Previous
Chapter 28
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Court of Thorns and Roses, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Pain
Compassion, Respect, and Difference
Responsibility and Sacrifice
Art, Beauty, and Poverty
Summary
Analysis
Feyre tells her sisters that she spent her time reading to Aunt Ripleigh, who died two weeks ago and left Feyre her entire fortune (which Tamlin sent with Feyre). Father catalogs and counts the fortune. He’s happy now, and a salve from a “kind traveler” has improved his limp immensely. He and Elain dote on each other, while Nesta remains cold and watchful. Today, Elain is showing Feyre her garden, which she tends herself. She invites Feyre to come with her to the continent next year to see and purchase tulips, and Feyre agrees. When Feyre notes that the trip will occur in the middle of the social season, Elain explains that this season was weird: people acted like their family had just been sick for a while. It made Elain miss the cottage years and the closeness she felt with her family.
It may seem somewhat simplistic or even shallow, but the happiness of Feyre’s family members now that they’re wealthy again highlights, by contrast, the consequences of poverty. In some ways, Elain isn’t much different—she still dotes on Father and keeps a garden—but she’s actually able to find joy and contentment now, unlike when the family worried whether they’d have food to eat the next day. Elain also shows Feyre that her family has always been her focus, as evidenced by missing the years in the cottage. Life may have been hard, but it was meaningful to Elain that the family weathered that hard time together.
Themes
Elain says that Nesta didn’t finish the season and generally just acts strange. She reveals that Nesta even went to try and see Feyre, but the carriage broke down and she had to return. Feyre is shocked. The days pass, and Feyre helps Elain in the flower garden. Feyre realizes that the years of poverty didn’t rob Elain of her hope or generosity. One day, Feyre visits the old cottage, thinking of Tamlin. It’s falling into disrepair, and Feyre realizes that Elain was the strongest sister: she looked at the cottage with hope, while Feyre just felt hatred.
