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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Redemption
Throughout the novel, several characters who appear, at first, to be villains reveal hidden depths and make surprising, even heroic, decisions. The novel showcases many examples of redemption, suggesting that an individual can always choose to do good even if they have made mistakes or committed wrongs in the past. Jurian, for example, is widely believed to be working with Hybern in order to pursue revenge against his former lover Miryam and her lover Prince Drakon. Because of his own centuries-long captivity by the villainous Amarantha, even Jurian’s former friends assume that he has gone mad. Nevertheless, he reveals that he has been working against Hybern the whole time, using his supposed desire for revenge as a mere pretense to hide his true motive: to save humanity from Hybern. After the final battle with Hybern, he is able to begin the process of making amends to Miryam and Drakon, pointing to the possibility of his redemption.
Tamlin, too, surprises Feyre by joining the other High Lords against Hybern despite his apparent alliance with the King of Hybern. Because of her own painful past with Tamlin, Feyre found it easy to believe the worst of him, and she undermines his power in the Spring Court on the assumption that Tamlin has sold out Prythian to Hybern as a result of his own insecurities and possessive attitudes. Though he does indeed resent Feyre for leaving him for Rhysand, he nevertheless reveals that he has been working as a double-agent. Later, Feyre again questions Tamlin’s motives, but he risks his life and exposes his true allegiances to Hybern in order to save her when she infiltrates the Hybern army camp, reflecting both his ongoing feelings of love for Feyre, as well as his personal courage and bravery. Most surprisingly of all, he agrees to contribute his power to the High Lords’ successful attempt to revive Rhysand, despite his deep feelings of animosity for him. By helping Rhysand, a man whom he regards as a bitter enemy and rival, Tamlin shows that he has the potential to redeem himself, despite his troubled past. In the end of the novel, Feyre wishes Tamlin the best, despite acknowledging that he has more work to do to overcome his temper and need for control. Through its depiction of characters such as Jurian and Tamlin, the novel suggests that redemption is always possible to those willing to change.
War
From the prequel to the final chapters, this novel is marked by scenes of war. The long, bloody war fought centuries earlier hangs like a shadow over the events of this novel, as Prythian prepares to return to war with Hybern in order to prevent the King of Hybern from subjugating both humans and faeries in his thirst for power. Though Feyre has fought difficult battles against dangerous enemies in the past, she has little experience of open warfare. When Hybern attacks the Summer Court, she sees war for the first time. Shocked by the scenes of violence and depravity, Feyre comes to feel that there is little “glory” in war. She and Mor struggle to protect civilians from the cruelty of Hybern’s troops, and in the heat of battle she indulges in violence herself, killing and even torturing soldiers from the invading army. Previously, she believed that war was orderly: two opposing troops meeting on a level battlefield. The battle in the Summer Court, however, forces her to confront the chaos of war. Later on, as she watches the Illyrian troops engage Hybern in battle, she realizes that, despite her dedication to their joint cause, she is not yet ready to participate in warfare directly. This novel presents war as an ugly, violent, and psychologically demanding affair, with little romance or glory.
Sexual and Gendered Violence
Male violence marks the lives of many of the female characters of A Court of Wings and Ruin. After suffering under the explosive temper and controlling behavior of Tamlin, Feyre is rescued by Mor, who takes her to Velaris for a chance at a new life. Mor is particularly attentive to the plight of female faeries, having previously been tortured by her own family after she lost her virginity to Cassian, thereby sabotaging her engagement to Eris, heir to the Autumn Court. Viewing Mor as little more than a bargaining chip in the contest of power between the courts, her family dumped her in the Autumn Court with a note nailed to her belly, proclaiming that she was now Eris’s problem. She was saved by Azriel, who brought her to Velaris, a place of sanctuary for many, especially females, who have been subject to violence and injustice in the outside world. Though Rhysand is a male, his own experience of sexual assault by Amarantha contributes to his motivation to establish Velaris as a place of refuge from violence.
Feyre learns that the various priestesses working in the library have been victims of violence by men. Clotho, for example, was brutally assaulted by a group of men who cut out her tongue and mutilated her hands in order to prevent her from identifying her attackers. Nevertheless, Rhysand uses his own psychic powers to examine Clotho’s memories, identify the assailants, and execute them remorselessly. Though sexual violence might be, unfortunately, prevalent across Prythian, Rhysand categorizes it among the severest crimes. In the library, the priestesses are able to exert autonomy over their surroundings and begin the process of healing. Most examples of sexual violence in the novel are committed by males against females. Still, the novel also maintains that males can be victims, and females can be perpetrators. Ianthe, for example, disregards the consent of others, sexually assaulting a number of male faeries, including Lucien. Feyre is incensed after witnessing her attempted assault of Lucien, and she puts her own escape-plan on hold in order to punish Ianthe. Using her psychic powers, she commands Ianthe to smash her own hand with a rock, and to never touch a person without their consent ever again. Feyre’s choice here attests to the high value she places upon consent and her revulsion towards sexual violence.
