Katsa

Character Analysis

A Rose By Any Other Name

Katsa, Lady Katsa, Kat, Wildcat. She's a woman of many identities. On the one hand she's a trained assassin, capable of killing a man with the nail of her smallest finger (2.27), and on the other hand she's an eighteen-year-old with a guarded heart who's scared to rely on anyone or form a romantic relationship for fear of compromising a granule of her independence.

It is, perhaps, because Katsa's identity is so shaky in her own mind at the start of the book that she clings so tightly to her autonomy. As we said, she's a woman of many identities, and she herself can't seem to figure out which one—if any of them—represents the real Katsa. When Po suggests that her uncle has a strange effect on her, and that she hasn't been herself since he came to watch their practice, Katsa replies, "Or maybe I have been myself [since he visited], and the other times I'm not myself" (12.21-32). Needless to say, she's pretty mixed up.

With an Uncle Like That, Who Needs Frenemies

Part of the problem is that her uncle has been manipulating her since she was eight years old, forcing her to murder and maim in his name, which in turn has left her questioning her character. Katsa doesn't enjoy harming people, but Randa is so clever in his machinations that he always knows "the words to make her feel stupid and brutish and turn her into a dog" (15.15). He does such a good job of it, in fact, that much of the time Katsa believes she is a "blue-eyed, green-eyed monster, wolflike and snarling. A vicious beast that struck out at friends in uncontrollable anger, a killer that offered itself as the vessel of the king's fury (13.83)."

When Two Halves Don't Make a Whole

Of course, Katsa does recognize that there is a part of her that is "frightened and sickened" by all the violence, a part of her monster-self that "chastised itself for its savagery. […] A monster that refused, sometimes, to behave like a monster" (13.84-85). But this only puzzles Katsa more. She can't make peace between these two halves, and so she bounces back and forth between them, wondering which one she really is.

At one point, Katsa notes that Helda sees her as both a trained assassin and an average woman, and she wonders how Helda is able to reconcile these two very different identities in her mind (7.54). Helda, of course, doesn't seem to have any trouble believing that Katsa could go out and kill a man for her uncle in the morning, then come home and dress for dinner with whatever eligible bachelor happens to be seated next to her that evening.

While Helda's wrong in thinking that Katsa cares at all about fussing with her hair or draping jewels around her neck, she's not wrong about the fact that Katsa is comprised of at least two very separate and contradictory identities. And over the course of the book, Katsa begins to recognize this as well.

More Flavors than Ben and Jerry's

Ani DiFranco declared "I am 32 flavors and then some," and Walt Whitman wrote, "I am large, I contain multitudes." And Katsa? Yeah, we'd say she qualifies as a variety pack.

She's a feminist who believes that women and men should have equal opportunities in life. She's a self-reliant survivalist who can build a fire in a thunderstorm, though she's completely hopeless when it comes to fashion. She's dedicated to training girls to defend themselves and making sure women get the respect they deserve. Motherhood doesn't appeal to her, and neither does marriage, but she's capable of great love and loyal to her friends. She's fierce and competitive, strong-willed and focused—and though she'd like to forget about it, she hurt an awful lot of people in the time before she found her voice and her power.

Voice + Power = Transformation

But when she does find her voice and her power, Katsa begins to undergo a transformation.
She defies Randa and stands up to him, saying, "I'm no longer yours to command" (15.32), proving that above all, Katsa is strong—physically and mentally. And she only becomes stronger as the book progresses.

Through her relationship with Po, who continually reminds her how powerful she is, Katsa comes to accept that her past choices (many of which were unduly influenced by her power hungry uncle) do not have to rule her future, and that while she has used her Grace to harm many people, she has also used it to save more than a few. And in terms of making reparations? She has "the rest of her life to tip the balance" (21.115).