[SPOILERS] MOTIFS & MEANING IN MARTIN’S “MERCY”

[evita mgfs]

The generous George R. R. Martin has once again blessed his loyal fans with a sneak peek from The Winds of Winter: “Mercy” is the fourth POV in his highly anticipated fifth novel of the series The Song of Ice and Fire, currently unfinished and unpublished.

I have now spent a year in a close reading of AGoT that focuses on the significant motifs Martin introduces at the onset of the series ASoIaF. As I inched past the halfway point of the first novel, my initial list of ten topics had grown exponentially, even though I had narrowed my scope before ever beginning my copious documentation of evidences.

Even more frustrating was my own impatience to hurry the process of organization and sanity in order to trace the reappearances of Martin’s motifs in the novels that follow AGoT. The temptations to establish connections and to advance my literary assumptions with analytical commentary proved too great for me to resist, and I am ignoring the voice of reason that cautioned me against working out-of-order from the texts.

I am plunging willy-nilly into the “connections” between and among the novels in the series and what literary assumptions are appealing to me after studying “Mercy” specifically. [Actually, through careful analysis and following Martin’s language patterns throughout the novels, I was able to predict Arya’s internship with the mummers, the identity of Izembaro, the value of theatrical training, and Arya’s death scene on stage in 2012, which I published in several Arya-related threads.]

Martin’s “Mercy” POV dramatizes the complexity of a child who has been devastated as the result of man’s inhumanity to man. Mercy’s journey parallels aspects of those set on by her siblings and others featured in the series, albeit at different times; hence, as an early chapter in The Winds of Winter, readers may look to “Mercy” for hints of what may come.

Arya’s “crooked stitches” introduce her to readers for the first time in the first sentence of her first POV in AGoT. Now, “crooked” is a modifier Martin employs to describe Arya’s environment in The Winds of Winter:

“Braavos was a crooked city. The streets were crooked, the alleys were crookeder, and the canals were crookedest of all.”

Martin’s word choices are deliberate and emphasize the dark path “No One” has found herself taking. Arya Horse Face’s “stitches” are a metaphor symbolizing a “path”, but the predicate adjective “crooked” defining “stitches” foretells a twisted and corrupt passage that leads to the city of “masks and whispers” with its “crooked” terrain. She walks “crooked” streets and alleys, and she disposes of her kills in “canals”, “crookedest of all”.

The comparative and superlative forms of “crooked” - crookeder and crookedest, respectively – are, to a purist grammarian, “ill-done”, and in the name of fluidity – it is more correct to use “More” crooked and “most” crooked rather than encumbering the root word with a heavy suffix. BUT – that is Martin’s genius. He wants his language to “sing” discord with awkward pronunciations because Arya/No One is not in a good place. She is becoming more “crooked” and soon she may prove the most “crooked” when she kills someone else without mercy – and the act will be unforgiveable and perhaps beyond redemption.

Contemplating the futures of the heroes whom readers initially find appealing and sympathetic is painful, and Martin excels in exposing each layer of grey corruption in his faltering personalities who are as vulnerable to the forces of evil as are his villains. Characters who readers loved and celebrated metamorphose into the very monsters Martin encourages his readers to despise.

Martin’s brilliance extends to realizing the contrary as well when he exposes an antagonist’s view in such a way as to evocate his readers’ sympathy. The Stark ward Theon Greyjoy is as complex as Arya, yet Martin guides readers to distrust Theon, and later despise him for his taking Winterfell and betraying his foster brothers.

Theon is but one of several Martin characters who do despicable, hateful acts that somehow Martin coaxes some readers to forgive, like me – at least, I have deemed Theon worthy of forgiveness because Bran forgives him.

After Theon’s mystical communication with Bran in the heart tree of Winterfell’s godswood during ADwD, Bran expresses his forgiveness by saying Theon’s name – and in this last event Bran has moved past using the wind and the leaves to speak. Now, there is no wind when Bran voices “Theon”.

The bloody, hand-shaped leaf from the weirwood falls from the tree to brush against Theon’s forehead. [No wind, remember.] This is Bran flexing his muscles as a greenseer through his WF network. So, if Bran can forgive Theon, I determined I could as well.

Sadly, “No One” is becoming a “monster” herself, and her behavior foreshadows how the new greenseer Bran may use and abuse his powers during his training to deliver vengeance in the name of “justice”.

[evita mgfs]

PART I: THE THEATRE ARTS MOTIF

One motif Martin enlists early on in AGoT is the theatre arts motif wherein he engages language that evokes elements associated with drama and performance. For example, Bran narrates that his father changes his face when he takes upon duties related to Winterfell: Bran calls it “his lord’s face”, and he later notices Robb wears a mask as well when he takes on the duties of a lord in his father’s absence. Likewise, the weirwood in the godswood wears a face – a mask – carved by the Children of the Forest so that their greenseers can look through the trees.

In Arya’s first POV, Martin describes her twice as making a face: “Arya made a face and hugged her wolfling tight” and “Arya made a face at him [Jon] (AGoT 71). Arya’s making faces foreshadows her daily “face” exercises performed in front of her Myrish mirror during her training at the HoB&W. The Kindly Man advises her to learn to control her facial muscles in order to lie with great success and to command her smile. When she and Jon Snow watch the sword play in the yard from a window, Martin calls the sparring area a “scene”, and Jon announces “The show is done” (75). These are “small” ways in which Martin calls upon language related to the theatre to tell his story from the onset of his novel A Game of Thrones.

JULIUS CAESAR

A bigger way Martin enlists theatre involves his many allusions to Shakespeare’s plays, most obviously Julius Caesar. The assassination of Robb Stark at the Red Wedding and the attempted assassination of Jon Snow in the Ides of Marsh debacle are among the stronger associations Martin draws from the bard’s tragedy. However, Martin alludes to Julius Caesar in Arya’s Braavos as well: The Titan of Braavos mirrors the Colossus of Rhodes, a huge statue of a Titan that straddled the Harbor of Rhodes with room enough for ships to travel through his legs. It is this “wonder of the ancient world” that Cassius uses to demonstrate for Brutus Caesar’s growing power.

Cassius says of Caesar:

Why man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves. (Julius Caesar. 1, 2. 136–38).

On her passage to Braavos, Arya travels beneath the legs of the Titan, and the formidable entrance to Braavos is mentioned again in “Mercy”:

“What hour?” Mercy called down to the man who stood by the snake’s uplifted tail, pushing her onward with his pole.

The waterman gazed up, searching for the voice. “Four, by the Titan’s roar” (IV TWoW).

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

Now, in “Mercy”, the play The Merchant’s Lusty Lady is one of several that Izembarro’s mumming troupe have performed in the past, which echoes the title of a Shakespearean comedy The Merchant of Venice, and within the title is the location of “Venice”, which Westeros.org scholars have asserted is the model for Martin’s Braavos.

Not only do the titles of the two “Merchant” plays share similarities, but the heroine Portia in the Shakespeare comedy pretends to be Balthazar, a male “doctor of law”, who delivers a moving speech about the “Quality of Mercy”, arguably one of the bard’s most famous speeches, as an appeal to the Merchant Shylock’s desire to take his “pound of flesh” as restitution for an unpaid loan. Even when Antonio offers to pay double what he owes Shylock, the merchant is determined to excise his pound of flesh as bound by contract.

Similarly, Arya, like Portia, pretends to play a male and she “performs” regularly when she takes a new face as a Faceless Men. Arya also shares Shylock’s determination to exact vengeance, although in Arya’s case, she owns a “prayer list” of victims who deserve no mercy.

“Mercy” is a quality that Arya has not often seen in people she has met along her journey. Moreover, Martin choosing “Mercy” as a new face for “No One” is ironic as she takes her “pound of flesh” when skewering Raff the Sweetling.

Now, Martin explores the theme of “mercy” in all the novels within his Series ASoIaF. Through characters displaying a lack of mercy Martin defines what it is to be “merciful”. For instance, Arya witnesses Joffrey’s “mercy” when her father is beheaded [during a “live” performance for the masses] even after he confesses his treason. But this is but one of many “mercy-related” examples specific to Arya in the novels. “Mercy, mercy, mercy” is a mantra Reek is quite fond of saying as well in ADwD.

Below is Portia’s “Quality of Mercy” speech from The Merchant of Venice. I believe Martin has already and will continue to “play on” some of the logic in Portia’s appeal through his characters and conflicts in TWoW and beyond.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:

'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown;

His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,

The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;

But mercy is above this sceptred sway;

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's

When mercy seasons justice. . .

Though justice be thy plea, consider this,

That, in the course of justice, none of us

Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;

And that same prayer doth teach us all to render

The deeds of mercy.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

But back to Shakespeare and further possible allusions I have noted that reappear in “Mercy”, such as The Bloody Hand, the name of the evening performance in honor of Westerosi visitors. Of course, the title echoes many themes throughout the series thus far, but in the tragedy of Titus Andronacus, Titus has his own hand hacked off and delivered as payment for the “safe” return of his sons taken prisoner by his enemy.

Titus mutilates himself on behalf of his sons, who he never sees alive again. Instead, the two heads of his children are delivered to Titus, along with his bloody hand.

Titus’ sorrow is replaced with a black rage that leads him to vow vengeance. The revenge of Titus is not unlike Arya’s sense of vengeance, yes?

The severed hand relates to the Kingslayer as well as Tyrion’s time as hand to the king. The “bloody hand” also symbolizes the blood on Arya’s hands as she continues to dispense her brand of “justice” to those on her hit list, to those she deems worthy of receiving death, and to those victims assigned to her as a Faceless Assassin.

Now – I am simplifying the complex tragedy – but aside from sharing themes, the revenge Titus delivers speaks to events Martin narrates through his POV characters. Titus prepares for his enemy their children baked inside a pie, which he serves to the unsuspecting diners, waiting until the queen has taken a bite before revealing the horrific truth. This “pie” is reminiscent of the cautionary story Bran tells of the Rat Cook and of the literary assumption that Manderly delivers a Frey Pie to Red Wedding participants at table.

[evita mgfs]

PART I: THEATRE MOTIF CONTINUED

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Martin’s delightful descriptions in “Mercy” of the mummer’s troupe and their antics reminds me of an acting troupe that appears in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; they are a motley crew Shakespeare calls “Mechanicals”, and their names, professions, and “parts” speak to their characters and are meant to be funny. For example, Snout the tinker plays “the Wall” and Nick Bottom the weaver volunteers to play every role, but ends up as the hero.

The Mechanicals aspire to impress their honorary guests in the audience, the Fairy King Oberon and the Fairy Queen Titania. Likewise, the mummers hope to win the approval of Westerosi’s in the house. The Mechanicals rehearse their play Pyramus and Thisbe in the woods, and the troubles they have are laughable –[ I often used this little play within a play with teen actors intimidated by Shakespeare’s language and austerity. It is fun to “play” any of the actors, and the skit is hilarious and a crowd pleaser for an audience not whetted on Shakespeare’s work.]

To illustrate, the actor playing the Wall has a fun costume wherein he wears paper mache bricks and mortar on either shoulder similar to shoulder-pads worn by football players. I usually had the Wall wear a construction worker’s hat topped with additional brick work, Carhardt’s, and work boots. But the Wall has no dialogue and just stands on stage with his hand outstretched, his fingers making a “peace sign”. This “signal” represents the “chink” in the Wall through which the young lovers speak secretly to one another.

The Moon actor stands on a ladder holding a flashlight over the couple at the Wall, and his costume features white Christmas lights wrapped around him; needless to say, the Moon does not have a good sense of balance on his ladder, which adds to the fiascos in rehearsal and during the actual performance for the King and Queen of the Fairies. Aside from the “spirit” of the actors in AMSND and the mummers of “Mercy”, I have no hard evidence that Martin bases his mummers on the Mechanicals. However, if Mercy continues her internship with the mummers, or if she reflects upon her time with the mummers in a POV that occurs later in the text, maybe Martin will be more direct in purposing comparisons to AMSND. [The appearance of a Wall, a Moon, and a Lion are characters featured in Pyramus and Thisbe that align themselves in content to elements in Martin’s ASoIaF Series.]

HAMLET

Shakespeare’s “melancholic” Prince Hamlet from a tragedy that bears his name advises a traveling troupe of actors who visit Elsinore on the fundamentals of good acting. Shakespeare scholars tend to believe this oft-quoted speech contains Shakespeare’s personal views on the acting process and performance. Relatedly, Izembaro advises his troupe of mummers prior to their show.

Even though the views Hamlet and Izembaro share are more different than similar, Hamlet’s sharp criticisms of scene stealing and over-emoting to curry favor with the audience are not Izembaro’s concerns for his troupe. As a matter of fact, Izembaro appears to be guilty of melodramatic performances himself, and the dwarf as a clown wears a costume meant to exaggerate his phallus, which is probably a crowd-pleaser for those in the pit and other bawdy theatre fans in attendance.

Hamlet says to the players:

“Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant. It out-Herods Herod. Pray you, avoid it” (3.2).

Mercy and Bobono reveal Izembaro’s “wisdoms”:

“I always give Wendeyne’s titties a nice squeeze when I rape her in The Anguish of the Archon,” the dwarf complained. “She likes it, and the pit does too. You have to please the pit.” That was one of Izembaro’s “wisdoms,” as he liked to call them. You have to please the pit. “I bet it would please the pit if I ripped off the dwarf’s cock and beat him about the head with it,” Mercy replied. “That’s something they won’t have seen before.” Always give them something they haven’t seen before was another of Izembaro’s “wisdoms” (IV. TWoW). Now, “wisdoms” of Hamlet and Izembaro are different yet share a core belief in performing, which has to do with pleasing the audience . Shakespeare, through Hamlet, warns actors against overplaying a part, or chewing up the scenery. Even though the “groundlings”, those who pay the least and are the most vocal in Elizabethan Theatre, may adore spit flying, wild gesturing, and an air of the melodramatic, good actors exercised self-control and focused on their craft, not on winning the most laughs or the loudest applause. Izembaro is an actor Shakespeare would have faulted for embodying the “HAM”. To illustrate, in “Mercy”, Izembaro gives the pit-attendants lots of overacting, and he stages popular themes starring a “king”. Elizabethan audiences enjoyed nothing better than to see one so great and powerful as a “king” fall in favor and die in a blood bath, often taking innocent victims with him. Izembaro satisfies his acting ego by casting himself as the king in the plays he chooses. Murder and rape are two events apparently enjoyed by The Gate lower-class regulars. The necessity of a dwarf is very much like one or a combination of Shakespeare’s many clowns. [i am writing a separate post that compares The Gate, the mummers, and the audience with the Elizabethan Theatre].

THE TEMPEST

Tyrion Lannister, and now Bobono, remind me of a sympathetic character named Caliban who appears in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. [i have written elsewhere on The Tempest, comparing Ariel to Arya, so I am trying to be brief in this post – alas, I am never brief!]

Caliban is “littered”, NOT BORN, of a witch and a devil, and his island home is overtaken by magician Prospero when his ship crashes upon the shore in a “tempest”, a storm at sea. Prospero treats the ugly creature Caliban well until Caliban attempts to rape Prospero’s daughter Miranda, an unforgiveable act for which the magician banishes Caliban from his home and continues to torment him, even enslaving him.

Here are a few choice descriptions of Caliban from The Tempest:

"Hag-born" "whelp," not "honoured with human shape."

"Demi-devil."

"Poor credulous monster."

"Hag-seed."

"Strange fish."

These unkind epithets and phrases are but a few from the play, and they in word and content mirror words Martin has used to describe Tyrion – and in “Mercy”, Bobono’s speeches from The Bloody Hand bring to mind what I remembered of Shakespeare’s Caliban. “Bobono lowered his voice to a sinister croak. “The seven-faced god has cheated me,” he said. “My noble sire he made of purest gold, and gold he made my siblings, boy and girl. But I am formed of darker stuff, of bones and blood and clay, twisted into this rude shape you see before you.”

AND

“On stage, Bobono was bargaining with Marro’s sinister Stranger. . . “Give me the cup,” he told the Stranger, “for I shall drink deep.

And if it tastes of gold and lion’s blood, so much the better. As I cannot be the hero, let me be the monster, and lesson them in fear in place of love.”

Commonalities from “Mercy” and The Tempest are the references to “rape” and the words that describe the misunderstood monster Caliban, misshapen and parented by demons. Like words have been used to describe Tyrion and now Bobono’s role as Tyrion. Not unlike Caliban, Tyrion has been persecuted and maligned – the comparisons are more than I am crediting, and I apologize for not doing justice by expanding thoughts on this premise. But I am trying to end somewhere – and this post is already too long-winded. [but I am sure I will revisit Caliban and Tyrion, especially after recalling Caliban’s poetic language that makes him more human than a beast].

I am closing Part I with the lyrics to a Broadway song that plays in my head whenever I read and write about Arya performing her many, many roles. Fading silent-film star Norma Desmond sings of her glory days when she was loved and admired by those near and far. The fickle audiences welcomed talking films, and Norma did not transition well from silent to talking movies. But she remembers how good she was, reminding Miss Desmond boasts that she could/can “play any role”.

In every line of verse, I see Arya Stark. But that’s just me. Maybe others will see Arya too.

With One Look

NORMA/ARYA
With one look I can break your heart
With one look I play every part
I can make your sad heart sing
With one look you'll know all you need to know
With one smile I'm the girl next door
Or the love that you've hungered for
When I speak it's with my soul
I can play any role
No words can tell the stories my eyes tell
Watch me when I frown, you can't write that down
You know I'm right, it's there in black and white

When I look your way, you'll hear what I say
Yes, with one look I put words to shame
Just one look sets the screen [sTAGE] aflame
Silent music starts to play
One tear in my eye makes the whole world cry
With one look they'll forgive the past
They'll rejoice I've returned at last
To my people in the dark
Still out there in the dark...
Silent music starts to play
With one look you'll know all you need to know
With one look I'll ignite a blaze
I'll return to my glory days
They'll say, "Norma's [Arya’s] back at last!"
This time I am staying, I'm staying for good
I'll be back to where I was born to be
With one look I'll be me!

With One Look from the musical Sunset Boulevard [Norma Desmond] [http://www.allmusicals.com/lyrics/sunsetboulevard/withonelook.htm]

TO COME:

PART 2: THE ELIZABETHAN THEATRE IN “MERCY”

PART 3: THE RECURRING “GREY” MISTS / FOGS as STAGING ELEMENTS and as INDICATORS of BRAN’S PRESENCE

PART 4: THE WINDOW/DOOR MOTIFS and their RECURRENCE in “MERCY”

[evita mgfs]

MARTIN’S MEANING in his GREY MISTS/FOG MOTIF

Martin does make good use of the grey mists and fog as an evolving motif that recurs in the novels of A Song of Ice and Fire. Not every mention of grey mists and fog has symbolic significance; however, several key POV’s share commonalities related to the grey mists and fog that help to unify and advance themes and plotlines.

The “grey” mists/fog appear early in A Game of Thrones, and through Bran Stark’s POV, Martin establishes a relationship between “future-greenseer” Bran and the mists and fog, so when the grey mists and/or grey fog recur in other narratives, it is more remarkable than coincidence.

In “The Prince of Winterfell” from A Dance with Dragons and in “Mercy” from The Winds of Winter, the grey mists and fog insinuate Bran’s far-reaching presence as he flexes his muscles, experimenting with his powers of greensight. Nature inspires the grey mists and fog, and the grey mists are part of Lord Brynden’s visits to Bran’s dreams. It stands to reason that Bran’s magic will allow him to manipulate the mists and fog – and to manipulate other forces related to nature. He will also visit the dreams of others like Lord Brynden as Three-Eyed Crow”.

Martin employs the “grey mists” five times in Bran’s 3EC dream; thereby through repetition Martin seemingly designates them as symbolically meritorious. The color “grey” is associated with House Stark and their banners, with the grey stone walls of Winterfell, with the statues in the crypts, with the landscape of the north, and with the direwolves of all but one “Stark” sibling, a few among many examples. Throughout Bran’s dream, these mists serve as a protective “armor” that blankets Bran, keeping him safe from further harm during his “falling”, his “flying”, and his “landing”.

Five examples from Bran’s 3EC dream follow:

GREY MISTS #1

“The ground was so far below him he could barely make it out through the grey mists that whirled around him, but he could feel how fast he was falling, and he knew what was waiting for him down there”.

In the above passage, Martin mentions the “grey mists” for the first time in Bran’s 3EC dream. The “grey mists” whirl around Bran, spinning quickly, which hinders his ability to see the ground below him. Bran feels himself plummeting, gaining speed, and death awaits him. But the “grey mists” protect him from dizziness and confusion.

The grey mists and/or fog impedes clear vision, a theme reaffirmed in Theon and Arya’s POV’s later; since Syrio and the kindly man emphasized “seeing” what is there and not what the heart wants to see, Arya – and by association Bran, Theon, and others – may be “symbolically” blind to their own faults, or to the darkness of the paths they are taking.

Martin repeats verbs in his comparisons of the mists/fog in other POV’s.

GREY MISTS #2

“The ground was closer now, still far far away, a thousand miles away, but closer than it had been. It was cold here in the darkness. There was no sun, no stars, only the ground below coming up to smash him, and the grey mists, and the whispering voice. He wanted to cry”.

Not cry. Fly.

"I can't fly," Bran said. "I can't, I can't . . . "

How do you know? Have you ever tried?

The cold in the darkness may suggest imminent death if Bran does not fly, for many of those who die “feel the cold”.

Note the second time “grey mists” are referenced, as well as the “whispering voice”- we have both a visual image and an auditory image. Martin evokes all the senses during this fall, even our own feelings of fear regarding falling.

***********************************

GREY MISTS #3

“Bran was staring at his arms, his legs. He was so skinny, just skin stretched taut over bones. Had he always been so thin? He tried to remember. A face swam up at him out of the grey mist, shining with light, golden. "The things I do for love," it said.

“Bran screamed.

“The crow took to the air, cawing. Not that, it shrieked at him. Forget that, you do not need it now, put it aside, put it away. It landed on Bran's shoulder, and pecked at him, and the shining golden face was gone”.

A face swims up out of the grey mist, and we know the implication of this shining golden light and the words, “The things I do for love.” Bran is remembering that because of Jaime Lannister’s push, Bran would not be falling.

The crow orders Bran not to think of that, and when the crow lands on Bran’s shoulder and pecks at him, the golden face disappears.

The crow wants Bran to concentrate all his energies on flying, not reliving his fall. He can visit the memory later when the situation is not as dire as this.

The grey mist appears for the third time, and it seems to bring the image of Lannister to light, but it still safeguards Bran as he falls.

GREY MISTS #4

“Bran was falling faster than ever. The grey mists howled around him as he plunged toward the earth below. "What are you doing to me?" he asked the crow, tearful”.

Teaching you how to fly.

"I can't fly!"

Note for the fourth time “the grey mists” are referenced, this time “howling” around Bran as he plunges toward the earth below. The fact that Martin personifies the grey mists with “howling” suggests the howling of the direwolves of House Stark, which leads credence to this “grey mist” being somehow aligned with a Stark force, since it is represented as “grey” and howls like a wolf.

GREY MISTS 5

“The crow opened its beak and cawed at him, a shrill scream of fear, and the grey mists shuddered and swirled around him and ripped away like a veil, and he saw that the crow was really a woman, a serving woman with long black hair, and he knew her from somewhere, from Winterfell, yes, that was it, . . .”

Martin mentions the “grey mists” for the fifth and final time, and these mists “shudder,” “swirl”, and “rip” just like a VEIL, so Bran, via the protective veil, is returned safely to his bed in Winterfell.

THE GREY MISTS in “THE “THE PRINCE OF WINTERFELL”ADwD

In A Dance with Dragons, Martin mentions the “[grey] mists” repeatedly in the “The Prince of Winterfell” POV, and they transform the godswood into an eerie site for a wedding. The title “The Prince of Winterfell” actually refers to, or had once referred to Theon and Bran. After Ramsay speaks his vows, the title passes to him.

Reek/Theon, as a ward of Lord Eddard Stark’, is necessary to authenticate “Arya Stark”, and to give Arya “away” to her bridegroom. Lord Bran Stark himself , the “true” Prince of Winterfell”, makes his presence in the godswood known [for the readers] through the expression on the weirwood’s face, through the murder of ravens, through the wind whispering through the leaves, calling “Theon” , and through the “grey” and “ghostly” mists commandeering the godswood.

Likewise, in Arya’s “Mercy” POV, Martin stresses the “grey fog” so much that it seemingly becomes a character indigenous to Braavos. Arya intuits that this day’s manifestation of fog unique, even exceptional for Braavos.

Martin intimates a strong connection between Theon and Arya’s mist/fog, one that points to its source – Bran, whom Martin has divulged carries a grey aura – like mist/fog and even air/wind in his 3EC dream – is now able to reach out to Theon through the heart tree of Winterfell and to Arya through dreams of hunting with her wolf, where she sees a tree watching her.

EXAMPLE #1 and EVIDENCES

From ADwD:

“He [Theon] had never seen the godswood like this, though – grey and ghostly, filled with warm mists and floating lights and whispered voices that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere” (487).

From “Mercy” TWoW:

“She had never seen a thicker fog than this one. On the larger canals, the watermen would be running their serpent boats into one another, unable to make out any more than dim lights from the buildings to either side of them”.

“Half-light filled the room, grey and gloomy”.

Neither Theon nor Arya have ever seen their current environs so very much transformed by mists and/or fog. For Arya the mists dim lights from buildings, and for Theon the lights’ origins are enigmatic as they seem to come from everywhere and nowhere.

The fact that both Theon and Arya seek out a light – and mark, or try to mark, the location of illumination – this sign is hopeful for it hints that both of them have a shot at redemption. Since both are symbolically blinded by the mists/fog and both are searching for “light”, which is emblematic to “enlightenment” or “knowledge”, Martin suggests that they may acquire all that they need to make changes for the betterment of self and others, but only if they cast off the grey in their eyes and acknowledge the truth.

Martin bathes the godswood in a “grey” and “ghostly” ambience, and “grey” is representative of the Starks who live in the “grey” north, who often have “grey eyes”, who live in a castle made of grey stone and are buried in the crypts that are marked with grey stone statues.

Grey is a color with complex symbology, but in the instances of the “grey” in the godswood, grey fog in Braavos, and Martin’s death imagery, the GREY MISTS/FOG may symbolize “death”. Consequently, those present for the fraudulent nuptials are marked for death by the “grey mists”. In “Mercy”, a certain Lannister guard is marked for death.

EXAMPLE #3 and EVIDENCES

From ADwD:

“Up above the treetops, a crescent moon was floating in a dark sky, half-obscured by mist like an eye peering through a veil of silk” (ADwD 486).

From AGoT:

“The crow opened its beak and cawed at him, a shrill scream of fear, and the grey mists shuddered and swirled around him and ripped away like a veil. . .” (AGoT).

Martin compares the mists to a silk veil, which echoes his first comparison of the [grey] mists to a “veil” in AGoT, when Bran first dreams of the Three-Eyed Crow.

A “crescent moon” is an eye “peering through a silk veil.” The veil covering the eyes suggests a “mask” designed to disguise someone’s appearance. The concept of a “mask” arouses the description of Braavos as a city of “masks and whispers”.

“No One”, aka Arya of House Stark, resident of the House of Black and White located in Braavos, parallels her brother Bran watching through the eyes carved in the trunks of weirwoods, only Arya watches through the hooded “skins” from those who died in the temple.

EXAMPLE #3 AND EVIDENCE

From ADwD:

“The mists were so thick that only the nearest trees were visible; beyond them stood tall shadows and faint lights. Candles flickered beside the wandering path and back amongst the trees, pale fireflies floating in a warm grey soup” (487).

From “Mercy” TWoW:

“If the fog was thick there was nothing to see but grey, so today Mercy chose the shorter route to save some wear on her poor cracked boots”.

“Braavos was a good city for cats, and they roamed everywhere, especially at night. In the fog all cats are grey, Mercy thought. In the fog all men are killers”.

Both excerpts describe the mists and fog as “thick” and touch upon the difficulties of discerning with certainty what is not far in front of them.

Theon’s narrative presents details, and he conveys the extent of the opaqueness of the fog with an example that he could only see trees directly in front of him. Martin chooses language that is poetic, especially when aligned with his language choices for “Mercy”. Theon’s POV covers “shadows and faint lights”, “Candles flickered,” a path wandered, “pail fireflies” floated”, and the fog is “warm pea soup”. Arya’s diction, in stark contrast, is matter-of-fact. Martin’s word choices for her are not immersed in modifaction.

To Arya, her cracked boots beg her attention, and she avoids walking to excess if it can be avoided to spare her well-used footwear. Arya’s ability to disassociate herself from events and from people around her is a symptom that bodes ill for Arya’s future. She also is classifying cats and men as they rank in conjunction with grey fog.

The mists are “a warm grey soup”, a phrase Martin coins in his world of ice and fire that is similar to a popular phrase that compares a dense fog to the thickness of pea soup.

EXAMPLE #4 AND EVIDENCE

From ADwD:

“Then the mists parted, like the curtain opening at a mummer show to reveal some new tableau” (487).

From “Mercy” TWoW:

“The fog opened before her like a tattered grey curtain to reveal the playhouse. Buttery yellow light spilled from the doors, and Mercy could hear voices from within”.

“The mists seemed to part before her and close up again as she passed”.

Martin engages the theatre arts, or the performance arts, as a motif throughout the novels in his series. References to theatre arts occur often in Martin’s texts, although not all mention of the theatre arts are rich in symbolic significance.

Here are two examples of visual images that Martin uses quite often: a curtain parting to reveal “something” significant. In ADwD, Martin like curtains to expose the wedding of Ramsay and “Arya” as a fraud.

In “Mercy”, Martin describes the fog as “opening”, employing the simile comparing the fog to a “tattered GREY curtain”. The poor condition represents the “poor quality” of the moldy costumes and performance choices of the Gate mummers. The “tatters” could be emblematic of Arya’s choices and her situation. Who had once been a strong-willed, opinionated girl-child who loved having her hair messed up by her half brother Jon Snow is now older, tougher, wiser, and deadly. Arya Stark’s life is in tatters, as are the lives of her family. Arya was once a girl from Winterfell , and her crooked stitches foreshadow her future in Braavoa with its crooked streets and alleys of Braavos.

Curtains work for a while to conceal what rests behind them. In Theon’s case, he is a witness to a fraudulent marriage since he knows that “Arya Stark” is “Jeyne Poole”. He remains mute, too frightened to act.

Bran’s presence is felt through the mists parting, and the young lord witnessing a horror. It will be Bran who assists in guiding Theon to see “the truth” and who is “father confessor” to his sins.

EXAMPLE #5 AND EVIDENCE

From ADwD:

“All the color had been leached from Winterfell until only grey and white remained. The Stark colors. . . Even the sky was grey. Grey and grey and greyer. The whole world grey, everywhere you look, everything grey except the eyes of the bride” (489).

From “Mercy” TWoW:

“Braavos was lost in fog”.

“Braavos was a good city for cats, and they roamed everywhere, especially at night. In the fog all cats are grey, Mercy thought. In the fog all men are killers”.

Martin’s language, once again by comparison, narrates each POV, but Martin deliberately changes his tone, style, and diction to distinguish Theon from Arya. Theon’s POV has impressive verbs, like “leached”, followed by how the whole world is GREY. Once more, Theon owns poetic qualities, and his passage grow more and more tense every time he uses the word grey,

On the contrary, “Mercy’s” POV states the facts, and she does not elaborate with colorful details.

EXAMPLE #6 AND EVIDENCE

From ADwD:

“ It [the godswood] felt like some strange underworld, some timeless place between two worlds, where the damned wandered mournfully for a time before finding their way down to whatever hell their sins had earned them” (487).

From “Mercy” TWoW:

“The last bridge was made of rope and raw planks, and seemed to dissolve into nothingness, but that was only the fog. Mercy scampered across, her heels ringing on the wood”.

“She could see the green water of the little canal below, the cobbled stone street that ran beneath her building, two arches of the mossy bridge… but the far end of the bridge vanished in greyness”.

The thick mist educes otherworldliness. “Underworld” is the Greek Hades, where the dead souls “wander mournfully”, but eventually Hermes locates his charges to escort them to the afterlife.

Likewise, the fog in Braavos causes things to “vanish” in the “greyness”, and “to dissolve into nothingness” – “greyness” and “nothingness” intimate a state after death, which suggests a grey and gloomy underworld.

Homer describes the souls of the suitors as chattering like “bats” on their arrival to Hades’ Gates, their escort Olympian Hermes, who passes on his charges to Charon, the boatman, whose job it is to transport the dead cross the River Styx, after which they are judged. This determines their assignments for eternity. When a soul dies, whether good or bad, he or she goes to Hades for judgment. Many scholars on Westeros have compared Arya to mythological figures associated with the dead. In Homeric mythology, Hermes guides the dead, Charon boats them. Arya is similar to either, and with her nearness to and her relationship with water, she may be an inspiration drawn from many cultural mythologies that attempted to understand death and the soul’s passage to the afterlife.

[evita mgfs]

THEATRE and CURTAINS: MEL POV ADwD

"The flames crackled softly, and in their crackling she heard the whispered name Jon Snow. His long face floated before her, limned in tongues of red and orange, appearing and disappearing again, a shadow half-seen behind a fluttering curtain. Now he was a man, now a wolf, now a man again. But the skulls were here as well, the skulls were all around him. Melisandre had seen his danger before, had tried to warn the boy of it. Enemies all around him, daggers in the dark. He would not listen."

These words are smartly written, and I think they give some evidence, although I am just offering an opinion.

Martin employs a theatre motif with Mel, her glamors that disguise people in costume and Martin’s language denotes a staged show:

she heard the whispered name Jon Snow

Whispering is associated with the theatre for an audience must be silent, and if they speak, their words should be whispers.

Actors whisper back stage giving directions and preparing for their entrance, etc.

a fluttering curtain.

Her flames provide stage lighting;

When Mel gazes into the flames, she often sees visions. So, Martin compares the flames to stage curtains which open when the show begins, only in the case of Melisandre, her hungry flames expose several visions.

Appearing and disappearing
A magician makes things disappear and reappear:
a shadow half-seen behind

A SHADE is a SHADOW in Homeric mythology. Look at what the Wiki says:

In literature and poetry, a shade (translating Greek σκιά Latin umbra) can be taken to mean the spirit or ghost of a dead person, residing in the underworld.

The image of an underworld where the dead live in shadow is common to the Ancient Near East, in Biblical Hebrew expressed by the term tsalmaveth, literally "death-shadow" The Witch of Endor in the First Book of Samuel notably conjures the ghost (owb) of Samuel.

Perhaps Mel’s vision, in this context, tells us that Jon Snow is DEAD when she sees him – he is already a shade. [she cannot see the death-shadow accurately]

Her vision is speaking to the fact that Jon is wolf = wolf is Jon.

Now he was a man, now a wolf, now a man again

Mel misinterprets her vision. Jon in death will move from JON to WOLF; then WOLF will move back to JON.

Martin intimates this will be done magically – for the theatre terms indicate it is like a magic show – so abracadabra! Jon is dead. Jon is Ghost.

In theatre, these would be interchangeable masks: Ghost returns Jon to Ghost.

Enemies all around him, daggers in the dark.

Mel may see how Jon dies,[but she doesn't realize it] as well as the men who kill him. [she earlier offered to give him their names].
Since the entire context of this passage is a magic show in miniature, whose magic will “assist” Ghost in returning Jon back to his dead body?

The most logical choice is Ghost – with the help of his own brother Bran. Bran knows – the birds always mentioned in the rafters of the halls are keeping an eye on what’s going on.

Ghost = BR = Bran =CoF=Weirwood trees and their faces=the old gods.

[evita mgfs]

MORE of MARTIN’S THEATRE MOTIF: MASKS and FACES from A GAME of THRONES and A DANCE with DRAGONS

Masks and facial alterations are indicative of an ongoing theatrical motif that begins in AGoT, continues through ADwD, and explodes in “Mercy” from The Winds of Winter.

(a). “the blood of the First Men still flowed in the veins of the Starks, and his [Ned’s] own gods were the old ones, the nameless, faceless gods of the greenwood they shared with the vanished children of the forest” (AGoT 23).

(b). “A face had been carved in the trunk of the great tree, its features long and melancholy, the deep-cut eyes red with dried sap and strangely watchful” (AGoT).

©. In the south, weirwoods can be found on the “Isle of Faces”.

(d). “For her [Catelyn’s] sake, Ned had built her a small sept where she might sing to the seven faces of god . . .” (AGoT 22).

(e). “He [Eddard] had taken off Father’s face, Bran thought, and donned the face of Lord Stark of Winterfell” (AGoT 14).

(f). “A face swam up at him [bran]” (AGoT 161).

(g.). “Robb was seated in Father’s high seat, wearing . . . the stern face of Robb the Lord” (242 AGoT).

(h). “Roose Bolton’s own face was a pale grey mask, with two chips of dirty ice where his eyes should be (487 ADwD ).

(i). “They are using me [Theon] to cloak their deception, putting mine own face on their lie” (485 ADwD).

(j).A torch casts “its ruddy glow over the faces of the wedding guests” (487 ADwD). AND “Lord Stout became a mastiff, old Lord Locke a vulture, Whoresbane Umber a gargoyle, Big Walder Frey a fox, Little Walder Frey a red bull, lacking only a ring for his nose” (487 ADwD).

(k). “Roose Bolton had clothed him as a lord again, to play his part in this mummer’s farce” (ADwD 485).

[evita mgfs]

I found lots of patterns in Jon’s POV, in Bran’s POV and in Arya’s POV.

After Bran looks through the weirnet for the first time, he sees his father cleaning Ice beneath the heart tree in WF.

Leaf tells Bran, “ ‘You saw what you wished to see. Your heart yearns for your father and your home, so that is what you saw’ (458).

“ ‘A man must look before he can hope to see . . . in time you will see beyond the trees themselves.’

‘When?’ Bran wanted to know.

‘In a year or three, or ten, that I have not glimpsed. It will come in

time . . .’”

Note that Arya also despairs in her training when the KOM puts off teaching her to change her face with the magic she witnesses in Jaqen. KOM says, “’All sorcery comes at a cost, child. Years of prayer and sacrifice and study are required to work a proper glamor.’

‘Years?’ she said, dismayed.

Quick point: Syrio’s lessons will suggest the link to the ‘heart yearning to see’ – through his Sealord story mentioned below.

Likewise, in GOT, Syrio Forel educates Arya on “ ‘The seeing, the true seeing, that is the heart of it’” (531).

After Syrio’s story about how he became the first sword of Braavos through honestly reporting the TRUTH of the Sealord’s cat, Arya says, “You saw what was there.”

“ ‘Just so. Opening your eyes is all that is needing. The heart lies, and the head plays tricks on us, but the eyes see true . . . Look with your ears. Taste with your mouth. Smell with your nose. Feel with your skin. Then comes the thinking, afterward, and in that way knowing the truth’” (GOT 531).

Similarly, Jojen, whom the three-eyed crow sends to Bran, tells him to OPEN HIS THIRD EYE:

“Open your eye.”

“They are open. Can’t you see?”

“Two are open.” Jojen points. “One, two.”

“I only have two.”

“You have three. The crow gave you the third, but you will not open it . . . with two eyes you see my face. With three you see my heart . . . ” (COK 437).

As the KOM names Arya “LIAR” in the HOB&W [“Who are you?” “No one.” “You lie” (FFC 738) ], Jojen calls Bran “Warg. Shapeshifter. Beastling.” Jojen claims, “A knight is what you want. A warg is what you are . . you will never fly .. . Unless you open your eye.’ . . . Jojen puts two fingers together and pokes Bran in the forehead, hard” (COK 523).

Arya asks the KOM how he knows that she is lying:

“Is it magic?”

“A man does not need to be a wizard to know truth from falsehood, not if he has eyes. You need only learn to read a face. Look at the eyes. The mouth. The muscles . . . A false smile and a true one may look alike, but they are as different as dusk from dawn. Can you tell dusk from dawn? . . . Then you can learn to see a lie . . . and once you do, no secret will be safe from you” (FFC 459). To which Arya responds, “Teach me.”

Notice Bran’s lament in DWD: “He had thought the three-eyed crow would be a sorcerer, a wise old wizard who could fix his legs, but that was some stupid child’s dream” (455). [bran’s irony is unconscious – he has no inkling BR had once been called ‘sorcerer’ and ‘wizard’ by some].

Also, Bran observes the eyes of the ravens in the warded cave – they are filled with secrets.

Regarding dreams, when Bran tells Jojen Master Luwin says “there’s nothing in dreams to fear”, Jojen responds prophetically:

“The past. The future. The truth” (COK 523).

Back to Arya – she laments, “I don’t know any mummer’s tricks either.”

“Then practice making faces. Beneath tour skin are muscles. Learn to use them. It is your face. Your cheeks, your lips, your ears [Almost word for word Syrio: “Look with your ears. Taste with your mouth. Smell with your nose. Feel with your skin.” ] Smiles and scowls should not come upon you like summer squalls. A smile should be a servant, and come only when you call it. Learn to rule your face.”

“Show me how” (FFC 463).

The KOM instructs Arya to train before a Myrish mirror one hour every day. “Eyes, nostrils, cheeks, ears, lips, learn to rule them all.”

So every morning and every night Arya sits before the mirror with a candle on each side of her, making faces. “ Rule your face, she told herself, and you can lie” (FFC 463).

Aren’t these words mirroring each other? BR’s: “Choose one now and fly” (DWD 450).

“ Rule your face, you can lie” / “Choose one now and fly”

Likewise, when Bran is alone, he tries to open his third eye, which parallels Arya learning to rule her face: “ . . . he wrinkled his forehead and poked at it, he couldn’t see any different than he’d done before” (COK 523). Jojen advises Bran to use his heart, not his fingers, to open his third eye, much like the KOM advises Arya to master her facial muscles in order to conceal emotion.

Okay – what “larger picture analysis” do these evidences project? I am not sure. Perhaps others can use my findings to make connections. Here’s my thoughts:

The KOM teaches Arya to detect lies in others and to train her facial musles so others will not detect her lies. Through observation and practice, Arya learns master secrets others hide and discern the truth all while “masking her own truths, ie, her true identity as Arya of House Stark which is hidden beneath a different face, or skin. [Note that when Bran surfs the weirnet, he is covered with ‘skins’ as well; and, at first, he looks through heart trees – back to Syrio’s “The heart lies, and the head plays tricks on us, but the eyes see true . . .”].

Likewise, Jojen wants Bran to open his third eye to seek the ‘truth’ – In Jojen’s lessons, he challenges Bran to examine his wolf and tree dreams, to confront his fears of falling, and to accept the truth about himself: that he is the winged wolf who must break free of Winterfell and learn to fly; that he is a greenseer and a warg who has been blessed by the old gods to see as they do while still mortal.

Just as Arya studies the art of glamor – illusion versus reality – Bran weds the weirwood to learn the truth that men forgot. As Arya wears a mask, so does Bran – he peers through the faces carved in the weirwoods.

Bran’s education is inert, Arya’s is active. Bran sits – he learns through an on-line college whereas Arya is attending a vocational institution. Bran surfs, Arya experiences [sort of]. Both will be an instrument of some force; both will assert their superiority by mastery of knowledge albeit through differing methodology; both will serve a purpose. However, the knowledge they acquire may be the same, they will most likely ‘implement it’ in different ways for polar purposes.

[evita mgfs]

MERCY’S SMILE

Martin SHOWS, he does not TELL, the progress of an internship embarked upon by an acolyte, a native of Westeros, who trains as a faceless assassin.

Arya’s last POV in ADwD promises further education for Arya when the kindly man assesses that “No One” is ready for an internship with Izembaro, whose identity was much discussed on the forums. Predictably, the “Mercy” POV places Arya in the “role” of Mercy who seemingly functions as a stage manager with the King of the Mummers, Izembaro himself.

It appears that Martin is familiar with various aspects of theatre arts and with styles of acting methodology; furthermore, Martin’s training for Arya is based upon a real approach to “becoming” a character.

“Method actors are often characterized as immersing themselves in their characters, to the extent that they stay in character offstage or off-camera for the duration of a project” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_acting].

Arya’s face-changing and attire are only disguises. Now she must “become” a different person, and to accomplish this, Arya spends time with a theatre troupe.

As an actress-in-training, Mercy proudly dons a mummer’s cloak when out-of-doors, a way to keep warm and to advertise the show. More importantly, the cloak is part of Arya Stark’s acting methodology as she “becomes” her character [and some serious actors do this for the run of a show or for the filming of a movie]. All the clothing she wears belong to “Mercy” – only Needle belongs to Arya Stark.

On location at Izembaro’s theatre the Gate, the girl once called Arya Stark wears the face of “Mercy”, and while disguised, she absorbs the ins-and-outs of theatre. As a quick study with acute training in observation, Arya soon makes herself indispensable to the others in the mummers’ troupe.

Arya humbly admits through Mercy’s dialogue, actions, and reactions that she IS “a pretty little empty head”. After some time with the Gate mummers, The Bloody Hand is the first show in which she has a few words; perhaps interns “work up to” being assigned a speaking part in a play. Or more likely, females expostulating on stage are unpopular fare and are tolerable only when they are being raped and murdered. Nevertheless, Arya proves a regular factotum backstage, behind the scenes.

Arya is so convincing in her role that no one in the troupe suspects her identity is a lie. Because of her pleasing smile and cheerful nature, Mercy engages people only to disarm them when they are least prepared. Smiles and lies are on Arya’s agenda, and her time at THoB&W is spent practicing her craft.

Martin’s language in “Mercy” is key: Mercy’s captivating smile and her lying expertise should sound familiar because they hark back to earlier “Arya” POV’s in the novels, and they echo the teachings of the kindly man and even Syrio Forel.

Arya presses the kindly man to tell her how she can change her face with magic just like Jaqen H’ghar changed his face.

The kindly man says, “’All sorcery comes at a cost, child. Years of prayer and sacrifice and study are required to work a proper glamor.”

Not pleased, Arya asks with dismay, ‘Years?’

Even more frustrating is the kindly man’s insistence that she is a LIAR.

“Who are you?”

“No one.”

“You lie” (AFfC 738)].

Arya asks the kindly man how he knows that she is lying:

“Is it magic?”

“A man does not need to be a wizard to know truth from falsehood, not if he has eyes. You need only learn to read a face. Look at the eyes. The mouth. The muscles . . . A false smile and a true one may look alike, but they are as different as dusk from dawn. Can you tell dusk from dawn? . . . Then you can learn to see a lie . . . and once you do, no secret will be safe from you” (AFfC 459).

Arya responds, “Teach me.”

Arya is “hungry” for the secrets of controlling magic, and her eagerness to move on the fast-track of her studies is part of the reason for her advancement.

Even though Arya admits that she does not know any mummer’s tricks to help her LIE with skill and conviction, the kindly man offers specific pointers that involve lots of practice in front of a mirror, which is still a performance building theatre exercise for actors.

“Then practice making faces. Beneath your skin are muscles. Learn to use them. It is your face. Your cheeks, your lips, your ears. Smiles and scowls should not come upon you like summer squalls. A smile should be a servant, and come only when you call it. Learn to rule your face.”

“Show me how” (AFfC 463).

The kindly man tells Arya to train before a Myrish mirror one hour every day.

“Eyes, nostrils, cheeks, ears, lips, learn to rule them all.”

So every morning and every night Arya sits before the mirror with a candle on each side of her, making faces.

“Rule your face, she told herself, and you can lie” (FFC 463).

The tasks the kindly man assigns for Arya demand daily drills. Since Arya is highly motivated, she applies herself completely, mastering her facial muscles, controlling her expressions, and building her skill-level.

In her first POV in The Winds of Winter, Arya manipulates Mercy’s face by calling forth her SERVANT, her “sweet smile”, and with her always improving talents, Arya uses Mercy to lie convincingly.

Mercy’s training as Stage Manager, the job that most fits Mercy’s discernable duties in her POV, has polished Arya’s rough edges. She does not chew her lip, she sings when she walks, and she has become graceful. As an SM, Mercy would have her hands in every job, including acting. She would “run the show” on and off stage and know about costumes, properties, staging, lighting, and much and more. As Martin illustrates, Mercy is at the cast members’ beck and call.

No matter the pressure and challenges, Mercy keeps her cool, she treats other mummers with respect, and no job is too difficult or impossible for her.

Obviously, Arya fools the troupe with her fine performance as giggly, good-hearted Mercy. No one suspects she is nobly born. They all genuinely like her. Arya creates an amiable, reliable, responsible, cheerful, and helpful character who is the polar opposite of Arya in many ways.

Mercy frets about arriving tardy for Izembaro’s pre-performance lecture, and she implies that her winning smile usually appeases an angry Izembaro:

“The envoy from Westeros was expected at the Gate this evening, and Izembaro would be in no mood to hear excuses, even if she served them up with a sweet smile” (TWoW). IV).

Whereas Mercy can subdue Izembaro’s anger with a smile, on show night with dignitaries from Westeros attending, Mercy knows her winning smile will not suffice. Arya can “read” Izembaro, evident when she contemplates her fate should she arrive late to the Gate.

Martin informs the readers that Mercy gets her room rental on the cheap in part because of her smile:

“The handrail was splintery, the steps steep, and there were five flights, but that was why she’d gotten the room so cheap. That, and Mercy’s smile. She might be bald and skinny, but Mercy had a pretty smile, and a certain grace” (TWoW. IV).

Mercy’s daily exercises pay off, and she deploys her smile to influence others. Moreover, Mercy can master her facial expressions so that others do not detect when she tells a “lie”, and Mercy can easily recognize when others are being untruthful.

Mercy’s dissembling is as keen as her smile. She flirts with sailors at the docks while having no intentions of hooking up with any of them:

“Sometimes she would smile back and tell them they could find her at the Gate if they had the coin”.

Mercy lies to Daena when she pretends not to know what a siggle is. Mercy pretends that she finds the Westerosi guard standing behind the Black Pearl an attractive figure, although Daena says he is too old at around 30. Pretending that she does not recognize the Westerosi in Lannister garb, she shows no hesitation when she approaches him: Arya is confident in her disguise, in her target, and in her convictions. The memory of merciless Raff the Sweetling slaying Lommy Greenhands is etched in blood and fire on Arya’s brain.

The actress playing Mercy woos Raff with her polarizing smile and her convincing lies. She acts helpless, feigning a language barrier.

“I know your tongue, a little,” she lied, with Mercy’s sweetest smile. “You are lords of Westeros, my friend said.”

Mercy flashes her “sweetest” smile [for the “sweetling”] and the actress wearing Mercy’s face flatters the guards by calling them “lords of Westeros”, even though Arya knows these men are no lords.

She demonstrates her talent through using her feminine charms to arouse Lord Raff. Beneath her brown shift is the body of Arya Stark. Only Arya’s “face” is altered.

Mercy entices her “mark”with a promise of sexual gratification. The Sweetling takes the bait, eager to take her against a wall or in the street; but Mercy persuades him to come to her lodgings, Arya’s staging area for murder.

With deadly charm, Mercy informs Lord Raff that she could make a mummer of him. She says assuredly, “I could teach you to say a line. I could.”

Lord Raff does not allow a girl to school him, and he replies, “Not me, girl” and “I’ll do the teaching”.

“Mercy,” she said. “My name is Mercy. Can you say it?”

“Mercy,” he said.

Arya extracts from her victim the word that sweetens her intentions of an execution-style murder. As she draws Lord Raff’s blood, she delivers justice to a murderer of children.

Arya possesses a wolf spirit. Arya’s remedy for dispensing justice with a “karmic” twist shows forethought. Arya executes Raff for the senseless murder of Lommy.

Ned Stark punishes lawbreakers who commit crimes against the realm. In Bran I of AGoT, Ned Stark bestows the “King’s justice” on 20 lawbreakers, one a deserter from the NW, a fact not lost on Arya. She behaves as if she is qualified to pass judgment and execute the criminals.

Arya dismisses Raff’s pleas for help as hot blood stains his leg and crotch. “Help me,” he pleaded, as the crotch of his breeches reddened. “Mother have mercy, girl. A healer… run and find a healer, quick now”.

A man is bleeding to death, but Arya is spot on when she “reads his face”:

“He doesn’t look so comely now, she thought. He just looks white and frightened”.

Arya refuses to carry him to a healer. Arya sees the color leave his complexion and the fear fill his eyes, but she is unmoved. “Mercy” avenges Lommy on behalf of Arya Stark.

In her rented room in Braavos, Arya shortens her prayer list by one. Poetic justice is the theme of Arya’s melodramatic tragedy. With Needle in her bloody hand, Mercy bows to an audience lost and the dead.

Arya’s merciless actions foreshadow how Bran will wield his greenseeing powers when he “visits” past events to learn what has happened to his family. As a matter-of-fact, his teachers may encourage Bran to seek the truth in the hopes that it will arouse in him a rage for which bloody vengeance is the only remedy.

HBO’s “The First of His Name” features Bran, through Hodor, killing a man – Bran is as vulnerable to the darkness in man’s as is any character in ASoIaF.

[Zacker]

"To Arya, her cracked boots beg her attention, and she avoids walking to excess if it can be avoided to spare her well-used footwear. Arya’s ability to disassociate herself from events and from people around her is a symptom that bodes ill for Arya’s future. "

I see this opinion a lot (or variations of it). I don't think it nesessarily bodes ill for Arya. I believe it would be very difficult to be an assassin without having this ability, especially for an 11-12 year old assassin. The disassociation is practically a must imo.

Also, she's the born selfmade outsider, isn't she? She'll never have many close friends and will always be distanced from most other people.

PS. I'm in complete awe of the sheer volume of the above seven posts (7 was it?). I hope there is a bunch of people here for you to discuss it with. Myself, I'll likely drop off the face of the earth again soon enough. Arya was the only one able to bring me back for a while :)

[Rhaegar Targaryen's Ghost]

Sadly, “No One” is becoming a “monster” herself, and her behavior foreshadows how the new greenseer Bran may use and abuse his powers during his training to deliver vengeance in the name of “justice”.

Congrats on everything you're compiled already, and good luck on everything you have yet to find. Going on this last point, I think Arya and Bran seem to be at two different ends of the Stark spectrum. (Rickon may be the only one more wild than Arya). I think everything we have learned in the Bran chapters through the five books is that he isn't likely to deliver vengeance. He seems to be very even keeled, and I think his sense of justice will be one that is pure and dutiful, in a Ned Stark sort of way.

[WhitewolfStark]

One Shakespeare play that is obviously referenced with the opening of The Bloody Hand, is that it straight out parodies the famous opening monologue to Shakespeare's Richard III.

Bonobo's first lines:

When the dwarf appeared suddenly from behind a wooden tombstone, the crowd began to hiss and curse. Bobono waddled to the front of the stage and leered at them. “The seven-faced god has cheated me,” he said. “My noble sire he made of purest gold, and gold he made my siblings, boy and girl. But I am formed of darker stuff, of bones and blood and clay, twisted into this rude shape you see before you.”

...

On stage, Bobono was bargaining with Marro’s sinister Stranger. He had a big voice for such a little man, and he made it ring off the highest rafters now. “Give me the cup,” he told the Stranger, “for I shall drink deep. And if it tastes of gold and lion’s blood, so much the better. As I cannot be the hero, let me be the monster, and lesson them in fear in place of love.”

The lines he's satirizing from Richard III:

But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamped, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling Nature,
Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them--
Why I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to see my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity.
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determinèd to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

[Mithras]

Great work, evita mgfs.

I will spend several weekends to absorb all of these :)

[evita mgfs]

A/N: I apologize for my time-gaps between posts.

PART I: ELIZABETHAN THEATRE in MARTIN’S “MERCY”

George R. R. Martin is a strategic writer who takes his time composing prose narratives that artfully distinguish characters, that shrewdly advance the plot, and that discerningly integrate literary elements and techniques.

Martin’s motifs are as clear or as ambiguous as are the various interpretations of his readers who carefully trace language patterns, recurring symbols and themes, and literary devices throughout the novels of the series ASoIaF. The motif is a treatment Martin manages proficiently, and he immerses his audience in the theatre motif in “Mercy” with his POV narrator slated to take to the stage at the conclusion of her internship with Izembaro at the Gate Theatre.

Martin pays homage to English playwright William Shakespeare, his works, his stage, and his times. It stands to reason that Martin would find his inspiration for the theatres in Braavos in the theatres in London during or near to Shakespeare’s lifetime.

The Gate Theatre where Mercy serves her internship with the mummers strongly resembles Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

THE GATE and THE GLOBE: BUILT upon ASHES

Martin seamlessly applies elements from the famous Globe Theatre to the mummer’s Gate to add rich texture to his duality theme.

“Tragically, the original Globe burned down in 1613 due to cannon shot used as a prop during a performance of Henry VIII. . . It was soon rebuilt, though, and remained open on its original foundations until the Puritans closed it in 1642 . . .” (http://elizabethan-theater.wikispaces.com/).

In a similar fashion, an “old warehouse had burnt” to the ground in Braavos, and the stone foundation had flooded. Located by the edge of the “Drowned Town”, between “the Outer Harbor and the Purple Harbor”, Izembaro raised his cavernous play hall upon ash and water.

The “symbolic” births of these theatres – from ashes and stone to Gate and Globe - reinforce an ongoing fertility motif.

TILTS and SLANTS: IMBALANCE

Martin gives his Gate’s stage a “tilt”, appropriate for Arya’s crooked path. Yet art imitates history: the Globe theatre’s stage construction slopes intentionally, slanting downward- or toward the “pit”, or “upstage” in “theatre vocabulary”. In the case of the latter, it is designed to increase audience visibility for the “groundlings”, those standing level with the stage. Martin’s Gate and Shakespeare’s Globe share much in common.

Martin mentions other Braavosi theatres, including the Ship, the Blue Lantern, and the Dome. Shakespeare’s plays were also performed in other theatres aside from the Globe, such as the Rose Theatre and the Hope Theatre.

CREATIVE OWNERSHIP AMONG THEATRES

When Arya has time to scrutinize the audience gathering in the Gate’s house, she sees a playwright named Quill standing in the rear, and she immediately suspects that he is there to “steal” any worthy ideas from the new play Bloody Hand. “The sad-eyed little man called Quill stood in the back, come to see what he could steal for one of his own plays”.

The authors of plays performed in Elizabethan theatres suffer a similar fate as revealed in the following:

“The plays were the property, not of the author, but of the acting companies. Aside from the costly costumes, they formed the most valuable part of the company's capital. The parts were learned by the actors, and the manuscript locked up. If the piece became popular, rival managers often stole it by sending to the performance a clerk who took down the lines in shorthand. Neither authors nor managers had any protection from pirate publishers, who frequently issued copies of successful plays without the consent of either” (http://www.theatrehistory.com/british/bellinger001.html).

DRAMATIC CONVENTIONS

A dramatic convention is a “silent agreement” between the artist and the audience. In order to achieve a state of suspended disbelief, the performers need to engage the imaginations of their audience.

The audience truly understands that “real” people do not deliver long, formulaic speeches to reveal their innermost thoughts and feelings, sometimes reciting verse or bursting into song.

The soliloquy is an example of a dramatic convention in Shakespeare’s plays and in Forel’s Bloody Hand. The soliloquy is a long speech performed by an actor while alone on stage. Even if someone eavesdrops on the speaker, as long as he/ she believe he/she is alone, it is a soliloquy.

Bobono’s soliloquy is disclosed, in part: “Bobono waddled to the front of the stage and leered at them [the audience]. “The seven-faced god has cheated me,” he began, snarling the words. “My noble sire he made of purest gold, and gold he made my siblings, boy and girl. But I am formed of darker stuff, of bones and blood and clay…” [“Mercy”, TWoW].

Note the poetry in Bobono’s soliloquy; he even uses metaphor when he accuses the Seven-faced Gods of cheating him by composing him of “darker stuff”, “blood and clay” . . .” Compare these lines to Bobono’s claim that his father is “purist gold” and his brother and sister are mad of gold.

An example of a soliloquy from Julius Caesar occurs immediately after the conspirators have murdered Caesar in the Capital. Marc Antony has been given permission to speak at Caesar’s funeral by Brutus who meets with dissent from fellow conspirator Cassius. Regardless, Brutus demands Antony promise not to speak ill of the men who did the deed because their reasons are honorable. Antony agrees.

Feigning friendship, good will, and support, Antony shakes the bloody hands of the men who murdered Caesar. The conspirators depart, leaving Antony alone with the dead body of Caesar at his feet. It is at this moment Antony delivers one of his famous soliloquys wherein he vows to bring fierce civil war on all parts of Italy and to “Cry Havoc! And let slip the dogs of war!” Antony will make all of Rome pay for the murder of Caesar.

DRAMATIC IRONY

Dramatic irony builds suspense and tension, and Shakespeare’s plays and Martin’s Bloody Hand feature this convention. The audience knows something that the character(s) on stage do not know. For example, Bobono does not know that the Stranger is sneaking up behind him, although the audience surely knows:

“By then Marro had appeared behind him, gaunt and terrible in the Stranger’s long black robes. His face was black as well, his teeth red and shiny with blood, while ivory horns jutted upwards from his brow. Bobono could not see him, but the balconies could, and now the pit as well. The Gate grew deathly quiet. Marro moved forward silently”.

An example of Shakespeare successfully sustaining his audience’s interests occurs in the tragedy of Julius Caesar. The audience knows about the conspiracy and their murderous plans, but they must sit quietly as Caesar ignores many, many warnings predicting his death. If Caesar had just listened to his wife, to his high priest, to the augerers, to the soothsayer, to Artemidorus, and so on.

Martin touches the Gate Theatre here and there with recognizable homages to the inventive Shakespeare. The lively back-stage merriment among Mercy and her fellow mummers makes readers temporarily forget the darker and darker path Arya has chosen to walk.

SCENERY

Shakespeare's plays were performed on a bare stage with little or no scenery. For example, a sawhorse may sit on stage with a saddle slung over it. This “image” insinuates that a horse is part of the scene.

Similarly, the setting in Act I of Forel’s Bloody Hand is a lichyard, which is represented by a “wooden tombstone”, and Bobono steps from behind it.

[evita mgfs]

BEFORE “MERCY”:

FACELESS IMAGES / SENSORY DETAILS

In scenes set at HarrenHell, Arya “assumes” a new identity and bonds with a “fast friend” Jaqen, a spiritual guide likely sent by the forces that are the old gods with the intent to direct Arya towards Braavos. Jaqen’s choice of words in the dialogue he has with Arya indeed echo the “content” of what Syrio Forel teaches her and foretells the “content” of the kindly man’s lessons.

SYRIO FOREL

Syrio tells Arya. “Just so. Opening the eyes is all that is needing. The heart lies and the head plays tricks with us, but the eyes see true. Look with your eyes. Hear with your ears. Taste with your mouth. Smell with your nose. Feel with your skin. Then comes the thinking afterward, and in that way knowing the truth” (AGoT 532).

KINDLY MAN

The kindly man tells Arya that if she stays at the HoB&W, “the Many-Faced God will take your ears, your nose, your tongue. He will take your sad grey eyes that have seen so much. He will take your hands and feet . . .” (ASoS 453).

In this the kindly man’s words are metaphoric: he will take Arya’s ears by rendering her “deaf” with a magic potion, and as a result of not being able to hear, Arya will train her other senses to be more acute to compensate for the hearing loss.

While in HarrenHell, these are threats that Arya faces while under the service of Weese, who owns the ugly dog. Martin evokes the five senses in these instances where Arya is menaced by Weese and his dog. Then, ironically, Weese meets a bloody end when Jaqen grants Arya’s second death, an end that involves his ugly dog and Weese’s sensory “tools” he tells Arya he will take from her:

OLFACTORY/SMELL

• Weese has “an ugly spotted dog that smelled worse than anything” (ACoK 457).
• Weese tells his crew, “My nose never lies. When I sniff you, all I want to smell is fear” (421).
• “Weese frowned at her, as if he smelled her secret” (554).

TASTE

• When Arya yawns, Weese says, “next time I see that mouth droop open, I’ll pull your out your tongue and feed it to my bitch” (465). Here Weese threatens to take her tongue, essential to the taste buds.
• “For a moment she had been a wolf again, but Weese’s slap left her with nothing but the taste of blood in her mouth. She’d bitten her tongue when he hit her” (551).
• Weese eats a capon that he promised to share with Arya, and Arya watches longingly, secretly resenting him as he licks his fingers. He then slaps Arya and pushes her to the floor.

AUDITORY/HEARING

• “He twisted her ear between his fingers to make certain she’d heard . . . “(465).
• Arya eavesdrops on the “whispers” of others, some of it gossip.
• She stays in the cellar of the Wailing Tower.

SEEING

• “Keep those eyes to yourself, or next time I’ll spoon one out and feed it to my bitch” (554).
• Arya sees horrors of many kinds at HarrenHell.
• Also some foreshadowing: “If there were ghosts in Harrenhall, they never troubled her. It was the living men she feared (457).

TACTILE/FEELING

1. Weese beats Arya bloody often.
2. Arya awakes to the pointed toe of Weese’s boot kicking her.
3. Vargo Hoat is the threat to Arya’s limbs, for he likes to take body parts, like hands and feet.

Upon the arrival of Tywin and his army, Arya realizes that she has chosen the wrong recipient of her second death. As she races to find Jaqen, she hears the portcullis close: “its spikes sinking deep into the ground” (ACoK 555) , which conjures an image of a mouth snapping closed, the spikes serving as teeth. Then, Arya hears “a shriek of pain and fear” (ACoK 555).

Arya finds Weese “sprawled across the cobbles, his throat a red ruin, eyes gazing sightlessly up at a bank of grey cloud. His ugly spotted dog stood on his chest, lapping at the blood pulsing from his neck, and every so often, ripping a mouthful of flesh out of the dead man’s face” (ACoK 555-556).

Someone shoots the ugly dog with a crossbow while the bitch “was worrying at one of Weese’s ears” (ACoK 556).

Clever Martin serves poetic justice to Weese in the twisted details of his death, making sure to address the body parts associated with sensory details: the “red ruin” of his throat prevents speech, especially if the vocal chords are severed; sightless eyes insinuate blindness, and the ugly dog is nibbling at an ear, the organ associated with hearing.

The ugly dog devours Weese’s face – appropo with Arya’s eventual relationship with the Faceless Men of Braavos. But the irony is that Weese threatened to remove Arya’s eyes and her tongue to feed to his bitch, and Weese twists Arya’s ear; Martin brilliantly adds a karmic element to Weese’s comeuppance as his loyal dog turns against her master by punishing him with similar threats he waged at Arya.

The “ugly dog” is a bitch, an interesting parallel that speaks to Arya’s very first magically-inspired “face” – the Ugly Girl.

HOW MARTIN EMPHASIZES SENSORY PERCEPTION THROUGH ARYA’S CONTACT WITH JAQEN IN ACoK

Syrio Forel tells Arya. “Just so. Opening the eyes is all that is needing. The heart lies and the head plays tricks with us, but the eyes see true. Look with your eyes. Hear with your ears. Taste with your mouth. Smell with your nose. Feel with your skin. Then comes the thinking afterward, and in that way knowing the truth” (AGoT 532).

Syrio Forel’s “lessons” very much parallel lessons shared between Arya and Jaqen in ACoK, only there is an awesome “TWIST” that divulges Martin’s brilliance even further. During JAQEN’S time with Arya, Martin “shows” how the sensory details “play out” in “real time” – and the reader must “look” if he or she hopes to “see”.

“JUST SO” is an expression popular with Syrio, and when Jaqen says “just so” (ACoK 686), careful readers are reminded of Syrio.

TACTILE / TOUCH

“Arya was dreaming of wolves running wild through the woods when a strong hand clamped down over her mouth like a smooth warm stone, solid and unyielding.”

[interestingly, Jaqen’s hand feels like a smooth warm stone, and Martin evokes the sense of touch with the adjectives “smooth” and “warm”. Arya feels what is “tangible”, but then she “feels” what is immeasurable: Jaqen’s hand over Arya’s mouth is “solid and unyielding”– his clamp is firm and unbending, subduing Arya effortlessly. Furthermore, the “stone” is linked to the old gods whose spirits live in earth, rock, water, roots, trees, etc.]

VISUAL/SEEING:

When Arya sees Jaqen for the first time at HarrenHell, Martin writes, “He does not know me, she thought. Arry was a fierce little boy with a sword, and I’m a grey mouse girl with a pail” (ACoK 464). [Arya assumes that Jaqen will not recognize her now as a girl, with the “fierce” aspect diminished by her female sex. On the contrary, Jaqen “sees” beneath and beyond the “physical” presentation, seeking out “My Lady of Stark”.]

“Syrio had told her once that darkness could be her friend, and he was right. If she had the moon and stars to see by, that was enough” (ACoK 684). [Arya often finds herself in darkness, which is literal or figurative, and sometimes Arya is symbolically blinded to what is true. However, Arya sneaks about HarrenHell without illumination, and these instances mirror Arya creeping through the pitch black dungeons while escaping from the Kingsguard in AGoT. Symbolically, Arya’s “path” to Braavos is “dark” as she comes closer to the source of evil haunting humanity.]

Syrio says, “Look with your eyes.”

AUDITORY / HEARING

“A girl says nothing,” a voice whispered close behind her ear. “A girl keeps her lips closed, no one hears, and friends may talk in secret. Yes?”

[Jaqen whispers, which foreshadows the whispers in the HoB&W. Arya remains silent, her lips closed, for silence is the part of the auditory that is “soundless”. In the Cave of Skulls, BR whispers in the dark to Bran].

“She crept up quiet as a shadow, but he opened his eyes all the same. ‘She steals in on little mice feet, but a man hears,’ he said. How could he hear me? She wondered, and it seemed as if he heard that as well. ‘The scuff of leather on stone sings as loud as warhorns to a man with open ears. Clever girls go barefoot’” (ACoK 553).

[Again the “stone” is mentioned, an association with the old gods. Endowing “stone” with sound, especially “song” is significant to the series title A Song of Ice and Fire.]

Jaqen tells Arya: “A man sees. A man hears. A man knows” (ACoK 684).

OLFACTORY / SMELLING

“The cellar was black pitch and she could not see his face, even inches away. She could smell him though, his skin smelled clean and soapy, and he has scented his hair” (464)

[Jaqen comes to her in darkness so that she cannot see his face. Once again, Martin reminds his readers that Arya has been “blind” before, albeit “symbolically” for she finds herself thrust in the darkness of the dungeons in AGoT. Arya displays her resilience in commanding her attuned senses. Without her eyes, Arya’s olfactory senses are alerted to Jaqen’s pleasant soapy smell. ]

TASTE

Arya’s sense of taste is evoked in Jaqen’s smell, for she links it to spices:

“ . . . only a faint smell remained of him, a whiff of ginger and cloves lingering in the air” (ACoK 465).
[When one’s sense of smell is incited by food, the taste-buds are also evoked.]

Arya steals a tart from the kitchen before meeting up with Jaqen in the godswood: “”It was stuffed with chopped nuts and fruit and cheese, the crust flaky and still warm from the oven” (676).

[Jack's Smirking Revenge]

Just wanted to say that this is awesome. Thank you for all the time and effort you put into these posts.

[King Tyrion I]

This is really great, great work! =o)

Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

[three-eyed monkey]

Thanks Evita. I really enjoyed your essays. Some great analysis. Makes me wonder just how many things GRRM has running through that brain of his when he writes?

I love the Mercy chapter. I think it is one of my favourites from the series so far, maybe because it is pretty fresh still. But it is so well written and so well rounded, it would work as a self-contained short story. And so dark, (or maybe noir would be a better word?) I just love it.

[Grayce Hornwood]

And this is why it takes the George five years to write one book...

Well done Evita, fabulous work you've done here. :thumbsup:

[Chocs]

This is brilliant! Especially the analysis on Jon, Arya, and Bran's story-line being filled with patterns. I find lots of parallels between Arya/Jon's story in the HoBaW & NW, especially what the FM/NW demand from their recruits; same with Bran/Arya and their training. Excellent work, Evita! :)

[Shagwell Snow]

Great work Evita.You've raised the bar on this forum.The heresy thread is also excellent but that's more of a collective effort