How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Whom will you marry?"
He shrugged. "I hadn't pictured myself marrying anyone."
[…] "Aren't you concerned about your castle and your land? About producing heirs?"
He shrugged again. "Not enough to attach me to a person I don't wish to be attached to. I'm content enough on my own." (17.84-87)
Finally Katsa meets someone who doesn't see marriage as an inevitability in life. But it's important to note that Po doesn't resist marriage for the same reasons as Katsa. In fact, we're not sure he's resistant to the idea of marriage at all. Notice the verb tense he uses: hadn't. He hadn't pictured himself marrying anyone. Perhaps now, he has.
Quote #5
"Raffin and I talked once about marrying," she said. "For he's not wild about the idea of marrying some noblewoman who thinks only of being rich or being queen. And of course, he must marry someone, he has no choice in the matter. And to marry me would be an easy solution. We get along, I wouldn't try to keep him from his experiments. He wouldn't expect me to entertain his guests, he wouldn't keep me from the Council." (17.97)
Ultimately, of course, Katsa and Raffin decide against this idea, mainly (it seems) because Katsa wouldn't be able to hold up her end of the bargain. She says she wouldn't consent to be queen, wouldn't bear him heirs, and wouldn't let herself be tied to someone else—not even Raffin.
The queen thing, we get. She doesn't want that position. And the kids? We get that, too. Not everyone wants or needs to have children. But the part about being tied to another person… that part gives us trouble. Because if she were to fall in love (as she does, with Po), wouldn't that love essentially tie her to another person? In fact, isn't she ultimately tied to Po in the end? Maybe not through any sort of legal or religious ceremony, but still—heart strings must count for something, right?
The other thing this quote points out to us is that women are not the only ones who sometimes have to make tough choices around matrimony in Katsa's world. Raffin, it seems, is equally vexed by the custom of marriage. It's his duty, whether it's in his heart or not. We wonder what choices he'll make when the time comes.
Quote #6
"If she's unmarried, I don't understand why her father sends her out to serve these men. I'm not certain she's safe among them." (18.14)
We tend to think of marriage as something you do when you love someone and want to spend the rest of your life with her/him, but clearly in Katsa's time—whatever time that may be—women sometimes married (or were married off) in order to gain a measure of protection.
Giddon suggests that Katsa marry him to protect herself from Randa, and as Katsa observes the serving girl at the inn, she recognizes that the girl is less safe among the merchants precisely because she doesn't have a husband. Interesting, no? Does any of that attitude remain today? The idea that a woman, once married, enjoys a measure of protection because other men see her as off limits. If so, in what form? And where?