Previous
Chapter 57: 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
Ned is locked in a dark cell. He can’t tell day from night and quickly loses track of time. He curses the people who betrayed him, but more than that, he curses himself. He was a fool, he thinks, and his men paid for his foolishness with their lives. Ned has no clue how long he’s been a prisoner, but once a day, a guard brings him water. One day, the guard isn’t the usual person. Instead, it’s Varys, disguised as a prison guard. He brings Ned wine and food.
Ned considers himself a fool. He relied solely on honor and integrity to navigate a situation that called for cunning and ingenuity. His overreliance on honor cost his men their lives. Immediately following those reflections, Varys arrives in disguise, another sign that subterfuge is the lingua franca of King’s Landing, a fact Ned seems to have learned too late.
Themes
Varys tells Ned what has happened since he’s been imprisoned. He says that Cersei is more concerned with Robert’s brothers, Stannis and Renly, than with the threat that Robb and the Stark army might pose, especially considering how young Robb is. Varys also tells Ned that Sansa pleaded for Ned’s life before King Joffrey. Varys encourages Ned to do as Cersei wants. Ned should repent for his crimes, say that Stannis and Renly have no right to the throne, and declare Joffrey the true king. If Ned does that, Varys says, then Cersei may spare his life and let him serve out his remaining days in the Night’s Watch. Ned says his word is more important to him than his life. Varys then says that Cersei also holds Sansa’s life in the balance and asks Ned how important Sansa’s life is.
Even after Ned realizes how his attachment to his honor led to his imprisonment and the death of his men, he still clings to it when talking to Varys. When Varys offers Ned a choice between life without honor or death with honor, Ned chooses death. When Varys reminds Ned that Cersei would likely kill Sansa if Ned defied her, Ned relents and considers “confessing” to crimes he did not commit and ceding power to the Lannisters. Ned’s surrender of his honor is a surefire sign that Cersei and the Lannisters have won the “game of thrones,” and Ned has lost.
Themes
