57 pages • 1 hour read
Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, Jodi MeadowsMy Lady Jane
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Finding One’s True Self
All three of the novel’s protagonists—Gifford, Jane, and Edward—initially struggle with fully knowing and accepting who they really are. Learning to confront and overcome their insecurities therefore lies at the heart of the three protagonists’ quests, as through their adventures they learn self-respect and self-acceptance. Through their struggles to find and fully control their Ethian forms, the novel explores the challenges and rewards of finding one’s true self.
Gifford understands his horse form: He loves the freedom of running without social constraints or judgement, but his attachment to being a horse also represents how he runs away from his feelings of inadequacy. The fact that he cannot control his changes shows that he lets these feelings govern his life. In order to have full autonomy over himself, he has to stop running from his fears and self-doubt. Gifford gradually grows in confidence through his deepening relationship with Jane and his successful participation in helping Edward win back the crown. He learns to respect himself when he faces down his scheming father, who still can’t acknowledge his value despite his victory, with G realizing that he doesn’t need his father’s approval. He sees that Jane loves and respects him regardless of his form and decides that he has responsibility to her regardless of his self-doubt. The authors show that his journey to self-respect and acceptance help him live as his true self, as he ultimately manages to govern his form.
Jane loves the freedom and stimulation of her ferret form, which, like G’s attachment to being a horse, reflects her desire to break free from societal constraints. She eventually learns that her love of freedom is not incompatible with her marriage: She loves G, and through mutual support and understanding, they can both flourish and be their true selves within their union. She also finds greater self-acceptance regarding her appearance and appearing in public. Initially, she is self-conscious about her unconventional red hair and her figure, and wrongly thinks G won’t be interested. She gains the confidence to be in front of a crowd, both in the throne room and in the second wedding she chooses to have. She still doesn’t need anyone else’s approval, but she no longer wants to hide from social gatherings, showing her self-respect and acceptance.
Through Edward’s love of his kestrel form he realizes that he yearns for freedom from the constraints of kingship. Outside of his formal role, he can look at himself objectively. Bess’s example helps him realize he wasn’t very proactive or hard-working as king and that his spirit rebels against it. Traveling with Gracie teaches him that he doesn’t need luxury, but he does need to become self-sufficient. Previously, even basic tasks were done for him, but if he and Gracie are to have a relationship of equals, he must be capable of living independently alongside her. When she finally calls him “Edward” instead of “Sire,” she acknowledges the true self that he has managed to find, outside his formal office.
Overall, through the character arcs of G, Jane, and Edward, My Lady Jane shows the challenges but also the importance of working to find one’s true self. By the novel’s end, finding their true selves has ensured that the protagonists can have a happy ending.
The Complexities of Freedom and Power
The protagonists are all connected to power, directly or indirectly, in some way. Edward is the king at the start of the novel, while Jane is chosen as his heir with G as her consort. Edward’s sisters Mary and Bess are also contenders for the throne, with Mary staging a coup and Edward ultimately choosing to crown Bess at the end. However, these characters also face social and political constraints that belie the power they seem to wield. All of the main characters must therefore wrestle with the complexities of freedom and power, on both a personal and national level.
All three protagonists are trapped within their official positions. As monarch, Edward and Jane are manipulated by those around them, such as Dudley, who wish to use the monarch as pawns for their own ends. Edward is physically subdued through poison and socially subdued by his passive understanding of kingship, letting others make choices for him. Jane is confined by the formal constraints of the role and the real power wielded elsewhere, soon realizing after she takes the throne that her advisors have no intention of letting her rule on her own terms.
G also has theoretical power in his status as a nobleman and as a husband, which in this era carried hierarchal power over the wife. However, when he tries to play these masculine roles, he feels unable to openly pursue his love of poetry and struggles to have a communicative, positive relationship with Jane. He feels rejected by his family and more at home in his horse form than being a human aristocrat. He is forced into a marriage with Jane even though he does not want to wed, and then discovers that he might not even be crowned alongside her. As with Jane and Edward’s royal power, much of G’s aristocratic status is a mere façade: He, like them, is treated like a pawn by others.
The three characters gradually learn to rely on each other to achieve freedom, showing that true power lies in mutual respect and support. Edward escapes Dudley’s plot with Bess’s help and survives thanks to Gracie. He frees himself from a role that does not suit him through the same action that frees his sister Bess from the gendered inheritance laws: He crowns her the monarch. This transferal of power represents freedom for both characters. Jane and G were forced into their marriage but eventually are able to choose their relationship after an important argument. When G lets go of traditional structures of power in marriage, he also finds freedom, since he is now able to share his fears of inadequacy and also his love of poetry with Jane.
Ultimately, the authors suggest that freedom is more important than political power to the characters. My Lady Jane suggests that true personal freedom relies on everybody respecting each other’s freedoms and that true power is about having agency over one’s life regardless of one’s social status.
The Importance of Social Responsibility
The novel opens with a plot by Dudley and his associates to seize power for themselves by poisoning the king, Edward. While characters such as Dudley and Mary represent selfishness and greed in their conduct, the novel’s main characters represent an alternative ethos centered upon the importance of social responsibility.
Jane has a strong social conscience, which motivates many of her actions. However, her argument with G over the Pack attack shows that acting on her altruistic motives is not always straightforward: Jane initially pursues a course of action that is unfeasible and puts her in danger. G helps Jane realize that it’s sometimes necessary to be tactical and pick battles, but Jane also inspires G to understand that this does not mean abandoning social responsibility altogether. She inspires him to act on his conscience rather than feeling that one person alone can’t do anything. They pursue social responsibility on a personal and political level, giving out food and medicine to the villagers and fighting to win back power to save the country from violence and division. Jane’s character highlights the responsibility of those with wealth and privilege to help others.
Bess, Edward, and Mary also highlight the responsibility of those with political power and the impact that political leaders can have on a country. Bess believes that a ruler has a moral duty to act in the people’s best interests, and her impassioned discussions on this topic prompt Edward to reconsider his own conduct as king. He comes to agree with Bess and abdicates the crown to her because he knows it is better for the country for her to rule. Whereas Bess seeks to rule in everyone’s interests, not just those of her own group, Mary seeks to protect the tribe she identifies with (the Verities) and her idea of normality at the expense of anyone else. This leads to violence and bloodshed.
The Pack also shows how ideas of social responsibility can become warped into a social divide. Their actions are initially in self-defense in an aggressive world, and they seek to protect vulnerable outcasts like Gracie as a child. However, they turn their defense into offence and begin to see all Verities as their enemies, creating a vicious circle in which the Verities then demonize the Ethians further. The authors suggest that it is divisive and dangerous to limit a sense of social responsibility to those in our own group at the expense of others.
The book thus shows that social responsibility is complex: It can require people to confront their own ideas or loyalties, and can be challenging to act on in reality. However, it foregrounds the moral importance of social responsibility as a foundation for a stable, vibrant society.
