things to win your lord father’s favour,” the woman had said. “You’ll find truth in your looking glass, not on the tongues of men.” It was a harsh lesson, one that left her weeping, but it had stood her in good stead at Harrenhal when Ser Hyle and his friends had played their game. A maid has to be mistrustful in this world, or she will not be a maid for long, she was thinking, as the rain began to fall.

(Chapter 20, A Feast for Crows)

Aside from ruining a young girl’s self-confidence, there are two other enormous problems with Septa Roelle's teaching here. First, she tells Brienne to ‘find truth in (her) looking glass', presumably to convince her that she is truly unattractive and that the men calling her pretty are all liars. But Brienne's appearance doesn't relate in any way to some of the other compliments she receives - that she is bright, clever and graceful. These traits don't depend on her physical exterior at all - but Septa Roelle doesn't even allow her to take pride in them, and makes her believe that looks (or lack thereof) are all that matters. The result? In A Clash of Kings, Brienne is happy to die in battle if she can be remembered as a beautiful maid in the songs :

“Lady Catelyn, you are wrong.” Brienne regarded her with eyes as blue as her armor. “Winter will never come for the likes of us. Should we die in battle, they will surely sing of us, and it’s always summer in the songs. In the songs all knights are gallant, all maids are beautiful, and the sun is always shining.” (Chapter 22, A Clash of Kings)

Secondly, Septa Roelle teaches Brienne that '(Men) only say those things to win your lord father’s favour'. This does protect her from the men at Highgarden who try to use flattery to take advantage of her. But rather than warning her against sweet-talking, malicious men, the septa's main message is that all compliments made to Brienne must be lies, and nobody could possibly mean them sincerely. Because of this, Brienne believes herself completely undeserving and unworthy of honest praise and even basic decency, and becomes uncomfortable when she receives them :

“Brienne, I am honoured to acquaint you with my brother Ser Edmure Tully, heir to Riverrun. His steward Utherydes Wayn, Ser Robin Ryger and Ser Desmond Grell.” “Honoured,” said Ser Desmond. The others echoed him. The girl flushed, embarrassed even at this commonplace courtesy. (Chapter 39, A Clash of Kings)

“Blue is a good colour on you, my lady,” Jaime observed. “It goes well with your eyes.” She does have astonishing eyes. Brienne glanced down at herself, flustered. “Septa Donyse padded out the bodice, to give it that shape. She said you sent her to me.” She lingered by the door, as if she meant to flee at any second. (Chapter 72, A Storm of Swords)

Even an earnest compliment about the colour of her dress makes her uneasy, and she tries to pass it off and deflect it elsewhere. Thanks to years of Septa Roelle shaming her for her appearance, poor Brienne can't even begin to imagine that she might just be looking nice for once.

#asoiaf meta #brienne of tarth #septa roelle #AFFC reread

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cat-the-lurker-blog · 6 years

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Non-prophetic dreams in A Song of Ice and Fire

The amount of attention George RR Martin has devoted to dreams in A Song of Ice and Fire is remarkable. In A Game of Thrones alone, nineteen dreams are described in various amounts of detail, with all point-of-view characters except Catelyn (no dreams) and Arya (one dream) having at least two dreams in the course of the novel. These dreams serve many narrative purposes, from delivering exposition to foreshadowing future events.

In this post, I won't be looking at the often-analyzed dreams with obvious supernatural or prophetic elements - like wolf dreams, dragon dreams, green dreams or dreams influenced by glass candles and shadowbinders. Instead, I'll try to examine dreams that reveal aspects of the dreamers' subconscious minds - like their deepest desires and worst fears, memories that shaped them, and their impulses and repressed emotions. I think the latter kind of dreams are equally important, since they establish characters' motivations, and provide setup for their actions, growth, or internal conflicts.

I. HOPES AND DESIRES

As she slept amidst the rolling grasslands, Catelyn dreamt that Bran was whole again, that Arya and Sansa held hands, that Rickon was still a babe at her breast. Robb, crownless, played with a wooden sword, and when all were safe asleep, she found Ned in her bed, smiling. (Chapter 22, A Clash of Kings)

This dream reminds the reader of Catelyn's priorities: she values her family more than anything, more than Northern independence and more than Robb's campaigns. Robb's appearance, crownless with a wooden sword, recalls Catelyn's final chapter in A Game of Thrones, in which her advice - to build a peace, as revenge will not bring back their dead - goes unheeded. Instead, Robb swears bloody vengeance against the Lannisters with a steel sword, and is crowned king - making it more difficult than ever for Catelyn to retrieve her daughters. Catelyn's desire to see her family reunited in this dream sets up and explains her actions later in the novel - having heard news of Bran and Rickon's "deaths", she will betray the Northern cause to free Jaime in exchange for Arya and Sansa.

He dreamt of the sky cell. This time he was the gaoler, not the prisoner, big, with a strap in his hand, and he was hitting his father, driving him back, toward the abyss... (Chapter 42, A Game of Thrones)

Tyrion dreams of punishing his father after he recounts Tywin's horrific abuse of Tysha to Bronn, reversing Tywin's role as his gaoler of sorts. Tywin has always demeaned and despised Tyrion, and only in Tyrion's dreams can he wield power over his father and presumably win his respect, through fear - something Tywin often does. But Tyrion's feelings towards his father are complicated, and he also desires recognition from Tywin (and society as a whole):

This time he dreamed he was at a feast, a victory feast in some great hall. He had a high seat on the dais, and men were lifting their goblets and hailing him as hero... Even his father was smiling with approval. (Chapter 67, A Clash of Kings)

In A Clash of Kings, Tyrion proves himself a competent ruler by masterminding the Lannister-Tyrell alliance and defending King's Landing during the Battle of the Blackwater. Rather than give him the credit and respect he deserves, as in the dream, Tywin dismisses his skills as "low cunning" and continues to loathe Tyrion for his mother's death and dwarfism, reasons beyond his control (You, who killed your mother to come into the world? You are an ill-made, devious, disobedient, spiteful little creature.) The stark contrast between Tyrion's hopes in the dream, and reality, helps build the emotional foundation for his growing bitterness towards and eventual killing of Tywin.

She went to sleep dreaming of the fight they’d had, and of Ser Jaime fastening a rainbow cloak about her shoulders. (Chapter 20, A Feast for Crows)

In Brienne's dreams, Jaime gives her a cloak - but it remains ambiguous whether she wants recognition as a knight, marriage, or both from him. That he has replaced Renly, the object of Brienne's affections, in her dream, shows the reader her growing feelings for him (that she won't admit in an internal monologue), and adds tension to her later conflict with Lady Stoneheart (who has forced her into seemingly agreeing to kill him).

In her dream they [Daenerys and Daario] had been man and wife, simple folk who lived a simple life in a tall stone house with a red door. (Chapter 11, A Dance with Dragons)

This is one of very few of the non-prophetic, non-supernatural dreams Daenerys has, and it shows her desire for peace and a home. She hopes that Westeros will fill the void left by her idealized childhood home with a red door. (It was King’s Landing and the great Red Keep that Aegon the Conqueror had built. It was Dragonstone where she had been born. In her mind’s eye, all the doors were red.) This sets up an internal conflict: that she is bringing war, fire, and blood to Westeros to make "dreams of home and love" come true.

II. FEARS

She dreamt of home; not Riverrun, but Winterfell. It was not a good dream, though. She was alone outside the castle, up to her knees in mud. She could see the grey walls ahead of her, but when she tried to reach the gates every step seemed harder than the one before, and the castle faded before her, until it looked more like smoke than granite. (Chapter 17, A Storm of Swords)

Following the burning of Winterfell (referenced in the smoke castle), Arya becomes increasingly despondent, fearing that she will never make it home to her family - and after the Red Wedding, she believes she is the last Stark left. Going home to Winterfell or Jon on the Wall has become so unattainable that Arya is willing to stay at the House of Black and White even at the cost of her identity. (I have a hole where my heart should be, she thought, and nowhere else to go.)

Tyrion only leered at her. He was naked too, covered with coarse hair that made him look more like a monkey than a man. “You shall see them crowned,” he said, “and you shall see them die.” (Chapter 39, A Feast for Crows)

Cersei dreams of Tyrion brutally torturing her (in a manner that mirrors her own torture of the Blue Bard), as he threatens the lives of her children. This dream escalates her paranoia about Tyrion and her descent into madness, and presents how Cersei interprets the prophecy, "Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds" to mean that her children will be crowned and predecease her.

“Sister, why has Father brought us here?” “Us? This is your place, Brother. This is your darkness.” Her torch was the only light in the cavern. Her torch was the only light in the world. She turned to go. “Stay with me,” Jaime pleaded. “Don’t leave me here alone.” But they were leaving. “Don’t leave me in the dark!” (Chapter 44, A Storm of Swords)

Although Jaime's dream after escaping Harrenhal seems to have been supernaturally influenced by a weirwood stump, his subconscious reactions during the dream reveal his fear that Cersei and Tywin will reject him (as he lost his hand, and is of no more use to them (I am worth less than a girl now, he thought.)) Besides introducing many prophetic elements that I won't discuss, this dream foreshadows Jaime's growing split with Cersei once he returns to King's Landing.

III. MEMORIES

She had dreamt that she was little, still sharing a bedchamber with her sister Arya. (Chapter 80, A Storm of Swords)

Having lost all her family, Sansa misses them more than ever and clings to her precious childhood memories. Unlike this, very few of the memories appearing in characters' dreams are pleasant - most of them are traumatic memories that had a deep impact on the characters. Like Sansa's recurring dream of her father's execution:

Yet those were the best times, for when she dreamed, she dreamed of Father. Waking or sleeping, she saw him, saw the gold cloaks fling him down, saw Ser Ilyn striding forward, unsheathing Ice from the scabbard on his back, saw the moment... (Chapter 67, A Game of Thrones)

More than any other point-of-view characters, Ned Stark has plenty of memory-related dreams:

Yet last night he had dreamt of Rhaegar’s children. Lord Tywin had laid the bodies beneath the Iron Throne, wrapped in the crimson cloaks of his house guard. That was clever of him; the blood did not show so badly against the red cloth. The little princess had been barefoot, still dressed in her bed gown, and the boy... the boy (Chapter 45, A Game of Thrones)

After discovering the Lannister incest, Ned delays taking any kind of action because he knows Robert will have the "Baratheon" children killed. (This was something else: poison in the dark, a knife thrust to the soul. This he could never forgive, no more than he had forgiven Rhaegar. He will kill them all, Ned realized.) Ned's memory of the murdered Targaryen children explains why he feels so strongly about preserving the lives of innocents. His determination to spare Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen leads him to tell all to Cersei, warning her to flee with her children - a mistake that will cost him dearly.

He dreamt an old dream, of three knights in white cloaks, and a tower long fallen, and Lyanna in her bed of blood. (Chapter 39, A Game of Thrones)

The memory came creeping upon him in the darkness, as vivid as a dream. It was the year of false spring, and he was eighteen again, down from the Eyrie to the tourney at Harrenhal. (Chapter 58, A Game of Thrones)

Ned's other dreams, memories of his sister and the mysterious promise he made her, hint at Jon's parentage without providing details necessitated by an internal monologue.

She dreamt an old dream, of three girls in brown cloaks, a wattled crone, and a tent that smelled of death... Cersei watched the girls huddling, whispering to one another. Go back, she tried to tell them. Turn away...

The girl with the golden curls put her hands upon her hips. “Give us our foretelling, or I’ll go to my lord father and have you whipped for insolence.” (Chapter 36, A Feast for Crows)

Cersei's encounter with Maggy the Frog explains aspects of her personality and relationships (especially with Tyrion), her descent into madness after Joffrey's death, and reveals Maggy's prophecy to the reader. Cersei relives her memory as if dissociated from her younger self and watching from afar, and reflects on her rash actions with dread and regret.

IV. REFLECTION

Some characters’ dreams also reveal subconscious or suppressed feelings and thoughts.

The night before, it had been the miller’s wife... Last night in his dream he had been in bed with her once again, but this time she had teeth above and below, and she tore out his throat even as she was gnawing off his manhood. (Chapter 56, A Clash of Kings)

Although he won't admit his guilt to himself, Theon is haunted by his murder of the miller's boys, the sons of a woman he slept with. It seems that Theon subconsciously fears that the boys were his own son(s), and dreads receiving a supernatural punishment for kinslaying (that foreshadows his torture at the hands of Ramsay Bolton). In the same chapter, Theon also dreams of being chased through a forest by wolves with children's heads (evoking Bran and Rickon, who escaped Theon's clutches), and a feast of dead Starks (which may be prophetic, hinting at Robb's death, but is also a manifestation of Theon's guilt over betraying House Stark.)

Last night he had dreamed of Sam drowning, of Ygritte dying with his arrow in her (it had not been his arrow, but in his dreams it always was), of Gilly weeping tears of blood. (Chapter 10, A Dance with Dragons)

Jon feels guilty for causing Ygritte's death (though indirectly, only by warning the Watch about the wildlings' assault from the south), and personally responsible for the fates of Sam and Gilly, having sent them on a perilous voyage and forcibly separated Gilly from her son.

Apart from all these dreams of responsibility, guilt and regret - Sansa has a reflective dream containing a sexual awakening:

And she dreamed of her wedding night too, of Tyrion’s eyes devouring her as she undressed. Only then he was bigger than Tyrion had any right to be, and when he climbed into the bed his face was scarred only on one side. “I’ll have a song from you,” he rasped. (Chapter 68, A Storm of Swords)

During Lysa Arryn's wedding, Sansa realizes the erotic connotation of songs and singing, when Marillion propositions her with an "I’ll have you singing louder than the Lady Lysa.” She subconsciously relates this to her past encounters with Sandor Clegane, who made her sing for him (I’ll have that song. Sing, little bird. Sing for your little life.) Although the Hound wanted literally a song from her, Sansa sees their interactions in a new light, dreaming of him in the erotic context of her wedding night - hinting at an attraction to him.

V. WORST IMPULSES

“I am the Lord of Winterfell,” Jon screamed. It was Robb before him now, his hair wet with melting snow. Longclaw took his head off. (Chapter 58, A Dance with Dragons)

This dream recalls Jon's childhood duel with Robb :

Every morning they had trained together, since they were big enough to walk; Snow and Stark, spinning and slashing about the wards of Winterfell, shouting and laughing, sometimes crying when there was no one else to see. They were not little boys when they fought, but knights and mighty heroes.

That morning he called it first. “I’m Lord of Winterfell!” he cried, as he had a hundred times before. Only this time, this time, Robb had answered, “You can’t be Lord of Winterfell, you’re bastard-born. My lady mother says you can’t ever be the Lord of Winterfell.” (Chapter 79, A Storm of Swords)

For years, Jon has repressed his jealousy towards Robb, and his guilt-ridden desire for Winterfell, which could be manifesting itself in his recurring dream of the Winterfell crypts, where the stone kings reject him as a Stark : "You do not belong here. This is not your place." But these emotions return to the fore when Stannis offers to make him Lord of Winterfell in A Storm of Swords (He wanted it, Jon knew then. I have always wanted it, he thought, guiltily. May the gods forgive me.) Jon sees accepting Winterfell as betraying his family (What kind of man stole his own brother’s birthright?), but he fears even that will not stop him from claiming his heart's desire - hence he beheads Robb in his dream, just as he lays claim to Winterfell. In the future books, I expect Jon's internal crisis will be temporarily resolved when he discovers Robb has legitimized him, but it will return in full force once he learns of his real identity.

Last night he dreamed he’d found her fucking Moon Boy. He’d killed the fool and smashed his sister’s teeth to splinters with his golden hand, just as Gregor Clegane had done to poor Pia. (Chapter 30, A Feast for Crows)

Jaime spends much of A Feast for Crows obsessively thinking about Cersei's infidelity, repeating Tyrion's accusation of "She's been fucking Lancel, Osmund Kettleblack and probably Moon Boy for all I know" in his head. His dream is likely borne out of barely-repressed anger towards his sister and the fear that his jealousy will make a monster out of him (dream-Jaime's violence mirrors Gregor Clegane's). After this dream, Jaime appears to be trying to overcome his jealous feelings, since his catchphrase of "Lancel, Osmund Kettleblack and Moon Boy" does not reappear in A Feast for Crows.

Then he killed his brother, Jaime, hacking at his face until it was a red ruin, laughing every time he struck a blow. Only when the fight was finished did he realize that his second head was weeping. (Chapter 5, A Dance with Dragons)

Tyrion desires bloody revenge on Jaime for participating in Tywin's horrific scheme against him, and lying to him about Tysha - as he tells Illyrio in a previous chapter, "Yet I am still my father’s son, and Jaime and Cersei are mine to kill.” However, Tyrion's outward certainty that he wants to kill and punish his brother is belied by this dream, where part of him (the second, weeping head) still loves Jaime and cannot bear the thought of killing him.

THE END

If you've made it all the way here, thank you very much for reading! This is my first time writing a meta post, I hope it was worth your while.

#asoiaf meta #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire

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