payment page
In Rebeca Yarros’s novel Fourth Wing, protagonist Violet Sorrengail embarks on a journey troubled by powerful, conflicting forces within her and outside of her: quite apart from the war she’s been signed up to fight in, Violet is also split between her most deep-seated desires, her sacrifices in pursuit of power, and her urge to resist what feels like her inevitable fate. As she navigates the brutal day-to-day of Basgiath War College, where survival often depends on a delicate balance of skill and luck, she’s constantly confronted with the pull between her personal aspirations and wants, and the constraints imposed by her world. Violet doesn’t want to be a rider, doesn’t want to be in love with Xaden, and doesn’t want to have to uphold the heavy weight of the grim Sorrengail legacy. However, she soon finds herself doing all three.
The theme of sacrifice in Fourth Wing primarily centers on Violet’s pursuit of power, as she learns that nothing comes for free in a world at war and she must adapt to survive. The stakes of power, whether magic, love, or influence for Violet, go beyond survival or glory. She has her family’s legacy and her dragons’ pride to uphold. Staying loyal to the Navarrian regime and to her mother’s lessons also often forces her to make compromises that leave her unsatisfied.
Even the most internal of conflicts is characterized by this exchange. For instance, her commitment to surviving the Parapet and mastering the Gauntlet forces her to sacrifice her softer, more scholarly identity for that of a hardened warrior. Her alliance with Andarna and Tairn is another turning point, as she can never give up being a rider once they have passed on their relics to her. Even learning to use her signet forces Violet to confront sacrifice; she kills Jack with her lightning, and loses her innocence in the process. These sacrifices also reveal the psychological toll of power. Violet constantly battles internal and external pressures to meet Basgiath’s increasingly high expectations and requirements. Her decision to wield Andarna’s time-freezing ability in battle, despite the dangers to both herself and her younger dragon, underscore the lengths she must go to protect those she cares about. Each choice Violet makes feels more desperate than the last.
Many of Violet’s actions are driven by desire. Violet’s relationship to her sexuality mirrors her relationship to everything else in her life that she considers fundamental to herself. There are things that Violet wants, and from an early stage in the book it becomes clear that she’ll risk a great deal in order to get them. Throughout the novel, Violet wrestles with her attraction to Xaden. She starts her time at Basgiath knowing that he wants to kill her, but by the end of the novel the characters are telepathically bonded in an irreversible and lifelong way. It’s strongly implied that the more she knows about Xaden, the more attracted she is to him. Like any Scribe, she’s interested in more than just his chiseled body. She gains intimacy and comfort with people and things by learning as much as she can about them.
This relationship between desire and knowledge is part of her deeper desire for connection and understanding. Basgiath often demands isolation and suspicion for survival. Violet knows she can’t love fully without trusting fully, and so she has to feel out Xaden’s motives as far as she can, as fast as she can. It’s part of what makes his surprise betrayal of Navarre so shocking in the final chapters; she believed she knew him better than anyone else, but it turned out to be the limits of her own understanding that let her down. The intensity of Violet’s desire also challenges her self-control and forces her to confront her vulnerabilities, particularly as her relationship with Xaden grows. She learns that yielding to desire can sometimes reveal truths about oneself, but it also often exposes weaknesses that others might exploit.
Both characters push against fate—Xaden, by rejecting the expectation that he must remain distant or vengeful toward Violet due to their families’ histories, and Violet, by refusing to let her future be dictated by others, whether it be her mother, Mira, or Dain. The link between their dragons further binds Xaden and Violet, making avoidance impossible and forcing them to confront their emotions. Violet’s development as a rider involves not only honing her combat skills and learning to channel power, but also deciding who she wants to be in the face of adversity and temptation. Although the journey isn’t without struggle, she challenges those around her and refuses to yield to a predetermined path, defining her own fate and claiming her own strength.
Violet’s ongoing battle between accepting her fate and forging her own path is also deeply tied to both her struggles with desire and the requirements power exacts. From the outset, Violet’s life appears predetermined: her mother’s status as a high-ranking officer in Basgiath’s hierarchy and her family’s legacy imply a future of military duty and family obligation. Although Violet initially resists the idea of becoming a rider, her experiences at Basgiath and the harsh training environment ultimately force her to confront the possibility that her future might be shaped by forces beyond her control.
This struggle with fate takes on a symbolic dimension through Violet’s bond with her dragons, Tairn and Andarna. While bonding with dragons and gaining the ability to wield magic is a rare privilege, it also comes with a lifetime of expectations and responsibilities. Rather than become a soldier-puppet of Navarre and bowing to Tairn’s age and wisdom, however, she asserts her agency even as she grows into her role. Violet’s relationship with her mother also reinforces the theme of fate versus self-determination. At the beginning of the novel Violet constantly navigates her mother’s expectations and pushes aside her own aspirations. Her mother’s strict, chilly influence, unbending discipline and high standards all feel painfully burdensome. Yet, as Violet progresses through Basgiath’s trials, she recognizes that her mother’s demands have, in some ways, prepared her for the challenges she faces. Despite this realization, Violet ends the novel knowing that real strength lies in her ability to determine her own path. If Navarre’s military is acting immorally, she cannot remain a part of it, even if it means deviating from her family’s legacy. Violet’s gradual progression from childish ex-Scribe to empowered rider is a story of self-discovery, as she learns to balance her desires with the demands of her world, and to redefine her sense of agency over and over again as the path ahead of her changes.
