A Court of Wings and Ruin

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A Court of Wings and Ruin is the third book in the series which centers around Feyre’s return to the Spring Court and the fight to stop an impending war. The story follows the same characters we know and love, introduces new characters, and focuses more on the relationship and background of each character. The idea of gender will still be discussed through Feyre’s character while the theme of sexuality will be introduced and the mental health of different characters will be analyzed.

Generally in literature, there is an “inequality between men and women” that cannot be ignored as women are portrayed as the weaker sex with no worth besides bearing children (Filipowicz 5). Feyre has taken this bias and ripped it apart by taking her rights to her own body seriously and becoming the first High lady Prythian has ever seen. She presents herself as the “High lady of the Night Court” to Lucien’s brothers and refuses to pack down when Eris says “there’s no such thing” (Maas 123). Feyre is ready to change the world for the better and refuses to let anything stop her. She does this with Rhysand by her side, who presents her to the Court of Nightmares by escorting her to the throne and perching on the side with a simple “bow” as command (Maas 263). He makes sure it is known that Feyre is his equal in every way and that she must be respected as such. Yet, in order to change the world she must first take down the Spring Court after Tamlin sided with Hybern by spying from within. Feyre does so by pretending that her relationship with Rhysand was forced and that she is “home” where she belongs. She does what she can to gain information by playing the role of a girl who needs protection, putting herself into meetings, and breaking the trust that Tamlin’s people have in him. Feyre becomes vindictive and in the end takes her revenge on Ianthe by diving into her mind and making her smash her hand with a rock as a reminder to “never touch another person against their will” (Maas 87). Feyre becomes this selfless leader who does what is best for her family while also maintaining her willingness to get her hands dirty if it means protecting innocent people.

While Feyre discovers that her gender is a strength, other characters reveal some hidden details about their lives. Queer theory can be defined as “a term that has been applied to a body of work that has explored gay, lesbian and bisexual life experience” that explores the “recovery of the concealed” and “repressed presence… within social and cultural life” (“Queer Studies”). While Maas does include members of the LGBTQIA+ community in her work, they are only mentioned within A Court of Wings and Ruins and the characters are often minor to the story line and/or misrepresented. The first mention of a character who is not straight is at the meeting with the other high lords where Feyre meets Thesan for the first time. Rhysand explains through their bond that “the male on [Thesan’s] left is his captain and lover” but that during Amarantha’s reign “Thesan didn’t dare acknowledge it” in order to keep himself and his lover safe (Maas 403). Outside of this conversation, the lover is never mentioned again or even given a name, demonstrating his insignificance to the story. Helion, the high lord of the day court, is described as someone who “favors both men and women. Usually together in his bed” by Rhysand after Helion visits the inner circle in their room (Maas 451). Helion follows the bisexual stereotype of being “promiscuous and hypersexual” to a point where his bisexuality becomes his only personality trait (Holthaus 26). While the including a bisexual man is wonderful considering that “the presence of bisexuals” is typically erased or made invisible by modern society, it is important to have accurate representation and not fall to stereotypes (Holthaus 26). The final, and only major character, that is deemed to be part of the LGBTQIA+ community is Mor. When finally confronted about her feelings for Azriel, Mor reveals that she “can’t love him like that” because she “prefers females” which comes as a shock to Feyre (Maas 588). Feyre almost does not believe that Mor could like women because she slept with Helion to which Mor responds “I do find pleasure in them. In both” (Maas 589). Feyre’s reaction is confusing as she was so willing to accept Helion’s bisexuality but cannot fathom that Mor may like both but have a preference of one over the other. This is true for most bisexuals as most people do not understand that while someone may prefer one gender they can still be attracted to the other. Mor hides this part of herself from her friends and family as there are people who only care about “breeding their bloodlines” while Mor would have “no offspring” and would be “considered selfish” for her choice to marry a woman (Maas 589). These examples demonstrate how sexuality is portrayed within the novel and the need for more proper representation.

As we transition from exploring sexuality to mental health, we will look at the trauma of three new characters: Clotho, Nesta, and Elain. Clotho, a priestess, works in the library below the House of Wind. Like the rest of the priestesses who work there, Clotho was offered sanctuary after the horrible things that left her mute. Clotho was beaten by a group of males that “cut out her tongue so she couldn’t tell anyone who had hurt her. And smashed her hands so that she couldn’t write it” (Maas 216). The men continued to heal her and then beat her in order to make the injuries they caused permanent. Instead of having Rhysand reopen the wounds and heal them properly, she chose not to “endure what having the wounds open again would trigger in her mind. Her heart” and remained at the library to heal. Rhysand explains to Feyre that “some come to heal, work as acolytes, and then leave” while others “take the oaths to the Cauldron and Mother to become priestesses and remain here forever” which is what Clotho chose to do (Maas 217). The library acts as a sanctuary to Clotho and others who need to heal from the trauma they have endured in their life. Clotho’s character, and the library itself, are a representation of why it is important to take mental health seriously and to take your time while healing.

Clotho is an example of what time does to heal, while Nesta is a character that does not truly admit their trauma. After being changed by the Cauldron, Nesta clings to her cold exterior and is aggressive towards those around her. She resents Feyre and refuses to train with Cassian in the beginning; Yet, practices magic with Amren once the inner circle agrees that “by the end of this war” the king and queens will be dead for what they did (Maas 189). Nesta’s feelings towards what happened to her are never mentioned until she agrees to tell her story to the high lords because she does not “want to be remembered as a coward;” Yet, her statement does not describe what it was like for her inside the cauldron (Maas 396). Nesta never truly admits her feelings and only cares about Elain’s throughout most of the novel. Her breaking moment comes in the battle after learning that her father has brought the ships in order to save them. Nesta watches as the King of Hybern snaps her fathers neck after telling her he had loved her “from the first moment [he] held her in [his] arms,” leaving Nesta with unresolved conflict in her heart towards her father (Maas 647). She then prepares for death with Cassian as he says, “I will find you again in the next world—the next life” before the King is stabbed through the throat by Elain and beheaded by Nesta, herself (Maas 652). This trauma leads to severe problems that will be explored more in the following novels.

While Nesta’s trauma seems to catch up with her at the end of the novel, Elain’s trauma is fierce in the beginning and lessens throughout as she works on healing. When Feyre returns to Velaris she finds Elain “hollow” and a “shell” of her previous self, a “void” of a once happy person (Maas 154-155). All she can manage is that she wants to go home and that she was “supposed to be married next week” to her human fiance (Maas 155). Eventually, Elain begins to venture around the house and clings to Azriel’s quiet demeanor as he shows her the garden. She consistently talks of her dreams saying, “everyone thinks she’s dead. But she’s not. Only—different. Changed. As I was,” leading the rest of the inner circle to believe she had gone mad (Maas 286). Eventually, Azriel realizes that Elain is not going mad but that “the cauldron made [her] a seer” (Maas 334). This frees part of Elain from the torment she had been trapped in as she is finally understood by the others. However, like Nesta, Elain’s feeling towards her transition and her experience with the cauldron is not mentioned. She keeps her calm, precious demeanor until Nesta’s life is in danger, leading Elain to stab the King of Hybern in the throat. Elain’s trauma is something that is helped through Azriel’s realization and something she continues to work through in the other novels.

Within this third novel, gender and mental health continue to be discussed and the idea of sexuality is finally brought into the series. The concept of gender that centers around Feyre’s life takes on a sense of strength and equality that was not brought into the prior novels. Sexuality is finally introduced but only through minor characters and are given a lack of representation. Finally, mental health is discussed through new characters that will continue to play a bigger role as the series progresses. The final post will follow A Court of Silver Flames, a novel from Nesta's point of view, that will explore mental health through her character and her relationships with others.

Work Cited

Filipowicz, Halina. “‘Am I That Name?’ Feminism, Feminist Criticism, and Gender Studies.” The Polish Review, vol. 59, no. 1, 2014, pp. 3–15. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.5406/polishreview.59.1.0003.

Holthaus, Camille. “The Future of Bisexual Activism.” QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, vol. 2, no. 1, 2015, pp. 22–36. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.14321/qed.2.1.0022.

Maas, Sarah J. A Court of Wings and Ruin. Bloomsbury, 2017.