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Chapter 6: 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
Arya does needlework with Sansa and Princess Myrcella. Arya’s needlework comes out crooked, while Sansa’s looks perfect. Sansa is beautiful and seems like she can do no wrong. Arya is sick of being second best to her. Septa Mordane, who watches over the girls, says that Arya’s needlework isn’t even close to sufficient. Arya runs from the room in tears, while Septa Mordane yells at her to come back. Outside, Arya finds her direwolf, Nymeria. She then goes to watch combat training and sits with Jon Snow. She and Jon have always been close.
Arya running out of the room in tears parallels the moment when Jon ran out of the room in tears a few nights before. In that case, Jon burst into tears when confronted again with the fact that he is not Ned’s “trueborn” son, while Arya cries here because she does not fit others’ expectations for her. Arya then meets up with Jon, suggesting that the two relate to each other because neither neatly fits within the rigid hierarchical structures of Winterfell and Westeros.
Themes
Jon and Arya watch Bran fight Prince Tommen. The two use wooden swords and are wrapped in layers of protective cushions. When they’re done, Robb challenges Prince Joffrey to another round of combat training. Joffrey says that practice is child’s play, and he’ll only fight if they can use real swords. Ser Rodrik, the master-at-arms at Winterfell, says they can use swords with blunted edges. Joffrey says that won’t do and insults Robb before walking away. When Arya returns to her room, she finds Septa Mordane and her mother, Catelyn, waiting for her.
The narration portrays Joffrey as an arrogant bully. When he declines the offer to use blunted swords, though, it seems possible that his brash attitude is actually compensation for insecurity—in this case, a fear that he would lose in a fight with Robb. The fact that Septa Mordane and Catelyn are waiting for Arya shows that in Westeros, people who fail to conform to rigid expectations—in this case, gender expectations—inevitably face harsh consequences.
Themes
