Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews February 11, 2023 February 4, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
These difference between the girls plays a significant role in the fight that develops between Arya and Joff, and in Sansa's refusal to tell the truth in front of the king later. Arya clearly cares nothing for Joff's title as prince. She doesn't hesitate to attack him and then throw his sword into the river. The butcher's boy, by contrast, obviously fears Joff too much to even defend himself against the prince's blows. Sansa, however, is so concerned with upsetting Joff, because he is the prince and because she wants to marry him, that she refuses to reveal to the king that Joff initiated the fight. She also seems reluctant to upset Cersei, wanting to gain her approval as much as possible. She faces her own difficult decision between loyalties, as her parents have faced their own in previous sections. As a result of Sansa’s refusal to stand up for her sister, her direwolf is put to death. If the direwolves are interpreted as symbols of the children who own them, Lady’s death could foreshadow the destruction of Sansa’s connection to the Stark family and its values. Nymeria’s disappearance could represent a similar sense of alienation to come for Arya.
Robert's reluctance to make difficult decisions as king is made plain in this section as well. Robert’s initial solution to the fight between Arya and Joff is to avoid dealing with the argument altogether. Instead he demands that Cersei and Ned discipline their children on their own. When Cersei disagrees, Ned demands that Robert at least execute Lady and hold himself accountable in the same way that Ned does by executing Gared in chapter 1. Robert has nothing to say in reply, as if to admit that he has no defense because he knows his decision is wrong. In chapter 4 Robert admits to Ned that “There are nights I wish we had lost at the Trident,” suggesting the duties of being king are too much for him. Significantly, it is at the Trident, in the same place where Robert killed Rhaegar and won the Iron Throne, that Arya and Joff have their confrontation. On the battleground where Robert and Ned once fought together, the scuffle between their children now causes them to fight with one another instead.
Jon realizes that, despite being labeled a bastard his whole life, he has nonetheless had a relatively privileged upbringing compared to most of the new recruits at the Wall. Jon seems to look down on many of his fellow new recruits initially. They are crass, unskilled at swordfighting, and many are of questionable integrity. Jon shows them no mercy as Thorne sends the boys up against him, and his resounding victory seems to confirm to him that he is better than them. But when Noye tells Jon about their lives and backgrounds, Jon understands that he has had several advantages the other new recruits have not. Though he never felt fully part of the Stark family, he was nonetheless raised as a Stark, always being fed and cared for and receiving an education and training in swordfighting. Consequently, Jon's attitude toward the other new recruits changes drastically, and he determines to try to help them rather than diminish them.
Bran’s mysterious dream implies that he has some prophetic ability, and it also foreshadows what may come in the future. In his dream, Bran peers down from the sky and sees things he could not possibly know about. The reader knows that Sansa and Arya have been fighting, but Bran was in Winterfell while the skirmish on the Trident took place. He also sees Catelyn looking at a bloody knife, a reference to the attempt on his life that left her hands cut up, but Bran was still in his coma during the attack. He also dreams of things that haven't happened in the story up until now. He sees Ser Rodrik seasick on a ship, and he looks east to Vaes Dothrak and sees dragons. Most ominously, he looks north past the Wall and feels an intense fear. These images suggest what is to come, though exactly what shape these events will take remains vague.
Please wait while we process your payment