A Court of Frost and Starlight

This section reveals continued rising action for Feyre, Nesta, Cassian, Elain, and Lucien. Some of these conflicts do not resolve themselves in A Court of Frost and Starlight, but the novel sets the stage for these conflicts, revealing the increasing tension between and within the characters struggling with their emotional burdens. While each character moves toward healing, the tension between Nesta, her sisters, and Cassian only takes a small step toward resolution, as Nesta hates her new fae form and her destined partner, Cassian. This section also shows the long-awaited Winter Solstice, highlighting The Importance of Tradition for Community.

Feyre’s inner conflict gains narrative momentum as she takes another step toward artistic expression and the ways it can help with Healing After Trauma and Loss. She is pushed further toward her art by a secondary but even more impactful inciting incident: meeting the weaver of the Void tapestry and hearing her story of needing to practice her art after great loss. Feyre finally paints “all that rose within [her], letting the past bleed onto the canvas, a blessed relief with each stroke of [her] brush” (135). With these paintings, she finds further release while also tapping into her care and love for her friends since the paintings are of meaningful moments for Mor, Cassian, and Azriel. Feyre also discovers a new possibility for her purpose moving forward when she begins to plan to help others heal through art, too. She asks Rhys, “Do you think it’s stupid to wonder if painting might help others, too? Not my painting, I mean. But teaching others to paint. Letting them paint. People who might struggle the same way I do” (138). Though Feyre puts the idea aside because of finances, Rhys’s encouragement helps the seed take root, pushing her to do something that is for both herself and others.

Meeting the weaver also triggers an important revelation for Feyre, which she reveals near the end of the novel: the decision to try for children earlier than she and Rhys had agreed. This is yet another moment of Feyre leaning into The Power of Love and Friendship in Overcoming Adversity, as she recognizes how happy Rhys makes her and how much she wants to bring more love into the world to celebrate the fact that they are lucky enough to have survived. The weaver and her husband were not so lucky, and learning of the loss hurts Feyre while also inspiring her to seize the time she has with Rhys. The Winter Solstice, she realizes, is a chance to celebrate being together: “The impossible depth of blackness before me, the unlikely defiance of Hope shining through it, whispered the truth before I knew it. Before I knew what I wanted to give Rhys” (133-34). She fully recognizes this silent decision when she makes a wish over her birthday cake: “I truly knew what I wanted to wish for, as if it were a piece of Amren’s puzzle clicking into place” (176). These are pivotal moments for Feyre, who spent most years fighting for her life, both in the human and fae worlds, and dreaming only of time and money enough to paint rather than a life of romantic love and happiness. Feyre’s encounter with the weaver moves her on artistic and human levels, restoring much of what was lost during her years of struggling, particularly in the war.

Another element of Feyre’s healing after trauma and loss also relates to the importance of tradition for community. She struggles with the idea of spending money since she had to help her family survive after they lost everything. To her, shopping—even for loved ones—feels decadent and selfish, especially when others are still wounded or unhoused. After having scraped and done everything she could just to survive, and with many in the city not scraping by at all, “peering into window displays and running [her] fingers over various goods grate[s] against [her] nerves” (129). Elain’s words about the value of tradition and how much the Winter Solstice means to the fae helps Feyre reconcile her own fears and pains with the reality and values of her new life. Feyre now understands what the Winter Solstice represents as an act of renewal, celebration, and love as they all try to repair their post-war world.

The confrontation between Feyre and Lucien is important for both the sense of increasing tension between the two and the even greater tension between Elain and Lucien. Lucien’s words remind Feyre that not only is she hurt and emotionally compromised, but she has also hurt and emotionally compromised someone else: Tamlin. Tamlin hurt Feyre deeply, but Lucien points out that Feyre was vicious in her manner of seeking retribution, and she dragged Lucien into it without his consent, exiling the two friends from each other and leaving Tamlin completely alone and Lucien with only two human friends for company. Feyre realizes that the blame for Tamlin’s renunciation of Lucien “[i]s not on Tamlin’s shoulders alone. [She]’d created that rift. Ripped it apart with [her] own two hands” (165). Even as Feyre must heal from the ways Tamlin treated her and from the horrors of the war, she must also learn to accept her responsibility for some of the events of the past year. Lucien’s conversation with Feyre foreshadows that Feyre and Rhys will need to forgive Tamlin for his own healing journey to begin.