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Chapter 38: 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
While Ned is unconscious after the fight with Jaime Lannister, he dreams of a long-ago battle in Dorne when he and his men battled three legendary fighters, including Arthur Dayne, Gerold Hightower, and Oswell Went as they continued in their effort to unseat King Aerys II Targaryen from the throne. When Ned awakens, one of his men, Vayon Poole, tells him that he has been unconscious for six days. He also says that King Robert wants to see Ned. Ned tries to put off the meeting until he feels better, but Robert barges into the room with Cersei.
This passage again demonstrates how the novel’s narrative structure shows how one’s perspective on events determines the stories and histories that one tells. In this case, Ned sees his and Robert’s efforts to unseat King Aerys as heroic, whereas previous chapters from Daenerys’s point of view have called Robert “the Usurper” and indicted the Starks, who fought alongside him, in their unjust efforts to depose the king.
Themes
Robert says that he doesn’t like the fighting that happened between Jaime and Ned. Cersei chimes in to say that Catelyn had no right to lay hands on Tyrion and take him as her prisoner. Jaime has fled from King’s Landing, and Ned urges Robert to let him track down Jaime and bring him to justice. Cersei claims that Ned initiated the fight when he was coming home drunk from a brothel, and Ned counters by saying that he had only been at the brothel to see Robert’s child.
Robert again demonstrates his ineffectuality as a leader. He has let Jaime flee even though Jaime has openly killed several of Ned’s soldiers. Moreover, when Ned and Cersei speak, Robert is unable to contain the conversation. He shows that he has no plan about how that conversation should proceed or what he intends to do.
Themes
Cersei says she can’t believe that Robert lets Ned get away with such insolence, and Robert strikes Cersei. She says she will wear the bruise like a badge of honor before leaving. Robert tells Ned he was wrong to hit Cersei, but he doesn’t know how to fight someone without hitting them. Robert then commands Ned to retake the role of the Hand of the King. If Ned doesn’t comply, Robert says, then the role will go to Jaime Lannister.
Robert physically abuses Cersei, just as Viserys abuses Daenerys. Robert’s statement that he doesn’t know how to fight someone without hitting them reinforces his ineffectiveness as a politician and leader. He not only lacks the ability to act morally, but he also self-admittedly lacks a capacity for strategic thinking.
Themes
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