64 pages • 2 hours read
Carissa BroadbentThe Serpent and the Wings of Night
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Complexity of Love
Content Warning: This section of the guide features discussions of flashbacks of rape and emotional abuse.
The genuine and unconditional nature of the love that Raihn and Ilana have for Oraya highlights the issues prevalent within the love that Vincent shows, namely the emotional abuse that he inflicts upon her. Until Ilana and Raihn come into Oraya’s life, Vincent’s love is the only “safe” love she’s ever known; it is through their love that Oraya realizes how harmful Vincent’s love actually is. He wants her to win the Kejari because “it was the only way to turn [Oraya] into something acceptable for him to love” (380). Vincent’s love might be real, but it’s conditional.
Emotional abuse occurs when a person uses words and emotions to gain power and control over another. Though Vincent loves his daughter, his fear for her safety and his ingrained bias toward the human species leads him to convey his love in unhealthy, destructive ways. By attempting to keep her safe and protected, Vincent does not intend to harm Oraya in any deep, painful, or lasting ways. This is proven by his rare moments of kindness and his final proclamation of love before he succumbs to death. However, his behavior—physical, verbal, and emotional—used in pursuit of that aim is intentional and abusive.
The novel does not condone emotional abuse; instead, it portrays the complexities of such abuse and the emotional confusion that occurs in its targets. The way Vincent protects Oraya, through exaggerated warnings and complete isolation from others, fosters her unhealthy degree of loyalty toward him. The intensity of it leads her to believe that she “owed everything that [she] was to Vincent” (124). This false belief that she owes him an unattainable life-debt means that she allows him to treat her unjustly. Vincent further displays his inability to love in healthy ways when Oraya admits that he “hide[s] love in sharp edges” (20), and communicates his love “coated in death” (71). He never apologizes to Oraya for anything nor voices his love aloud, which is why she learns to hear it in what he doesn’t say. This is why she finds Raihn’s compliments uncomfortable, and why she finds her growing attraction to him embarrassing.
When Vincent makes cruel decisions to keep the throne, Oraya struggles with separating the idea of her father from the version of him that is the Nightborn King. She recognizes that “[her] love made everything complicated and difficult” (422). In the end, Oraya is more than aware of Vincent’s faults, yet she still harbors love for him because of their father-daughter relationship.
The Power of Fear
Oraya views fear as a weakness. Vincent has always taught her to contain her fear, because it accelerates her heart rate, which attracts vampires’ attention. During the Kejari, Oraya realizes that “[f]ear is a doorway to anger; and anger is a doorway to power” (432). Through witnessing the horrific slaughter of humans at the hands of vampires, Oraya’s fear turns to anger, which fuels her power. When Oraya’s magic begins to present itself, she is initially unable to draw on it. Mische reveals that Oraya’s lack of control stems from a mutual fear between her and her magic that she must conquer and subject to her will. It is not until she’s in danger during a trial, “trapped by [her] own fear, trapped by […] monsters” (263), that Oraya is able to intentionally weaponize her fear and draw forth her inner power. In that moment, Oraya’s fear becomes rage, which she’s able to draw on for her Nightfire.
Two centuries prior, Vincent slaughtered every other possible Heir to the throne, both Hiaj and Rishan, for the power to rule unchallenged. He later admits to Oraya that the reason he did so was because he fears an insignificant existence. The words resonate with her deeply, “[b]ecause what existence was more insignificant than this? Living in constant fear, hobbled by [her] own blood and [her] own human weakness?” (35). Oraya’s own fear of an insignificant existence—and her fear of a life spent living in fear—gives her the power, through strength and motivation, that she needs to enter the Kejari and win.
While fear can often be a source of inner power, it can also be used to obtain power over others. Oraya is Vincent’s biological daughter and therefore his Heir. Vincent’s love for her prohibits him from having the callousness of heart to let her die, and because of this, he lives in fear of both her mortality and her decisions—for each decision could bring him closer to his own demise. This fear gives Oraya power over him—power she ultimately uses, however unintentionally, to bring about his death. Vincent’s ruthlessness is how he’s been able to control the throne for over 200 years, by cultivating fear among his followers.
How Intense Loyalty Erodes Identity
Much of Oraya’s internal conflict is attributed to her inability to balance her loyalty to Vincent with her loyalty to herself. Oraya’s loyalty to Vincent is all-consuming, leading to a self-induced servitude and form of identity fusion. Every insult against Vincent is seen as an insult to herself, and every act of defiance against him is followed by intense guilt and various behaviors designed as self-punishment. When Raihn calls Vincent a monster after his brutal decimation of Salinae, Oraya “jump[s] to his defense,” perceiving an attack against Vincent as an attack against herself (373). Oraya’s undying loyalty to Vincent is due to the life debt she’s convinced she owes him because he saved her from the ruins of Salinae and raised her as his own.
Oraya grew up hearing Vincent’s clear instructions about relying only on him for love and trust: “Vincent had carved these lessons into [her]. Never trust. Never yield. Always guard your heart. And when [she] had disobeyed, [she] had paid for it dearly” (23). At 17, Oraya disobeys Vincent’s orders by falling in love with a young vampire man, who loses control of his bloodlust and almost kills her. The experience solidifies her loyalty to Vincent more than ever. Despite everything Vincent has done and said to ensure Oraya relies on and trusts in him and only him, Oraya’s desire for identity cannot be entirely extinguished. Oraya admits early on that “[t]here were a lot of things Vincent didn’t know. Parts of [her]self that didn’t line up with his vision for who [she] was” (15). Her friendship with Ilana is a direct defiance of Vincent’s control. While he instructs Oraya that she should trust no one and should love no one but him—because love and trust can only put her life in danger—Oraya pursues the friendship anyway. It is Ilana who stokes the flames by urging Oraya to seek out her desires and to form her identity outside of Vincent. At first, Oraya cannot articulate her desires, because “[I]t made [her] feel […] stupid. Childish“ (36). It is through Raihn’s love for Oraya that she begins to see beyond Vincent’s distorted view of reality.
Throughout the novel, Oraya lacks a sense of her own identity. She acknowledges that her life has required her to be multiple “contradictory things” at the same time, and she describes her resulting talent for compartmentalizing the different aspects of herself in order to survive. Ultimately, however, restraining and diminishing herself to please her father is not a satisfying way to live, and Oraya finds comfort and validation in the fact that Raihn defines her “by something other than [her] relationship to Vincent” (316). Being called Vincent’s “pet” has never bothered her before, but once she begins to lean into her own desires and form her own identity, she realizes how good it feels to escape that role.
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By Carissa Broadbent
