The Heir Apparent

Jewelry serves as a motif associated with the monarchy throughout the novel. The most narratively and symbolically significant piece of jewelry is the crown; there is not a singular crown that the monarch wears constantly, but Lexi refers to the monarch’s role as “the crown.” For example, the crown stands in for The Burden of Legacy and Public Expectations as Lexi contemplates the monarchy’s various misdeeds and concludes that the crown “should be quietly tossed into a city dumpster like a murder weapon. It had turned siblings against each other, triggered wars, broken up marriages, enslaved millions, destroyed civilisations” (142). Lexi then questions, “What did it say about me that I would now consider bearing its weight?” (142). Lexi’s stated desire to be rid of the literal crown strongly implies a belief that the monarchy itself should be abolished, though she begins to “consider” wearing the crown and becoming monarch in the wake of her brother and father’s deaths.

Jewelry appears in other places in the narrative. Lexi, Amira, Demelza, and Birdie all wear tiaras to the Bahamian state dinner, and Lexi refers to these as “sparkly playthings.” Her word choice pokes fun at Demelza and Birdie as they squabble with the palace over their right to wear a tiara alongside Lexi, but it also makes a broader point about the monarchy’s ornamental status in contemporary society and the way that status encourages petty, childish behavior. Isla’s ring is also an important and symbolic piece of jewelry. Lexi understands the ring’s meaning clearly: “It hung like an albatross from Mum’s delicate hand. Louis hoped the ring on Amira’s finger would evoke the fairytale our parents’ marriage was once supposed to be. I […] remembered the way Mum would absentmindedly twist it on her knuckle, the way it would dwarf Amira’s small hand” (365). Lexi then affirms that she has “no desire to try it on” (365). The ring is an embodiment of the monarchy and its negative impact on Isla and Amira, developing themes of Duty Versus Personal Freedom and The Challenges of Identity Formation Under Institutional Constraints. In refusing to put the ring on, Lexi pushes back against the monarchy and its attempts to control her life.