[Spoilers through A Dance with
Dragons.]
On the other hand, justice and
vengeance are predominantly associated with Catelyn and Arya. Catelyn’s
relationship with the concept of justice is fascinating; in general, before she
becomes Lady Stoneheart, she supports Ned’s idea of justice, and continually
emphasises the importance of differentiating it from vengeance. Unlike Ned,
however, she supports justice for pragmatic,
rather than honourable reasons, recognising the essential futility of
vengeance. When Edmure tells her “the
Lannisters will pay, I swear it, you will have your vengeance,” after Ned’s
execution, she asks him“Will that bring
Ned back to me?” [GOT, 787]. She has similar exchanges with both Stannis
and Renly in Clash:
[Renly] “My lady, I swear to you, I will see that the Lannisters answer for your
husband’s murder,” the king [Renly] declared. “When I take King’s Landing, I’ll
send you Cersei’s head.”
And will that bring my Ned back
to me? she thought. “It will be enough to
know that justice has been done, my lord.” [COK, 253]
[Stannis] “Still, I give you my word, you shall have justice for his murder.” How
they loved to promise heads, these men who would be king. “Your brother promised me the same. But if truth be told, I would
sooner have my daughters back, and leave justice to the gods.” [COK, 346]
She explains herself to Karstark
with similar rationality when he tells her, that, by releasing Jaime, “You have robbed me of my vengeance”, noting
that “Lord Rickard, the Kingslayer’s
dying would not have bought life for your children. His living may buy life for
mine.” [SOS, 191]
Catelyn also has two monologues
on the foolishness of revenge that I think are two of the most powerful
monologues in the series. Firstly, when Lord Karstark tells her that “You are the gentle sex... A man has a need
for vengeance”, Catelyn replies “Give
me Cersei Lannister, Lord Karstark, and you would see how gentle a woman can be... Perhaps I do not
understand tactics and strategy... but I understand futility... I will mourn
for Ned until the end of my days, but I must think of the living. I want my
daughters back, and the queen holds them still. If I must trade our four
Lannisters for their two Starks, I will call that a bargain and thank the gods.
I want you safe, Robb, ruling at Winterfell from your father’s seat. I want you
to live your life, to kiss a girl and wed a woman and father a son. I want to
write an end to this. I want to go home, my lords, and weep for my husband.’ [GOT,
795]
Heartbreakingly, when she gives
this monologue again, to her dying father, her list of ‘wants’ has moved from
being a list of hopes to a list of losses, as she recognises what she cannot have and the ultimate failure of
her earlier arguments: ‘Robb must fight
the Greyjoys now as well as the Lannisters, and for what? For a gold hat and an
iron chair? Surely the land has bled enough. I want my girls back, I want Robb
to lay down his sword and pick some homely daughter of Walder Frey to make him
happy and give him sons. I want Bran and Rickon back, I want...” Catelyn hung
her head. “I want.”... Midnight has come, father, she thought, and I must do my duty. She let go of his hand. [COK, 576]
However, this second monologue is
not merely Cat’s acceptance of her fate, as, of course, the ‘duty’ she tells
Hoster she has to do is releasing Jaime. Indeed, her repetition of the same
points becomes a justification for finally acting impulsively, for
transgressing social norms and not doing the ‘duty’ that men have told her she
must do, but taking the path forwards that she can see most clearly. And, as
her first monologue indicated (‘Give me
Cersei...’), Catelyn, unlike Ned, is not immune to the emotional
attractions of vengeance, although she keeps herself under tight control. The
reader is clearly meant to think that she might be intending to kill Jaime, not
releasing him, and that is consistent with her previous thoughts of revenge.
She tells Brienne: “I have no skill with
swords, but that does not mean I do not dream of riding to King’s Landing and
wrapping my hands around Cersei Lannister’s white throat and squeezing until
her face turns black”, giving Brienne permission to take her revenge on
Stannis, although Cat knows by this point that he has the lawful claim to the
throne [COK, 410-11]. She tells Robb that his ‘first duty’ is ‘to defend
your own people, win back Winterfell, and hang Theon in a crow’s cage to die
slowly’, conflating duty and vengeance
[SOS, 200]. Most strikingly, she reflects to Brienne after hearing of Bran
and Rickon’s deaths, ‘Ned always said
that the man who passes the sentence should swing the blade, though he never took
any joy in the duty. But I would, oh
yes.’ [COK, 574]
The ideas of justice, vengeance
and mercy also seem crucial in Arya’s arc. Arya is a staunch defender of the
innocent and weak, but her fierce belief in justice seems to exclude the
possibility of her being truly merciful. For example, when she gives water to
Stark men hanging in crow cages, she is keen to establish first that they are
Robb’s men and deserve her help, although a truly merciful action would have
been to give them water regardless, as they are dying [SOS, 397-8]. Like Sansa,
Arya is involved in numerous trials, where she is often furious when justice is
not done; she shouts ‘Liar!’ at
Sansa’s unclear testimony, and is angry that the Brotherhood without Banners
does not execute the Hound. This, however, is a score that she is able to
settle, when she tells him: “You don’t
deserve the gift of mercy... You shouldn’t have hit me with an axe... You
should have saved my mother.” [SOS, 1038]. Arya’s concern for justice leads
her to desperately seek a reason to murder the old man in Dance (‘He has lived too long... He has no courtesy... His face is
hard and mean... He is an evil man... and he has a villain’s beard’) whereas
the point of her training is that ‘it is
not for you to judge him.’ She wants the kind of personal connection with
her victim that Ned strove for, albeit in a twisted way: ‘When I kill him, he will look in my eyes and thank me’, but the
kindly man is not interested in Stark justice: ‘It would be best if he took no note of you at all.’ [DWD, 837-8]
Throughout Dance, the kindly man
seems to be trying to tell Arya that she is no longer involved in the kind of
‘Stark of Winterfell’ justice that led her to murder Dareon, and that she has to
put this aside if she is to join the Faceless Men and give ‘the gift of death’, which sounds akin to ‘the gift of mercy’ she denied the Hound.
While, as we have seen, Sansa is
associated with mercy and pity, Catelyn is far more akin to Arya in this respect.
When she pleads for peace, her reasons are pragmatic – saving her family –
rather than truly forgiving. As Lady Stoneheart, she is also known as ‘Mother
Merciless’, and while an argument can be made that her trials are fair, they
are hardly merciful. Overall, Catelyn’s greater affinity with Arya may explain
why, although both girls want to take their mother’s name as an alias when they
go into hiding, it is only Arya who is allowed to retain it. And for Arya,
‘Cat’ is clearly not just a means to an end – as ‘Nan’, ‘Arry’ and ‘Squab’ were
– but a valued identity. She uses ‘Cat’ to keep up her spirits during her
isolation in Braavos, telling herself ‘I am a cat now, not a wolf. I am Cat of
the Canals.’ [FFC, 627] and ‘Cats never weep, she told herself, no more than wolves do.’ [FFC, 628]. This second
statement indicates that, unlike, for example, the mouse-like Nan, ‘Cat’ is an
identity that Arya can reconcile with her Stark self, although she is different
from the true Arya Stark. In contrast, Sansa plays Alayne Stone, who diverges
ever further from the inward Sansa; even her physical resemblance to Catelyn is
reduced when she dyes her hair.
The ideas of justice, vengeance
and mercy also seem crucial in Arya’s arc. Arya is a staunch defender of the
innocent and weak, but her fierce belief in justice seems to exclude the
possibility of her being truly merciful. For example, when she gives water to
Stark men hanging in crow cages, she is keen to establish first that they are
Robb’s men and deserve her help, although a truly merciful action would have
been to give them water regardless, as they are dying [SOS, 397-8]. Like Sansa,
Arya is involved in numerous trials, where she is often furious when justice is
not done; she shouts ‘Liar!’ at
Sansa’s unclear testimony, and is angry that the Brotherhood without Banners
does not execute the Hound. This, however, is a score that she is able to
settle, when she tells him: “You don’t
deserve the gift of mercy... You shouldn’t have hit me with an axe... You
should have saved my mother.” [SOS, 1038]. Arya’s concern for justice leads
her to desperately seek a reason to murder the old man in Dance (‘He has lived too long... He has no courtesy... His face is
hard and mean... He is an evil man... and he has a villain’s beard’) whereas
the point of her training is that ‘it is
not for you to judge him.’ She wants the kind of personal connection with
her victim that Ned strove for, albeit in a twisted way: ‘When I kill him, he will look in my eyes and thank me’, but the
kindly man is not interested in Stark justice: ‘It would be best if he took no note of you at all.’ [DWD, 837-8]
Throughout Dance, the kindly man
seems to be trying to tell Arya that she is no longer involved in the kind of
‘Stark of Winterfell’ justice that led her to murder Dareon, and that she has to
put this aside if she is to join the Faceless Men and give ‘the gift of death’, which sounds akin to ‘the gift of mercy’ she denied the Hound.
[Spoilers through the first half of Storm of Swords and Season 3 of the TV series; very slight spoilers for A Feast for Crows] This post uses some material from my earlier post on Arya and Cat, which has spoilers for all five books.
Arya, too, often rejects social norms, although the difference between her and Cat is that she is often unaware of why they are considered important in the first place, which can lead her into trouble. Like Catelyn, she is at ease with the smallfolk and commendably impatient with distinctions of rank, continually making the case that Mycah’s death matters, even though he was ‘only’ a butcher’s boy. However, her lack of understanding of the way society works can lead to problems, such as her failure to assess the danger posed by attacking the crown prince, and her inability to comprehend Gendry’s position [COK, 497]. This means that Arya often exhibits a lack of realism in situations where Sansa, for example, would be much more realistic, even though she is in many ways more pragmatic and sensible than her sister. A particularly interesting example is sexual behaviour. We know that Catelyn is realistic about men’s fidelity from her early thoughts on bastards [GOT, 65] but, in this context, Arya still retains a very romantic view of life. When the topic of Ned’s extra-marital relationships is raised, Arya refuses to listen: ‘he loved my lady mother... She was the only one he loved.’ [SOS, 598]. This stands in contrast to Sansa’s lack of reaction to hearing that Catelyn might have had pre-marital sex [FFC, 186] and to Lyanna’s realism about her marriage to Robert [GOT, 379]. As this indicates, both sisters are unrealistic and romantic in their own ways, while Catelyn, unsurprisingly given her twenty or more additional years of life experience, largely combines their strengths, although she can be shortsighted, as in her initial reaction to Brienne.