Character Clues

Character Analysis

Actions

Katsa is a woman of action, so it makes sense that her actions help to define her. When we first meet her, she's carrying out a secret mission, jumping and leaping and kicking and hitting, and that's actually pretty typical Katsa. We hear of her, "She didn't want to sit and talk. She wanted to move. Movement would stop the whirring of her mind" (7.98). She frequently runs when she's upset, and she typically rides her horse "at breakneck speed" (5.2), intent on getting where she's going as quickly as possible.

Po, on the other hand, is "smooth in his movements, like a cat. Deceptively calm, ready to spring" (1.51), but also much more content—and able—to sit still. Indeed, in contrast to Katsa's "tireless energy" (10.10), Po needs to rest and recover and have a bite of food from time to time (10.37).

Also, Katsa is always bursting into rooms—especially Raffin's workrooms (11.25, 14.1)—and making a lot of noise shooting arrows in the dark (8.1, 13.89), while Po tends to appear silently. One moment he's not there, and the next, Katsa senses his presence (8.4).

Their actions help to categorize them. Katsa is impetuous, impulsive, and impatient, and her emotions as well as her sense of her own identity—like her actions—are a whirlwind. Just as she is physically always on the move, she is emotionally unsettled as well. Po, conversely, is much more quiet and thoughtful, and much more deliberate and less frantic in his actions, which bespeaks his emotional maturity and his strong sense of himself.

Of course, Katsa's disposition changes a bit over the course of the book, and as she gets more of a handle on her emotions, she is also able to better control her actions. When she confronts Randa, she stays her hand even though "Mercy was more frightening than murder, because it was harder" (15.29). And in the inn, when the merchants are being total jerks, Katsa, after being calmed by Po, returns the favor by talking him down. In that case, it's her lack of action—or her ability to see the wisdom in controlling her actions—that helps us to see how Katsa is changing.

Clothing

Ladies wear dresses and gentlemen wear pants. That seems to be the general rule in the seven kingdoms, which is why it's so significant that three ladies in particular flout this custom.

• Katsa favors pants over dresses, which sometimes gives people the impression she's "a boy, because in her plain trousers and hood she looked like one" (1.17).
• Captain Faun dresses like "the other sailors: brown trousers, brown coat, heavy boots" (32.87), not the most feminine attire.
• And though when we first meet Bitterblue, she's wearing skirts (24.42)—skirts that Katsa eventually cuts away and fashions "into a crude pair of trousers" (29.58)—by the time she and Katsa are ready to return to the mountains of Monsea for Po, she has "a knife at her belt" and is arrayed "in trousers and short hair, looking for all the world like a miniature pirate" (35.76).

As you can see, when females disobey the dress code, they enjoy a certain amount of liberation. And when they go along with the dress code, they find themselves confined, like Bitterblue, who constantly trip over her dress in the mountains (9.58), or Katsa who detests "the hairpins, and the dress, and the shoes that pinched her feet" (7.93).

We can't imagine Captain Faun sailing the seas in women's business casual, can you? And she wouldn't. Because in a dress, Captain Faun would be a different person altogether, just as Katsa feels caged and Bitterblue is hindered when they wear clothing unbefitting their character. The fact that all three of them choose to dress in clothing more typical of men helps to characterize them as liberated women who enjoy more freedom than many other females in the seven kingdoms.

Family Life

Katsa is an orphan, her parents having died when she was very young, and this helps us to see her not just isolated, but also fiercely independent. Even though she has a cousin and an uncle nearby, she doesn't tend to rely on anyone else for much of anything.

Po, alternately, has a large family of six brothers and a mom and dad who still play a significant role in his life. Interestingly, and perhaps understandably, Po is more of a collaborator. He's better at sharing his feelings as well as his time and space, possibly because he's had so much practice doing so with all of his siblings.

Granted Po has kept the secret of his Grace from everyone but his mother and his Grandfather, but even so, it's clear he's close to his brothers and his father, and his relationships with his mom and Grandpa Tealiff are clearly warm and loving.

Katsa hasn't had any of this. Raffin, her cousin, has been a confidant and friend, but he's more of a peer than a family member, and some of the differences between Katsa and Po and the way they relate to others seem directly related to the confidence and stability that a healthy family life can provide.