The Girl in the Tower
61 pages • 2-hour read
Katherine ArdenThe Girl in the Tower
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Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes gender discrimination and sexual harassment.
Defiance of Gender Roles in a Patriarchal Society
Katherine Arden’s The Girl in the Tower critiques the limited roles for women in medieval Russia by portraying defiance as necessary for survival and self-realization. Through Vasya’s journey, the novel suggests that societal gender constructs, presented as “natural,” are restrictive cages that must be dismantled for an individual to achieve freedom. Vasya’s decision to adopt a male identity is a necessity, the only viable path to escape the binary choice offered to women: the confinement of marriage or a convent, both of which give another figure complete authority over her. She reflects on her fate, realizing a woman either “married. Or she became a nun. Or she died. That was what being a woman meant” (52). By becoming the boy named Vasilii Petrovich, she carves out a fourth option, one defined by agency, mobility, and the right to shape her own destiny.
The contrast between Vasya’s life and her sister Olga’s illustrates the consequences of accepting versus defying these roles. Olga, a princess, wields power from within her lavish prison, the terem in which aristocratic women spend their lives, isolated only with other women. Her life is one of influence but also of confinement, a fate she accepts and prepares to pass down to her own daughter, Marya, seeing it as the surest path to safety for a woman. Vasya, meanwhile, earns renown and respect as Vasilii, a brave warrior and hero. She advises the Grand Prince and is celebrated by the people of Moscow, achieving a status unthinkable for a woman. This difference highlights that Vasya’s abilities are lauded as brave and commendable when she presents as a man. Her performance grants her access to a world of action and consequence, while Olga’s world is limited to reaction and endurance within prescribed boundaries.
The fragility of this performed identity is exposed when Kasyan reveals Vasya as a woman to all of Moscow. The respect she earned as Vasilii evaporates instantly, replaced by accusations of witchcraft and shame. The same actions that made the boy a hero render the girl evil and supernatural, deserving of immediate death. Dmitrii, who had formerly praised and admired her, turns on her with fury, demonstrating that her value was tied entirely to her male persona. Through this brutal unmasking, Arden argues that patriarchal systems do not reward competence in women, instead punishing any deviation from their assigned roles, regardless of skill and bravery. Vasya’s journey becomes a powerful assertion that true identity can only be realized when one actively challenges and rejects the limitations society imposes, staying true to oneself by whatever means available.
The Fading of the Old World in the Face of New Faith
The Girl in the Tower depicts the conflict between Slavic folklore and Orthodox Christianity as the tragic erosion of a magical, natural world by an institutionalized, human-centric faith. Rather than a simple battle of good versus evil, Arden portrays the decline of the old ways as a loss of the enchantment of the natural world, leaving it and humanity more vulnerable to human ambition and corruption. This fading is most visible in the weakening of the chyerti, or household spirits, within the burgeoning Christian stronghold of Moscow. Vasya, whose sight allows her to perceive the demons and spirits of the ancient world, observes that the city’s spirits are faint echoes of their wilder counterparts. The bannik in Olga’s bathhouse is described as a mere “living wisp,” a smoky, fragile being whose power is diminished by the constant ringing of church bells and the waning belief of the people he guards. This physical decline symbolizes the broader cultural shift in which ancient, nature-based beliefs are being systematically overwritten by organized religion.
The novel ties the existence of these spirits directly to human memory and belief, making their decline a consequence of humanity’s changing faith. Morozko, the winter king, explains to Vasya that even his power is not absolute, acknowledging that the chyerti weaken as the world turns away from them. He notes that “chyerti are not strong in Moscow, not anymore” (142), explicitly linking their fragility to the city’s religious fervor. This process is accelerated by figures like the priest Konstantin, whose zealous war against what he deems “demons” actively frightens people away from the old traditions. His crusade, though superficially rationalized as a spiritual venture, is a cultural erasure, severing the symbiotic relationship between humans and spirits. As the old world fades, so too does a layer of protection and balance, leaving humanity to face purely human threats.
Vasya herself becomes the last bridge between these two worlds. Her ability to see and interact with the chyerti sustains them, but she is an anomaly in a world that is rapidly forgetting its magic. Through her perspective, Arden suggests that the triumph of the new faith is not an unalloyed victory. The loss of the old spirits represents a world becoming smaller and less mysterious, a world where the void left by fading magic is filled not by divine grace but by the calculated and destructive ambitions of men.
Identity as Performance and a Tool for Power
In The Girl in the Tower, Katherine Arden explores identity as a dynamic state, a fluid and strategic performance in which characters adopt and discard personas to navigate a restrictive world. The novel demonstrates that power can be seized through the careful construction of a public self, blurring the line between deception and authentic identity.
Vasya’s journey is the clearest example of this theme. Forced to flee her home, she sheds the identity of Vasilisa Petrovna, a highborn daughter with limited options, and becomes Vasilii Petrovich, a brave and capable young man. This transformation is more than a simple disguise; it is the adoption of a new self that grants her access to freedom, respect, and agency. As she dons the clothes for her journey, she feels they belong not to her old self but to “someone else, someone more capable and more strange” (61), indicating an internal shift that accompanies the external performance. Her success as Vasilii the Brave proves that heroism and influence are products of a role convincingly played, and she is immediately rewarded for her performance through acceptance into the Grand Prince of Moscow’s court.
The use of performative identity extends beyond Vasya to the novel’s central antagonists, who wield it as a tool for political manipulation. The ancient sorcerer Kaschei the Deathless assumes the persona of Kasyan Lutovich, a loyal and charming boyar, which allows him to infiltrate the court of the Grand Prince Dmitrii. His performance is so convincing that, like Vasya, he earns Dmitrii’s trust and becomes a key advisor, positioning himself to seize power from within. Similarly, the Tatar lord Chelubey operates with a dual identity. He is both a polished ambassador representing the Golden Horde and the ruthless bandit leader terrorizing the Russian countryside. By deploying these two distinct personas, he simultaneously weakens Moscow through raids and manipulates its leadership through diplomacy, demonstrating the strategic power of shifting one’s identity to achieve desired results.
Ultimately, the novel suggests that in a society governed by rigid expectations, the ability to construct and perform an identity is a potent form of power. While Sasha’s lie to protect Vasya shows the moral compromises inherent in such deceptions, the successes of Vasya, Kasyan, and Chelubey reveal a world in which the most effective players are those who understand that identity is not fixed; it can be manipulated and changed according to circumstance. Arden portrays identity as a critical battleground where personal freedom and political power are won through daring and often dangerous performances.
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