61 pages • 2 hours read
Sarah J. MaasA Court of Mist and Fury
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Character Analysis
Feyre Archeron
Once human, now an immortal High Fae, Feyre bears emotional scars from both worlds. Initially, Feyre is guilt-ridden and withdrawn, desperately seeking an escape from her nightmares. She hopes that by helping Tamlin protect his court, she can alleviate her guilt, but Tamlin keeps her cloistered inside his manor, a protective measure that only makes her mental health worse. Though Feyre begins the novel in love with Tamlin, she swears to destroy him by the end of the story.
Feyre’s character arc follows her growing confidence and discovery of self. When she becomes part of Rhys’s Night Court, he gives her no special treatment and at first she resents the hardship. Her desires are paradoxical—as much as she detests her ornamental status with Tamlin, she relishes the spa-like accoutrements of the Night Court. Maas makes clear that Feyre’s true desire is for agency; she wants to learn to control her new powers and make meaningful contributions. Tamlin’s luxuries are coerced, and so she cannot enjoy them. She shows grit and tenacity in adapting to the Night Court, presided over by fierce Illyrian warriors. Ultimately, Feyre must find her true self on her own. After her solitude and reconnection to the art of painting, Feyre is able to accept both her love for Rhys and her destiny as a powerful warrior.
Rhysand
The High Lord of the Night Court, feared by many for his dark magic, is the most powerful High Lord in Prythian. At first, Maas portrays him as arrogant and sneering, a trickster and troublemaker who pulls Feyre away from Tamlin as she prepares to wed him. Despite his bravado, Rhys understands Feyre’s insecurities better than anyone, and Maas slowly reveals Rhys to be Feyre’s mate and true equal. While Maas depicts both Tamlin and Rhys as animalistic lovers, Rhys’s sexual passion is accompanied by a deeper emotional connection, indicating the deep bond of love between Rhys and Feyre.
As a half-High Fae, half-Illyrian Rhys, like Feyre, is torn between worlds. However, as High Lord, he vows to unite rather than divide, taking both Fae and Illyrians into his inner counsel. Like most of the characters in the novel, Rhys has suffered great trauma in the past, notably as Amarantha’s slave and consort Under the Mountain. Despite Feyre’s swooning descriptions of Rhys’s muscular body, it is his vulnerability that confirms in her mind their true bond as mates.
Tamlin
As High Lord of the Spring Court, Tamlin undergoes a dramatic transformation from the first book in the series to the second. Initially portrayed as Feyre’s savior and true love, his traumatic experiences Under the Mountain have made him dangerously overprotective. Tamlin becomes antagonistic as attempts to keep Feyre at the Spring Court against her will and allies himself with the evil King of Hybern to regain control of her. Tamlin’s refusal to respect Feyre’s agency causes her to rebel, driving her into the arms of Tamlin’s nemesis and foil Rhys, whose family and Tamlin’s family have a bloody history. In the character of Tamlin, Maas hints at the duplicity and superficiality of Fae culture. Tamlin is Lord of the Spring Court. He presides over an elegant manor with blooming flowers where scents of spring float in the air, but something is rotten below the surface. Tamlin clings to the social proprieties which Rhys rejects, and which would subjugate Feyre entirely. Tamlin does love Feyre, but obsessively and without regard for her own desires. Maas portrays Tamlin as tragic, once a hero but now reduced to his worst nature after his inability to heal from his traumatic experiences.
Morrigan
Morrigan (Mor) is Rhys’s third-in-command and his liaison between the Court of Dreams and the Court of Nightmares. Mor’s name is a reference to the Morrigan from Irish mythology, a faerie queen related to war and fate. Like all of Rhys’s Inner Circle, Mor has a troubled past. Growing up in Illyrian culture, Mor knew that once she reached puberty, her wings would be clipped, and she would be married without her consent. As a strong-willed girl with great power, her parents thought to secure a politically advantageous union, but Mor sought to control her own destiny, forestalling her menstrual bleeding for as long as possible. When she could not hide it any longer, she purposefully lost her virginity to Cassian to deter marriage prospects. Mor embodies the novel’s feminist themes: She defies, the patriarchy of Illyrian society, risking punishment and scorn to maintain control over her body and destiny. She despises Illyrian culture for its treatment of their women, and, inside Rhys’s court, she is often Feyre’s only female companion. Mor offers Feyre a model for womanhood that is different from any she has encountered, and one Feyre becomes interested in emulating.
Amren
Amren is enigmatic and dangerous. A creature of unknown origins trapped in a High Fae body, Amren is older than Prythian. For unspecified reasons, she was held for centuries in The Prison, the same underground complex to which the Bone Carver is bound. Amren possesses great knowledge, and when Rhys and Feyre acquire the Book of Breathings, Amren translates the ancient language. Amren rarely eats food but rather drinks animal blood for sustenance, a habit reminiscent of vampires. Amren is Rhys’s second-in-command, a high position which evinces Rhys’s willingness to welcome all manner of individuals into his court. Although she is loyal to the Night Court, she is also apart from it with no connections by birth or lineage.
Cassian and Azriel
Cassian, Rhys’s top general, and Azriel, Rhys’s top spy are both Illyrians. Illyrians are a race of winged faerie, superior warriors, and extremely loyal. Both characters have tragic pasts but were welcomed by Rhys to the Night Court when cast out by others, evincing Rhys’s compassion.
Cassian’s difficult childhood forged him into the fiercest warrior in Rhys’s ranks. His boorish demeanor shocks Feyre at first, but she comes to respect his skills and his honor and his willingness to die for Rhys. Cassian meets his match in Nesta Archeron, Feyre’s calculating older sister. Their vocal sparring foreshadows a future romantic bond. He vows to protect Nesta’s land at the cost of his own life, a promise that shifts Nesta’s perception of him from hated faerie to honorable ally.
As Rhys’s “shadowsinger,” Azriel is taciturn and enigmatic. He is more likely to hang back in the shadows, listening and observing, as opposed to the boisterous Cassian. Azriel’s secretive nature prevents him from revealing his past, but Maas hints at trauma through other characters: he was kept in a cell by his mother, and his brothers set fire to his hands as a child. Like Cassian, Azriel is one of the most powerful Illyrians in existence and requires seven Siphons—magical stones through which an Illyrian’s power is channeled—to contain his destructive magic (most Illyrians need one or two). Azriel is in love with Mor, but his reserved nature prevents him from confessing his feelings.
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