50 pages • 1 hour read
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“While it was true that she’d simply gone from one loveless home to another, that didn’t mean she didn’t feel the absence of love. Doña Valentina had no acceptable name for the longing she felt, and no idea how to soothe it, so she filled her days irritating their few servants with constant correction and existing in a state of relentless dissatisfaction.”
Valentina introduces the theme of longing and The Price of Ambition. While Valentina is of a higher social class than Luzia and the other servants, she still longs to advance in the world and gain more power for herself. At the beginning of the novel, she is a petty and ruthless woman who does not hesitate to exploit others for her own advantage—an attitude she will gradually abandon over the course of her character arc.
“The magic was meaningless, a bit of fun, a trick of the eye, and in the hands of a poor but pious Christian woman, nothing to fear. But if anyone looked too closely, what would they see?”
This passage captures how Luzia’s early viewpoint of her magic is as just a small thing, a trick, to make her life easier—a perception that proves ironic as her power grows. Magic is dangerous anyway when the inquisitors are watching, but because her family was Jewish, Luzia risks persecution. Luzia’s magical talents and their links to her Jewish identity introduce the theme of The Power of Magic and Talent.
“Luzia saw her reflection in the goblet, changed but unchanged, made perfect and ruined all the same.”
This passage of self-reflection, represented by Luzia seeing her reflection in the goblet she just broke and mended, captures the turning point in the story when she has revealed her gift. The image captures a stylistic technique Bardugo has of putting two opposite things in tension, like the idea of being perfect and ruined at the same time.
“Better to live in fear than in grinding discontent. Better to dare this new path than continue her slow, grim march down the road that had been chosen for her. At least the scenery would be different.”
This passage illustrates Luzia’s initial attitude toward The Price of Ambition, and her determination to better herself by any means. The image of the path she chooses—to risk trouble by showing her gift rather than remaining invisible as a scullion—represents her desire for social advancement instead of resigning herself to her place in the social hierarchy.
“She felt a jolt of anger at how little weight she had in this world, how little she had to keep her from being caught up in the wind and scattered like dust swept off the stoop.”
This image of her being caught and scattered reflects the fear Luzia feels that she might get caught by the Inquisition, and more largely captures how precarious her social position is, which is something she resents. Luzia’s dilemma speaks to The Nature of Oppression and Sacrifice that will become even more significant later in the novel.
“[Santángel] felt the old rage stir. Once he had craved revenge almost as much as freedom. It had driven him through the sameness of his days and given him purpose. But in time, even his fury had waned, extinguished by the truth of his curse, by the relentless march of years. How strange to discover it within him still, an underground spring that might feed a great river.”
This passage adds to the building suspense about Santángel’s identity, as it is revealed he is immortal. His return to feeling human emotions, and human desires, is part of his character arc—a change spurred by meeting Luzia. The metaphor of his rage as a river expresses the power Santángel possesses, not yet defined, which adds to the building suspense.
“I cannot compete with beauty. I cannot be winsome like a child. So give me armor. Make it seem as if I have chosen to be humble.”
Luzia’s request that her new gown for the torneo be like “armor” reflects her suspicion that she needs protection. Her decision continues the manipulation of appearances that she achieved as a scullion by trying to remain invisible: In a simple gown, she will let people underestimate her. The overlooked or humble person having unexpected power is a common convention in fantasy novels.
“Who has more power in a house than the woman who stirs the soup and makes the bread and scrubs the floors, who fills the foot warmer with hot coals, and arranges your letters, and nurses your children?”
Luzia points to the paradox that scullions are overlooked or dismissed for their poverty when their power in a household is extensive, given the tasks they perform. This adds a nuanced dimension to The Nature of Oppression and Sacrifice, suggesting that the marginalized and vulnerable may be more powerful than they first appear even in systems designed to subdue them.
“Their great religion can make bread into flesh and wine into blood. But they don’t believe that any amount of holy water or prayer can truly make a Jew a Christian.”
This passage uses the image of baptism, a sacred ritual in the Christian church, to exemplify the fears that motivate antisemitic beliefs and the tortures of the Inquisition. Even conversos like Luzia, who have ostensibly converted to Christianity, are still treated with suspicion and disdain by the Christian community of Spain, who remain prejudiced toward the conversos. This religious prejudice reflects the historical context of the novel, which takes place during the centuries of Spain’s ultra-Catholic monarchy (See: Background).
“She had to find a way to win. She would build herself a life of plenty. She would force her world to bloom as she’d made the pomegranate tree grow, and Santángel would help her do it. Even if blood watered the soil.”
After the shocking incident with the bodyguard, Luzia realizes there is a new, darker element to her power, and she wants to grasp it. The imagery provides a metaphor for her maturity but also The Price of Ambition that she must face. The way ambition might corrupt her is a persistent danger, although she at first persuades herself she will not hesitate to use any means necessary.
“This fine carpet is a tongue, [Valentina] thought. I will put my foot upon it and it will snag me at the ankle, roll me up, and swallow me whole.”
Though Valentina is not the character with the most at stake in the torneo, the chapter is told from her point of view when the characters arrive at La Casilla. The metaphor of the fine things swallowing her up uses Valentina’s nervousness to foreshadow the threats facing Luzia in the competition.
“Luzia could taste the pomegranate in her mouth, the flavor of her own ambition, her appetite for more. She eyed the golden curtains of the stage and knew she would prove Santángel right. She was done going hungry.”
Though she feels that the torneo is something of a trap, Luzia is also eager to participate, which adds to the tension that she will walk into danger. The pomegranate she created and that Santángel gave her to eat has become a symbol of her ambition and determination (See: Symbols & Motifs).
“I know what it is to lower yourself, to keep your eyes downcast, to seek invisibility. It is a danger to become nothing. You hope no one will look, and so one day when you go to find yourself, only dust remains, ground down to nothing from sheer neglect.”
Santángel says this to Luzia, showing he understands why she made the pretense of going unnoticed as a scullion. The two protagonists share the same character arc and motivation of struggling to reclaim an identity that has been taken from them. His words also contain a warning that a pretense or appearance may take on actual substance at some point.
“My dreams are troubled here. There’s too much silver, too much gold. All of it plunder. All of it stinking of death. At night the walls bleed.”
Teoda’s remark about La Casilla speaks to the way Pérez, and the King of Spain, have gained their riches through plundering lands they call colonies and trafficking in humans. Teoda’s metaphor of the bleeding walls indicates the cost of empire and oppression, speaking to The Nature of Oppression and Sacrifice in the novel.
“They all chased power as if it were a great hunt, as if there was novelty in the pursuit. Their enthusiasm and drive, their constant burnishing of their name, their flag, their holdings, never wavered, never changed.”
Santángel here reflects on the greed and The Price of Ambition of the De Paredes family. This effort by the Paredes to enlarge their wealth and name is a mirror of the work of the king to enlarge the Spanish Empire, justifying his subjugation of others as doing the work of God.
“I was sick because life has made me so. Because it drains me and bores me, but I still cling to it as a child to his mother’s hand. After all these years of sorrow, I want to live.”
Santángel reveals to Luzia the nature of his curse and the truth of how he became bound to the De Paredes, and in doing so reveals the paradox that drives his character conflict: He is sickened by his endless life, but still afraid to die. His arc in the novel involves a return to life in that she proves able to defeat his curse.
“The Inquisition treated all heretics the same way, and a child sinner was no less dangerous to the soul of Spain.”
The Inquisition is a dark shadow over the book, adding background tension and heightening the threat of Luzia’s circumstances. After Teoda’s arrest provides a dramatic moment, this passage captures the justification for the torture: Purity of faith is demanded so that God will protect and prosper Spain.
“When Spain was strong, its people were happy to claim Philip. But reeling from loss of blood and treasure, he was the Austrian again, a Hapsburg interloper who would never belong on Spanish soil no matter his native tongue, or how many palaces he built.”
This passage grants some insight into the character of Philip II in the novel. Ironically, Philip—who persecutes his minority subjects like Luzia’s family—has difficulties with his own identity and being accepted for who he is. Although born and raised in Spain, his family’s foreign origins are still held against him whenever his subjects are dissatisfied with his rule. In referring to him as “the Austrian,” his subjects reveal their anxieties about Otherness, a phenomenon that spurs Spain’s colonizing practices as well as the witch hunts of the Inquisition.
“I longed for beauty and power and rooms full of people, lively conversation, journeys to mysterious lands. I wanted to be looked at and admired.”
Before the third trial, Luzia makes this confession to Valentina about her ambition. Wishing for more connects the women, but where Valentina has become frightened by the deepening threat, Luzia has become more determined.
“She saw the shape of the words in her mind. They were a temple, a crescent atop a dome, a hand raised against the evil eye, a cross.”
The ability to see the words in her mind, rather than simply speak or hear them in her head, signals that Luzia’s power is growing, reflecting The Power of Magic and Talent. The symbols draw from several faiths, alluding to Judaism and other ancient faiths that worship in temples; the crescent atop a dome was a symbol adopted by Islam but is even older; the cross refers to Christian belief and the evil eye to folk magic or witchcraft. This multiplicity adds to the impact of the refranes, suggesting that the blend of many things, rather than the purity of one, lends them power.
“She’d done as she was asked and more. She’d fought her way out of the larder, and despite insults, and treachery, and an attempt on her life, she’d managed to win again and again. But here she was, powerless, and even more wretched than when she’d begun.”
Caught by the Inquisition, Luzia reflects on the paradox of where The Price of Ambition and her skills have gotten her: From the larder where she slept in the Ordoño home to a cell in prison, an ironic end to her dreams of power. She and Santángel have in common that both are manipulated and betrayed by scheming men.
“Luzia tumbled back into the dark water, where Hualit was waiting, her lipless mouth whispering in the cold. The sea is vast and can endure anything, she said. Her hands were full of jewels.”
After she learns Hualit was murdered, Luzia’s dream of her aunt offers a powerful moment of foreshadowing for the ending. It is Hualit who taught Luzia the refranes that will save her, symbolized by the jewels in her hands, while her words remind Luzia that her power is greater than the men who are trying to break her.
“All is permissible where there is money and will.”
Víctor’s statement sums up The Price of Ambition and the greed of powerful men. His statement leaves out a moral baseline which the novel subtly draws: What is achievable is not always congruent with what is right.
“He had no fresh hand to play. He would die and she would live. A tragic bargain but a clean one.”
In keeping with the theme of The Nature of Oppression and Sacrifice, Santángel decides to trade his life so that Luzia can be free of the Inquisition and of Víctor. The metaphor of playing cards indicates that he feels this is his last play and the game is over.
“She could feel her terror pulling at the song inside her, trying to change its shape. The power wanted to follow. This time she let it. If it wished to be dangerous, to be unwieldy, to grow bigger and more awful than it should, who was she to stand in the way of its ambition?”
A last statement on the theme of ambition, Luzia’s power peaks at the moment of her execution, when she attempts the most powerful spell yet, to transport her and Santángel from the flames. Her power is larger than herself, pointing to the long tradition that stands behind the culture of the Sephardic Jews who survived inside and outside of Spain.
Plus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
By Leigh Bardugo
Challenging Authority
View Collection
Class
View Collection
Class
View Collection
Fear
View Collection
Good & Evil
View Collection
Jewish American Literature
View Collection
Magical Realism
View Collection
Power
View Collection
Romance
View Collection
Safety & Danger
View Collection
The Best of "Best Book" Lists
View Collection
Valentine's Day Reads: The Theme of Love
View Collection