Trust in The Queen Attolia

Mar 6, 2018

Trust is a theme that we have found in many of our past books, the one that comes to mind is A Wrinkle in Time. This theme also persists in The Queen of Attolia, specifically in who the two queens can and cannot trust. The presence or lack of trust allows for the Queens to act in different ways, bending to the public will and changing the narrative of their countries. Eddis has it more comfortable than Attolia because more of the members of her council are loyal to her. This is partly because those that are in her cabinet are family members, or are somehow related to the Queen. When determining what to do, Eddis has sage council before making decisions, and therefore she can see a situation through multiple points of views. For Attolia things are not so easy.

Attolia has many members of her council who are trying to get her evicted from the throne and conspiring with her enemies to do so. Because there is no trust between her and her council members she has to make decisions without others opinions and be harsher than Eddis when making said decisions. Specifically, Attolia goes out to find a nurse that once served her, and was reminded that she can trust no one (p. 205). The nurse states that there had been gentleman earlier to her farm asking for her children on behalf of the Queen, but the Queen did not send them. The nurse points out that even if she left with Attolia, there is no way to protect her family and therefore the nurse could not be trusted.

With the emphasis on trust in this and previous novels, it is interesting to think of the messages that we send to the children who read the books. As it is, this novel seems to show that trust is something that can only be found in family members, or in lifelong friends. Even people who work for you cannot be trusted in some cases. I am interested in looking at this more in class with all of you.

5 responses to “Trust in The Queen Attolia”

kaitlynegp

March 9, 2018 at 5:22 pm

This is well said, good job!

However, I disagree that the message is that you can only trust family or lifelong friends. I feel like there are multiple messages on trust that often conflict; Attolia demonstrates the inability to trust politicians/nobles/etc, while Eddis demonstrates the ability to trust family and court members (as many of the court members we interact with are family, though not all), which goes along with what you depict. However, the trust Eddis and Attolia have in one another – trust that readers don’t expect, but makes sense in a way – demonstrates a trust that is not between family or close friends. Attolia trusts in the plans and politics with Eddis and Eugenides when the implications of the former acts of the novel shows that she shouldn’t trust them.

One other message about trust that is one of the more evident is the inability to trust in the gods; in a polytheistic world with gods akin to the greek gods, trickery and chaos is fairly expected. But the gods visibly use the mortals for their own desires, so while they are trusted to an extent, the message is to be wary because they are not entirely trustworthy.

I believe you hit on a good point and an important theme of this novel. I just believe the messages on trust are a bit more expanded than you can only trust family and close friends.

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mahinasmith

March 9, 2018 at 6:38 pm

I really liked your post! I thought it was very well thought out and well said.

Personally, I think that the message has to do with relying on yourself rather than mistrusting others. For example, Eugenides relied too heavily on the gods who abandoned him in the end. Showing he should have relied more on himself rather than on the gods. But, there is such a thing as relying on yourself too much. Attolia has to learn to accept Eugenides at his word when he says he loves her. In the end, she trusts him to at least some extent because she agrees to marry him when that was not completely necessary for the treaty.

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1. zaffiroe
  
  March 10, 2018 at 6:07 pm
  
  I really like your perspective on trust versus relying on others, though I do really believe that the two go hand in hand. I would love to expand on this more with you in class!
  
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allisonrayco

March 10, 2018 at 3:38 pm

Because the queens are, as you point out, involved with their councils and countries in very different ways, I therefore found it really interesting that they liked each other so much at the end. While the majority of the novel does, as you say, inspire a very limited view of trust, I feel like the end brings this idea into question a little bit. While they might not trust each other per say, I feel like the sequel could head in that direction, and I would be interested to find out if it does.

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1. zaffiroe
  
  March 10, 2018 at 6:06 pm
  
  It would definitly be interesting to see what the future novels have to say about trust, especially between the Queens.
  
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