Previous
Chapter 8
Themes
and Colors
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
The next day, Feyre hurries to the stables to join Lucien on patrol. Tamlin intercepts her, inviting to take her out to show her the grounds. Feyre blandly declines and continues to the stables. There, she encounters the masked stableboys and Lucien, already on his horse. He taunts her and then invites her to join him on a hunt. Feyre accepts, eventually mounting her horse and following him down a path. She tries to ignore how gorgeous the light is, and how bright the flowers are, and focus on which trees she can climb. As Lucien slows to ride next to Feyre, Feyre studies the bow they gave her—it’s bigger than the modest bow she bought five years ago.
Feyre begins to carry out her plan, targeting Lucien in the hopes that he’ll convince Tamlin to send her back. But even as she believes she wants to leave Prythian, Feyre also can’t ignore how gorgeous this place is, with its beautiful flora and persistent spring. In addition to suggesting that perhaps this place isn’t so bad after all, it also begins to reorient Feyre away from worrying about survival and toward appreciating beautiful things.
Active
Themes
Continuing to try to ignore the sweet-smelling flowers, Feyre asks Lucien what an emissary like him is doing patrolling the grounds. He explains that Andras was supposed to have this shift. Feyre feels bad: Andras had a life and friends. She offers her condolences, Lucien insults her in return, and he then apologizes—and since faeries can’t lie, Feyre concludes he must be sincere. Then, Lucien reveals that he knows exactly why Feyre joined him today. He doesn’t have the power to convince Tamlin of anything, though he’d love it if Feyre disappeared. She’ll be safer here, though.
Feyre is beginning to feel remorse for killing Andras, especially as she sees how integrated he was in the manor’s community. Essentially, seeing that faeries have friends too has an impact on Feyre—it shows her they’re capable of love and affection. Still, as Lucien’s big reveal of Feyre’s plan suggests, they’re disturbingly (and inhumanly) perceptive, which throws the power dynamic between human Feyre and the faeries into sharp relief.
Active
Themes
Feyre tries to question Lucien about the blight and where Tamlin’s court is. He says that “Something was sent from the shit-holes of Hell” to cause it, but then he looks anxious and refuses to say more in case a “her” finds out. Privately, Feyre finds this fascinating. She prods Lucien about his powers. He says that Tamlin is the only one who can shapeshift; he’d turned Andras, another High Fae, into a wolf to protect him in the mortal realm. Lucien, as High Fae, “just exist[s]—to rule.” He has no interesting qualities, like having to answer questions if someone traps him. This piques Feyre’s interest, and Lucien says that the Suriel will answer questions if trapped—but Feyre should leave well enough alone. Then, suddenly, Lucien tells Feyre to look straight ahead. He and the horses are clearly terrified.
Active
Themes
