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Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. Competing Desires
As Violet fights to survive in a world that suddenly wants to murder her on multiple fronts, she constantly faces choices that pit her own desires against the demands of survival or her personal morals. Her yearning for autonomy and growth conflicts with the rigid expectations that being a rider, and a Sorrengail, entail. At the beginning of the novel, she desires nothing more than to live a quiet, dignified life as a Scribe. While she continues to feel a pull toward the life she might have had outside the Riders Quadrant, it lessens over time. Rather than consuming her, this struggle ebbs away as her experiences and her love for Tairn, Andarna, and later Xaden compel her to confront what she truly wants.
This first battle with desire also seems comparatively feeble when compared to the all-consuming, mind-erasing sexual desire she feels for Xaden as their relationship begins to develop. Violet struggles with this throughout the novel, as she can’t stop wanting him, but initially can’t trust him, as she knows he’s sworn to kill her as soon as he can. When Violet bonds with her dragons, she and Xaden become psychically linked through Tairn and Sgaeyl. When this happens, Xaden goes from being metaphorically on her mind to quite literally in her mind. The line between their physical bodies remains starkly drawn, but the one between their thoughts and feelings starts to blur. As if this weren’t enough, Violet and Xaden are also forced to weather the emotional and physical barrage of lust and intensity that happens whenever their bonded dragons choose to mate, which Tairn and Sgaeyl do regularly. Both Xaden and Violet know that they will eventually reach a breaking point in their sexual tension, but both push it to its limits, unwilling to admit any vulnerability. Violet cracks first, and Xaden continues to pretend that he can take or leave continued intimacy with Violet until it’s too late to deny it.
The personal desires of all of the cadets, dragons, professors and other denizens of Basgiath also often conflict with their responsibilities, particularly when it comes to building alliances or facing down adversaries. Each test forces the cadets of the war college to choose between their fear of failure and their desire to survive, their desire to flee and their determination to stand their ground. It quickly becomes clear that to become a rider is to learn to conquer one’s fears and overcome instinctual responses to all sorts of outward stimuli, whether emotional, sexual, or intellectual. The theme of reckoning with personal desires showcases Violet and Xaden’s struggle to reconcile who they are with who they might become, if they have the strength.
Choices and Sacrifices in the Pursuit of Power
The War College’s harsh environment demands that Violet constantly make choices and sacrifices to first survive, and then advance. Every benefit or advantage in Fourth Wing comes with a sacrifice, forcing characters to choose between what they know and what they hope to get. Any path to power is paved with difficult decisions that frequently require Violet and Xaden to give up parts of themselves. For example, Violet has to give up her dream of becoming a Scribe to become a rider. She has to give up her personal safety in order to learn magic, learn to fight, and learn to fly on Tairn. She has to compromise her principles and then her privacy to succeed at cadet challenges and to develop a relationship with her dragons and with Xaden. Violet faces all these challenges as she weighs the cost of survival and success against her personal ethics. Unlike some of her peers who pursue power at all costs, Violet desperately questions whether each sacrifice aligns with her values and goals. This tension defines her growth, as she learns that all power requires compromise. It also makes her wonder about how her mother Lilith gained all the power she holds, and what she sacrificed to achieve it.
As Violet builds her skills, she must also evaluate the loyalty and trustworthiness of those around her. Allies sometimes pose just as much risk as enemies, and Violet learns that winning power or overcoming an obstacle often entails deciding whom to trust and when. This constant need for sacrifices and choices is part of the novel’s exploration of power as a double-edged sword. Influencing people and building a reputation is necessary for survival, but in wartime Navarre survival depends on constantly picking a side. This particular dichotomy becomes clearer and clearer as the novel progresses, and it is the major power behind its plot engine by Fourth Wing’s final chapters.
Accepting Fate vs. Forging a New Path
Violet’s journey in Fourth Wing is both clearly aligned with classical ideas of predestination and fundamentally one that rejects accepting fate. From the beginning, Violet struggles to accept the “fate” that her mother has chosen for her. She pushes against becoming a rider, and then when she discovers that it makes her happy, she pushes against all of the limitations which should have guaranteed she would fail or die. Born into Navarre’s most prestigious military family, the Sorrengail name comes with unshakable expectations of strength and valor. Violet feels immense pressure to conform to the path laid out by her mother, her sister Mira, and her brother Brennan. Initially, she lacks both the desire and the physical strength to thrive in a warrior’s world. It’s implied, though, that part of what drives her to succeed is the sense that she must prove herself worthy, and so prove everyone else wrong. Each choice Violet makes defines her refusal to accept a predetermined fate. Every time she refuses to die, flee, or quit, she reasserts her agency over the events of her life. Other characters follow similar paths; for example, the paths Xaden and the other marked cadets follow diverge wildly from those they had planned before Violet arrived. Violet’s presence is a catalyst for change, forcing even ancient creatures like Tairn to re-examine their priorities and choose to do what they think is right.
