A Court of Frost and Starlight

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-8

Chapters 9-14

Chapters 15-20

Chapters 21-28

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Artistic Expression

Artistic expression plays an important role in A Court of Frost and Starlight, particularly for Feyre. It plays a primary role for Feyre’s Healing After Trauma and Loss, as it is an emotional outlet for her. Artistic expression becomes a symbol of healing, and it is a consistent motif throughout Feyre’s part of the story. She often feels guilty over taking time to paint once she returns to her practice, but Rhys reminds her that it is not a selfish act. When they discuss her art, she admits that guilt is not the only factor in her reticence to return to painting; she is also uncertain of the emotions and images that will come out of her once she sits down in front of an easel, considering the horrors she saw in and before the war. When she finally sits down to paint, she finds that she knew all along where to begin, and she finds it healing: “A sort of quiet followed, as if it were a layer of snow blanketing the heart. Clearing away what was beneath. More cleansing, more soothing than any of the hours I’d spent rebuilding this city” (85).

Even after this painting session, Feyre struggles with continuing the practice of painting. It’s only when she meets the weaver, who created the Void tapestry to represent her grief, that Feyre truly understands the role that art can play in healing. When Feyre asks how the weaver continues her art even after loss and sorrow, the woman replies,

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‘I have to create, or it was all for nothing. I have to create, or I will crumple up with despair and never leave my bed. I have to create because I have no other way of voicing this.’ Her hand rested on her heart, and my eyes burned. ‘It is hard,’ the weaver said, her stare never leaving mine, ‘and it hurts, but if I were to stop, if I were to let this loom or the spindle go silent…’ She broke my gaze at last to look to her tapestry. ‘Then there would be no Hope shining in the Void’ (134).

Feyre recognizes how powerful a tool artistic expression can be, and she realizes that her purpose is to create a place where people can find support for such expression—a place that offers community and healing through art.

Financial Freedom Versus Need

Feyre remains haunted by her years of financial need in A Court of Frost and Starlight. She now has all the money she could ever want through Rhys’s fortune and the salary she earned while she helped him with war preparations before becoming his partner, but she spent her adolescence living in poverty and being the only one in her family truly working to support her family. In those adolescent years, when she taught herself to hunt just to feed her family, she remembers that all she had wanted “was enough food, money, and time to paint. Nothing more. [She] would have been content to let [her] sisters wed, to remain and care for [her] father” (33). Her life has changed drastically, but that part of her with such simple desires pops in and out throughout the novel, contributing to her struggle with the concept of spending money on unnecessary things.

Feyre acknowledges to herself, “I still couldn’t wrap my mind around the enormity of Rhys’s wealth. My wealth. It didn’t feel real, those numbers and figures. Like it was children’s play money. I only bought what I needed” (39). Money is a symbol of survival for her, and part of her wants to hoard what she has for safety, while another part of her doesn’t even want to touch the money out of guilt for having more than others. Financial need is one of the traumas that Feyre must face in the novel, and the motif follows her throughout. Elain helps her understand the value of gift giving, especially to honor the traditions of their new home and celebrate life after tragedy.

The Winter Solstice

The Winter Solstice holiday is a symbol of tradition and community in A Court of Frost and Starlight. Solstices are the longest and shortest days of the year, and in this series, various courts celebrate either the summer or winter solstice—or both. In the Night Court, Rhys’s territory, they celebrate the Winter Solstice. The holiday also becomes a symbol for healing through The Power of Love and Friendship in Overcoming Adversity. Nuala, one of Rhys’s servants, explains that Solstice is “a time of rest […]. And a time to reflect on the darkness—how it lets the light shine” (4). This becomes an important interpretation during times of war or other forms of trauma and loss, and this is what Elain recognizes when she helps Feyre face her discomfort with buying gifts. She points out how the Winter Solstice is an important holiday for their new community and how it helps them come together and celebrate life after enduring so much loss. Even before facing her discomfort with the tradition of gift giving, Feyre recognizes that “[they] could use something to celebrate. It ha[s] become so rare for all of [them] to be gathered for more than an hour or two” (4). By using work to avoid the pains of their trauma, many of Feyre’s friends and family have starved themselves of rest and sufficient time with their loved ones. The Winter Solstice thus symbolizes friendship, love, and rest after hardship. It also becomes a motif, as it follows the characters and informs their interactions in this narrative.