A Ruin of Roses
47 pages • 1-hour read
K.F. BreeneA Ruin of Roses
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, sexual content, and emotional abuse.
Everlass
Everlass is the plant at the heart of the curse—a symbol for Finley and Nyfain’s pasts and for their developing romantic relationship. Finley and Nyfain have each gained knowledge of the everlass’s healing properties—Finley through trial and Nyfain through passed-down knowledge. They both begin the story with a working understanding of how the plant could aid them against the demons, and this shared knowledge is the catalyst that brings them together. Nyfain’s care for the everlass makes Finley realize there is more to him than angry brooding, and Finley’s dedication to learning the plant’s secrets lets Nyfain see her as more than a commoner. Combined, their determination to unearth the everlass’s secrets leads them to respect other, and this respect turns toward romance as their physical desires strengthen. Alluding to the original Beauty and the Beast story, the everlass is also representative of the rose at the center of the main couple’s romance.
Individually, Finley and Nyfain also reveal their backstories through their relationships with the everlass. For Finley, the plant is a symbol of hope because it has allowed her to manufacture a potion that slows the effects of the curse’s illness. Thus, Finley’s determination is directly related to her willingness to try new things, and her confidence has been bolstered by her success with the everlass. For Nyfain, the plant is a reminder of his mother—the one positive thing from his past. Nyfain found joy and calm in tending the plants with his mother, something his father frowned on. Thus, the plant also represents the guilt Nyfain carries both for not being able to save his mother and for disappointing his father. Even with his father’s disappointment still weighing on him, though, Nyfain refuses to give up his relationship with the everlass, insisting on defining his own fate and staying true to himself. Learning that Finley also understands the everlass draws Nyfain to her because he can pursue something he enjoys (tending the plants) with her. This further informs Nyfain’s confused emotions toward Finley because while he wants to be with her, she is also a reminder of his mother and the love he lost when she died.
The Curse
The curse is the fantasy element around which A Ruin of Roses rotates and a symbol of The Importance of Resilience. In keeping with past versions of Beauty and the Beast, the curse in A Ruin of Roses both keeps the main couple apart and pulls them together. Since Nyfain blames himself for the curse’s existence, he distances himself from his people, not wanting them to learn how badly their prince has failed them. When he meets Finley, he begins to have hope for the first time. Seeing such strength from a commoner makes Nyfain feel guilty that he has not found a solution. This guilt inspires him to try harder. Still, Nyfain grapples with the guilt of his past and the weight of his responsibility, and this internal struggle keeps him from fully changing his outlook. While he wants to set his kingdom free, he has been trapped in an unchanging world for so long that he has forgotten what it is like to await the future and see what it will bring. By the time of the story, he believes there is no way to defeat the demons and the curse, making the curse a representation of the difficulty of cultivating resilience without hope.
Most of the story focuses on how the curse affects the people of the kingdom, but through the changes in the Forbidden Wood, the curse also becomes a symbol of how poor leadership brings about suffering. While the details of the deal the king made are never explained, it is made clear that the king made the deal out of greed for power. Since it is well known in the story world that deals with demons never end well, this suggests the king knew he was dooming his kingdom to suffer but that he made the deal anyway because his desires were more important. Thus, the curse is the result of a bad leader making a poor decision and not caring about the consequences. In addition to all the ways this harms the people of the kingdom, the curse is also slowly poisoning the land, and the condition of the Forbidden Wood highlights the collateral damage of selfish leadership. With the slow decay of the forest environment comes the slow death of all the life forms who rely on the forest for shelter and food. This may be compared to the effect of poor decision-making on forces like global warming, making A Ruin of Roses a symbol for the destruction inherent in greed.
Demons
The demons are the main antagonists of A Ruin of Roses, and they represent The Importance of Resilience by demonstrating what happens when resilience is not cultivated. For the people of the village, the demons are not a daily threat. While demons visit at night, they are restricted to public spaces and can enter private spaces only when invited. As a result, the villagers have an advantage over the castle denizens in that they can choose not to be involved with the demons. Since the villagers continue to live their lives, they can see hope for a world beyond the demons, even if they do not know whether such a reality will ever materialize. By contrast, the people in the castle have been trapped in time, making them feel that change is impossible. They more easily give into demon influence because the demons feel inevitable and unstoppable. In the case of people like Hadriel, this capitulation leads to a loop of self-loathing as he realizes he should do better, fails to do better, and then falls back into the trap of being used by the demons. Hadriel’s failure to cultivate resilience means he lets the demons control how he feels about himself, highlighting how a lack of resilience lets the demons dominate the shifters.
The demons also represent how stagnation leads to ruin. From Hadriel’s comments to Finley throughout the book, it is clear that he and others in the castle enjoyed sexual escapades prior to the curse and the demons seizing control. Since the demons at the castle feed off sexual energy and gratification, they encourage such activities to increase their power. While this benefits the demons, it harms the people trapped under demonic influence, symbolizing how once pleasurable activities can be turned into instruments of unhappiness. The demons also eliminate anyone who exhibits talent as a way to ensure the people of the castle can’t mount an offensive against demon control. The one exception to this is for people like Leala who find pleasure in the demons’ preferred kinks. The demons allow such people to live because they can exact control over them—giving them what they want in exchange for compliance. This is yet another form of stagnation because getting what she wants makes Leala unwilling to defy the demons. Thus, whether through demoralization or pleasure, the demons represent how stagnation leads to apathy and how apathy then allows them to maintain control.
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