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Chapter 34: Catelyn
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
Littlefinger brings Ned to a brothel. There, Ned finds another one of Robert’s “bastard” children and talks to the child’s mother. Ned asks Littlefinger why someone would kill Jon Arryn because he knew about Robert’s children born out of wedlock, and Littlefinger says that someone didn’t want Jon Arryn to know about Robert’s children born to women of lower status. As Littlefinger and Ned return to the Red Keep after visiting the brothel, they are stopped in the streets by Jaime Lannister and his men.
Littlefinger’s assertion that Jon Arryn was killed to keep people from learning about Robert’s “lowborn” children demonstrates how strict the hierarchical structures of Westeros are, as someone seems to have been willing to kill Jon Arryn to maintain the rigidity of that hierarchy. However, Ned still has not found the information he needs to definitively prove Littlefinger’s theory.
Themes
Jaime takes out his sword. Littlefinger is taken aback and can’t believe what’s happening. Jaime asks Ned why Catelyn took Tyrion as her prisoner. Ned says Tyrion needs to answer for crimes against Bran and tells Jaime that if he kills him (Ned), then Catelyn will kill Tyrion. Jaime lets Littlefinger leave the scene. Jaime then tells his men to leave Ned alive but to kill Ned’s men, including Jory. Ned is injured in the fight, and the rest of Ned’s men are killed. Littlefinger returns with the City Guard, who bring Ned to safety.
The conflict between the Lannisters and the Starks escalates drastically in this scene. That escalation demonstrates the life-or-death stakes of the “game of thrones.” Though Ned had been ready to leave King’s Landing, Jaime’s decision to kill Ned’s men seems like it has irrevocably made Ned a participant in the “game of thrones,” whether he wants to be or not.
Themes
