Heartless

“‘I pictured to myself the Queen of Hearts as a sort of embodiment of ungovernable passion—a blind and aimless Fury.’ –Lewis Carroll”

This prefatory quote informs the reader’s understanding of Cath’s character. Meyer’s positioning of Carroll’s statement about his intentions behind the original Queen of Hearts character as a preface to her retelling establishes the reader’s expectations and the key facets of Cath’s character that will be explored.

“It had been a hazy, beautiful dream, and in it there had been a hazy, beautiful boy. He was dressed all in black and standing in an orchard of lemon trees, and [Cath] had the distinct sensation that he had something that belonged to her. She didn’t know what it was, only that she wanted it back, but every time she took a step toward him he receded farther and farther away. [...] But mostly it was his eyes that haunted her. Yellow and shining, sweet and tart. His eyes had been bright like lemons ready to fall from a tree.”

Cath’s dream at the beginning of the novel frames her relationship with Jest and foreshadows the trajectory their relationship will take. The lemons, which here connotate sunshine and joy, symbolize Jest’s goodness and the goodness in Cath at the beginning of her arc. However, there are also overtones of temptation in the dream, implying that Jest will ultimately be the cause of Cath’s undoing; ironically, he is, but only because Cath cannot live without the love she placed in him—figuratively, he takes her heart, and she can never get it back.

“[The Marchioness] was often a warm, loving woman, and Cath’s father, the Marquess, doted on her incessantly, but Cath was all too familiar with her mood swings. All cooing and delighted one moment and screaming at the top of her lungs the next. Despite her tiny stature, she had a booming voice and a particular glare that could make even a lion’s heart shrivel beneath it.”

This description of Cath’s mother is rife with dramatic irony. The small stature, booming voice, and explosive rage are all iconic features of Carroll’s Queen of Hearts; characterizing Cath’s mother as such emphasizes to the reader how dissimilar Cath initially is to the Queen of