Character Analysis
Dancer Diva
Azalea loves dancing. It's the number one thing in her world. Except maybe for her sisters, but more on that in a bit.
The book opens on the eve of Azalea's first Yuletide ball. Newly come of age, Azalea is super excited, even if it means dancing with her dad, the King, who's not a good dancer. But hey, that's no a problem: "She could add flourishes and turns that would mask the King's stiff, flat steps. If there was anything she was good at, it was dancing." (1.2) And indeed, anytime we see Azalea in action, she sure seems like she knows her stuff.
Let's not forget that Azalea is a princess, too. She has green eyes, and when she dresses up in a lovely ball gown she really looks the part:
Auburn ringlets framed her face, and her tightly strung corset flushed her cheeks. From shoulder to waist she wore a silver sash. She looked regal, and nothing like herself. (1.28)
That last comment refers to how she actually looks a lot like her mom. Because, well, genetics. And her mom also loved to dance, so that's another connecting factor.
In part because Azalea's so purty, and in part because she's in love with dancing, she is a fabulous dancer, and a marvel to watch. She's never been beaten at the Entwine, where the lady is supposed to evade the gentleman's attempts to ensnare her with a scarf during a three-minute dance. Well she's never been beaten by a mortal anyway—Keeper beats her once.
Heck, even Keeper—a centuries-old undead mad king who saw a lot of dancing while alive—is impressed by Azalea's dancing. He tells her: "You are the best I have ever danced with, and I have danced with many. I knew you would be the best" (22.162). Okay, that was a little creepy, but it's still high praise coming from him.
A Proper Princess
For all that Azalea feels conflicted about her royal duties sometimes (because ew—arranged marriage), she still behaves in a polite and proper way. Is it because she's been trained to act that way from birth as the royal firstborn, or because she's intrinsically that way? It's a pretty chicken-or-egg question when you get down to it.
One big clue about how much Azalea cares about politeness and appearances is how embarrassed she gets when things go wrong. When Mr. Bradford comes to stop all the clocks in the palace for mourning, all of Azalea's sisters freak out since their mother loved the clocks, so they pelt Mr. Bradford with potatoes. Azalea's response is to verbally chide the girls, while she feels "sick with embarrassment" (4.123) over their bad behavior and disregard for tradition.
Or take how when the King reprimands the girls for dancing during mourning, he tells Azalea: "Dancing dishonors your mother's memory. It is badly done, Azalea! As the future queen, you should know better!" (5.57) Her response: "The reprimand stung. Azalea suddenly felt how cold the wind was, and how it bit her face. She turned her head." (5.58) Ouch. We can tell she's hurting here—she looks away, and the bite of the wind mirrors the way her father's stern words make her feel.
When the girls' reign of terror against Mr. Bradford continues, Azalea feels like she's "dying a thousand tiny deaths." (13.67) Yep. Siblings sure know how to embarrass you, and Azalea is pretty readily embarrassed (especially, perhaps, when Mr. Bradford's around).
One of the downsides to being raised with so much attention to rules and etiquette is that Azalea hasn't been exposed to a lot of gentleman her age, and so she's even more susceptible to Keeper's charms. When Keeper returns Mr. Bradford's watch to her in the pavilion, "the press of his fingers seemed to touch her core […] It both thrilled and frightened her." (9.76) We're not saying Azalea is naïve enough to fall for the first good-looking dude who glances in her direction, but she doesn't have a lot of defenses against someone who knows how to flirt and isn't afraid to use it.
Little Miss Temper
Sometimes Azalea's temper gets the better of her. Actually, that happens a lot of the time. When she and her sisters find out that their mother has died and that their father is out riding, Azalea "stumbled" out to find him, hoping he would set things right (3.2). This impulsive act means leaving her sisters alone to deal with the bad news—not a good move—but at least she realizes it later and apologizes, saying, "I shouldn't have left you all" (3.18). While it's great that she recognizes her mistake, this is just one of many impulsive moments Azalea has.
No really—Azalea acts impulsively throughout the book, including:
- Riding to the port in the dead of winter without a cloak to find the King and tell him that it's wrong to leave for war without saying goodbye to her and her sisters;
- smacking Fairweller (the prime minister) in the face after catching him courting her sister Clover;
- and riding out into a winter storm to get a magic sword repaired, which leads to falling in a frozen river and losing said magic sword.
Sometimes Azalea's temper shows up in small ways, too. When angry, she tends to clench her fists so tightly that her nails cut into her hands: "Her nails bit into her hands, in spite of the gloves she wore, and she clenched them harder, wishing it would sting harder. When her hands stung, the inside of her didn't hurt so much." (10.94) That's a serious grip this girl's got, and it shows serious rage right below her surface.
A lot of her anger is directed at her dad, and this takes a while for her to let go of. The King has to work to earn her (and the rest of the girls') trust all over again, which he does by showing up to be a part of the family again. And, slowly, it works, since Azalea eventually decides "that having meals with him these next few weeks wouldn't be so bad after all" (16.36). She's quick to anger, and slow to forgive, though she can eventually come around if people try.
Sisterly Love
Azalea loves her sisters so much, well, we couldn't measure it if we tried.
When the girls realize the full extent of mourning—no time outdoors, no dancing, basically it's like being grounded for a year—they all begin to cry. All except for Azalea, who knows she has to do something to comfort them. She tells her sisters: "It's only for a year. I'll watch out for you all. I promise" (4.35). And that's exactly what she does… or tries to do, at least. Azalea's not perfect, and she's just a teenager after all.
She's determined to look out for her sisters, though. She promises Bramble, "The King would never arrange your marriage—and I would never let him. I promise" (15.60). It's a promise she intends to keep, even when the King begins to arrange Bramble's marriage to Lord Teddie (luckily the whole catastrophe with Keeper causes that to be put off until Bramble can actually, like, consent to the marriage).
Azalea also really loves her mom, which is part of why she's so devastated when her mom dies. She hopes that it's true that people have souls after all because "It meant that Mother wasn't hurting anymore. Azalea clung to that hope, desperately. If that were true, Azalea would believe in anything" (3.86). And when Keeper presents the illusion of having her mom's soul captive and tortured, well, that breaks Azalea's heart.
Also, Azalea has a sweet streak that's not just reserved for her sisters. When Mr. Bradford shows up at the Yuletide ball bleeding, she hardly remembers who he is, and yet she bandages him up right away, saying, "Hush… It isn't bad. We'll clean it right up" (2.60). She also starts to fall for Mr. Bradford, which is part of why she intervenes on his behalf when he asks to come address the riddle right around Christmas: "She did know he hadn't close family to spend Christmas with. Sympathy took over" (22.117). Sympathy… and butterflies in her stomach.
Paradoxically for someone with such a large family, Azalea is also really independent. She hates the thought of getting married, especially because, as heir to the throne, she might be facing a political marriage: "She hated the sick, milk-turning feeling that came when she thought of her future gentleman. She pictured it as a sort of ball, one that lasted a lifetime, in which parliament chose her dance partner" (1.36). Notice how she even thinks of arranged marriage in terms of dance—as we established above, it's just that important to her.
In the end, it's love for her family that helps Azalea set everything right. When Keeper has been released, Azalea, while trapped, dreams of her dead mother once more. Her mother asks her to promise to take care of her whole family, and has an important realization:
Azalea looked into Mother's eyes, which shone with tears. Something pricked in Azalea's heart. She remembered all the times she had lashed out at the King with scathing words. How she had taken the oath with burning anger in her chest, and how she had danced out of sheer stubbornness. And now it was her fault […] Azalea pressed her hands tightly around the handkerchief and clenched her jaw. Her eyes blazed, but not with temper. (25.112-113)
Here we see Azalea's determination to do right by her family, especially since she realizes that she was being too hard on her dad early on. The fact that she makes this promise in the dream is what magically gets her the silver handkerchief back, so Azalea's commitment to her family really does make all the difference in how the story ends.
Azalea's Timeline