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Chapter 51: Sansa
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
Jon, Sam, Commander Mormont, and a group of rangers have ventured beyond the Wall again after they brought the hand Ghost found back to Castle Black. Ghost leads them to the corpses of two men. They are two of the six men that Ben Stark brought with him when he went past the Wall close to six months ago. Some of the rangers say that the men look like they have just died. Their wounds seem fresh, and the bodies don’t smell. But Sam hesitantly speaks up. He says that if the men died recently, there would be blood on the ground. He also points out that the animals, aside from Ghost, won’t go near the bodies. Moreover, the men now have blue eyes, which they didn’t have before.
The men’s new blue eyes further suggest that they, like Waymar Royce, encountered the Others, as Waymar’s eyes also turned blue after the Others killed him. Sam shows the value that he brings to the Night’s Watch. While he has previously been portrayed as out of place, this scene makes it clear that Jon was right in recognizing Sam’s talents and that Sam has just as valuable of a role to play in the Night’s Watch as someone like Jon.
Themes
Commander Mormont orders the bodies be taken back to Castle Black. He wants Maester Aemon to examine them. The horses whinny and try to run when the rangers move to strap the bodies to them. Eventually, they get the bodies strapped down. When they reach Castle Black, someone tells Jon that they’ve received a letter that concerns him. They also say that King Robert is dead. Jon goes to talk to Commander Mormont, who tells him that in addition to Robert’s death, he’s also received news that Ned has been imprisoned for treason. Jon is furious. He knows it can’t be true. Mormont tells Jon not to do anything stupid.
The sensitivity of the horses to the bodies suggests that there is something disconcerting about them that animals can sense. News of Ned’s arrest sets up a serious test for Jon. Though he has acclimated well to the Night’s Watch and found a new family there, Ned’s arrest will test which “family” speaks to him more strongly. Will he be compelled to follow the duty he feels to the Starks and the family he grew up with, or the duty he feels to the Night’s Watch, which he swore a vow to never leave?
Themes
When Jon leaves Commander Mormont, Jon’s friends comfort him. They’ve heard the news about Ned, too, and they agree that it can’t be true. At dinner, though, Jon overhears Alliser saying that Jon isn’t just a “bastard,” but he’s also the bastard of a traitor. Jon takes out a knife and lunges at Alliser. Sam steps between Jon and Alliser, and others take hold of Jon from behind. Jon is put into a cell that is guarded around the clock. His friends are forbidden from seeing him, but Ghost is allowed to stay in the cell, so at least Jon isn’t completely alone.
The novel frequently contrasts leaders who inspire loyalty and comradery in others with leaders who alienate others. Alliser seems to belong to the latter category, as he consistently targets Jon and draws ire from Jon’s friends. The novel suggests that while people like Alliser probably shouldn’t be in positions of power, they frequently are—and they use that power to terrorize others.
Themes
That night, Jon wakes up in his cell to the sound of Ghost scraping at the door. At first, Jon doesn’t think anything of it, but when he examines the door more closely, he finds that it’s open. He goes outside and sees the guard dead on the stairs nearby. He takes the guard’s sword and goes to Commander Mormont’s room, where he sees a shadowy figure dressed in black. Under the figure’s hood, blue eyes shine back at Jon.
The blue eyes shining back at Jon signal that the figure is an Other, with the same blue eyes that Sam noticed on the bodies of the men they found beyond the Wall and that Waymar Royce had when he was killed and then became reanimated as an Other.
Themes
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Ghost attacks the figure, and Jon sinks his sword into the figure’s body. But the sound doesn’t seem right to Jon, and the figure’s skin is cold to the touch. At one point, Jon gets a glimpse of the figure’s face and sees that it belongs to one of the corpses that they brought back earlier. Jon can’t believe what he’s looking at. The man was dead. Commander Mormont steps into the doorway holding a lamp. Jon takes the lamp and lights the curtains on fire before flinging the curtains at the figure. Jon hopes that fire will kill it, as nothing else seems to harm it.
This passage confirms the idea that when the Others kill people (like the corpses found in the woods beyond the Wall), those people are reanimated as Others themselves. That means that as the Others encounter more and more people, their ranks will grow, reinforcing the need for the Night’s Watch and the Wall to protect humanity south of the Wall from the threat posed by the Others, which seems to be rapidly growing.
Themes
