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Chapter 31: Tyrion
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Game of Thrones, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Politics and Power
Climate Change and Collective Action
Gender and Power
Honor and Integrity
Identity
Summary
Analysis
Arya is trying to catch cats in the Red Keep as part of Syrio’s training for her. Princess Myrcella and her brother, Tommen, see her and mistake her for a boy. They insist she doesn’t belong in the castle. Arya thinks that if they realize who she is, she’ll never hear the end of it. She runs from them and knocks Tommen down as she goes. As she runs, she eventually ends up in the dungeon where the dragon skulls are now kept.
Arya’s interaction with Myrcella and Tommen, and her fear that they might realize who she is, demonstrate the stakes of deviating from Westoros’s established expectations and gender norms. In this case, Arya feels like she would be ridiculed to no end if she were caught so clearly diverging from those norms.
Themes
In the dungeon, Arya hears two men talking, and she realizes they’re talking about Ned. They say that Ned has the book Jon Arryn had been reading and the “bastard.” It’s only a matter of time before he figures out what happened. Arya doesn’t quite understand what they mean. The men continue to talk, and they mention that the princess is pregnant. They also say that one Hand of the King was killed, so why not another? Arya thinks that they might be planning to kill Ned. One of the men refers to the other as a sorcerer and wizard. After the men leave, Arya follows a tunnel out of the dungeon and makes her way back to the Red Keep. She has trouble getting past the Red Keep’s guards, who also mistake her for a boy. Eventually, though, she convinces them that she’s the Hand of the King’s daughter.
Arya unwittingly gets more evidence that would contribute to Ned’s investigation into the death of Jon Arryn. Notably, the men Arya overhears corroborate Varys’s assertion that Jon Arryn (the former Hand of the King) was killed. Based on what they say, it also seems like Ned could be next, illustrating the cutthroat nature of the “game of thrones.” The fact that the Red Keep’s guards mistake Arya for a boy reinforces the sense of strict gender norms within Westeros by making it clear that when Arya’s behavior or appearance deviates from established gender norms, she is no longer considered by others to be feminine or to be a girl.
Themes
Arya tries to tell Ned what she overheard in the dungeon, but when she says that one of the men was a wizard, Ned thinks that she’s making up stories and dismisses what she tries to tell him. Yoren—one of the members of the Night’s Watch who was riding with Tyrion—comes to speak to Ned. He says he rode as fast as he could from a faraway inn to alert Ned about what happened. Before Yoren explains more, Ned sends Arya out of the room.
Even though Arya has valuable information about Jon Arryn’s death and a potential plot to kill Ned, Ned refuses to listen to her and take her seriously. That demonstrates a certain amount of naivety on Ned’s part, as he seems unwilling to believe that he could be at risk.
Themes
