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Chapter 59: 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
Commander Mormont talks to Jon following Jon’s encounter with the undead figure, which they call a wight. Mormont commends Jon for his courage and quick thinking. Thanks to him, the wight was defeated. To honor Jon, Mormont gives him a sword made of Valyrian steel. He says that the sword has been in his family for centuries. He gave it to his son Jorah, but Jorah disgraced the family. Thankfully, Jorah left the sword behind when he fled. Jon recognizes the honor of receiving a sword that is a family heirloom. But he has other things on his mind that are troubling him. He thinks that he should be marching alongside Robb in the war against the Lannisters.
The Night’s Watch becomes more and more like a family for Jon, as Commander Mormont gives him a family heirloom sword. Still, even as Jon becomes more firmly rooted in that new family structure, he feels pulled to defend the family he grew up with. That reinforces the novel’s theme of the tension between love and duty, as Jon has a duty to uphold his vows to the Night’s Watch, while love for his family compels him to abandon those vows and fight alongside the Starks.
Themes
Sam tells Jon that Maester Aemon wants to see him. When Jon goes to see Aemon, Aemon tells him that members of the Night’s Watch cannot have families because love is the “bane of honor” and the “death of duty.” Jon isn’t sure if he agrees. Aemon also says there comes a day for every person when he must choose love or honor. Aemon says he knows what that choice is like and reveals to Jon that, before he took the vow, he was Aemon Targaryen. He has seen his relatives hunted down and killed. He says that Jon must make a choice now, too. Will he choose love or honor? Will he commit to his vows to the Night’s Watch, or will he leave to fight with the Starks?
In this conversation with Jon, Maester Aemon makes the tension between love and honor explicit. Jon’s internal hesitation about accepting Maester Aemon’s framework and sweeping distinction between the two is telling. Jon’s reluctance to accept that distinction implicitly poses the question of whether love and duty can go hand in hand. Jon seems to suggest that perhaps there is a way that love can be used to bolster honor and can operate alongside duty, rather than insisting that the two are intrinsically opposed.
Themes
