A Game of Thrones

Ancestry and family lineage is another critical theme that makes up the framework of the whole Song of Ice and Fire series, and it is informed by rigidly gendered expectations. Family ties motivate nearly every major move in A Game of Thrones: Cersei Lannister and Jamie Lannister use incestuous Targaryen traditions to justify their affair and solidify the Lannister claim to the Iron Throne. The Lannisters are a notoriously proud house, but their motivation to bring honor and power to their family line is not unique. Robb’s war with the Lannisters is motivated by family insult, and Jon nearly betrays his vows because of the importance of family to his personal sense of honor. Though she never knew her homeland, Daenerys’s bloodline defines her sense of identity and becomes her primary source of self-esteem. In times of conflict, Daenerys’s inner dialogue shows that she calls on the strength of her ancestors: “I am blood of the dragon, she told herself. I am Daenerys Stormborn, Princess of Dragonstone, of the blood and seed of Aegon the Conqueror” (111). Her sole objective is to return to Westeros to reclaim the Iron Throne despite never knowing anyone in her family besides her cruel older brother. Through Daenerys, Martin explores the relationship between power and entitlement that is inherent in primogeniture—the tradition of inheritance by the firstborn child—and feudal class systems that imply the wealthy nobility have inherent superiority over the people who live and work on their lands. The complex, and often compromised, morality of Martin’s “high-born” characters suggests that their privileges are culturally perpetuated by wealth and social expectations, and not due to objective superiority. This idea is emphasized in the Hound’s refusal to swear a knight’s oath; he recognizes the social performance of virtue does not match reality.

Arya and Sansa Stark are presented as competing models for gender expectations within noble families in the Seven Kingdoms. Arya does not enjoy activities traditionally associated with women in the Seven Kingdoms and wants to learn how to fight. Arya is able to defy patriarchal gender expectations through her family connections but she must do so away from public scrutiny. In contrast, Sansa Stark adheres to social expectations. She reveres Queen Cersei and works hard at all the activities that Arya resents. Whereas Arya learns to defy gender expectations, Sansa learns to weaponize them. Sansa learns to lie, flatter, and dissociate from her traumatic experiences, enduring her betrothal to the prince who killed her father. Both Stark girls are quite different in their relationship to gender expectations, but they are similar in the way that they wish to fight back against the people who have hurt their family. Similarly, Daenerys slowly recognizes that she is a more capable leader than her brother, whose claim to the Iron Throne over her is based only in his gender and birth order; she simultaneously subverts gender expectations while perpetuating the prominence of ancestry in Westeros.

Gender expectations within family lineages also apply to men. Robb Stark becomes the lord of Winterfell after Ned’s death of his father and, even before then, he is expected to defend the honor of his house. Though he is still a teenager, he leads the north to war because this is what is expected of men in the Seven Kingdoms. Catelyn teaches Robb how to navigate this difficult period, ironically defying gender expectations again by teaching her son how to be a man. Martin’s investigation of ancestral lineage in a patriarchal society interrogates the assumed power of men by subtly recognizing the equal intelligence and capabilities of women.