43 pages • 1 hour read
Tracy BarrettAnna Of Byzantium
Tracy BarrettFiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1999A 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
Lust for Power in a Religious Society
Anna is born into a politically tense environment, with many competing factions who are hungry for imperial power. During this time, Byzantine culture and politics were deeply connected to the empire’s religion, Greek Orthodox Christianity. Therefore, the tension between religious ideals of morality and the lust for power that motivates many characters’ behavior is an important throughline of the novel. In particular, the rivalry between Anna Dalassene and Irene Doukaina embodies this tension, as Anna’s grandmother exemplifies a hunger for power and her mother exemplifies religiosity. Caught in between these two central maternal figures, Anna must find her way of navigating the competing ideals that they represent.
At first, Anna’s actions are controlled by her desire for power. She immediately dislikes John because of the threat he poses to her claims to the throne; during John’s first appearance in front of diplomats, she thinks, “No one had ever wondered over my right to the throne, as these barbarians had. Could they have planted a seed of doubt in my father’s mind?” (20). Anna also treats Sophia poorly as a way to exercise power over her. Hierarchy is central to her approach to the world, and she takes great pains to ensure that she remains at the top of every hierarchy that she is a part of. This is exactly what draws her to Dalassene’s mentorship; her grandmother appeals to Anna’s lust for power by having her sit on the throne and fantasize about the influence she will have as empress.
However, the pious influence of her mother and Sophia eventually wins out, as Dalassene’s support is withdrawn and Anna is forced to come to terms with the possibility that she will not become empress. A key turning point in this transition is Anna’s discovery of Kassia, a nun whose religious writings defy her expectations. She tells Simon, “I didn’t know there were women who wrote like this. […] I thought it would all be about forgiveness and accepting your place in the world” (150). Her realization that religiosity is not the same as submission or weakness helps Anna to recognize that there are forms of power that are not purely political. In doing so, she reconciles the two forces of religion and power that she thought were opposed and makes room for the possibility of a powerful life that does not shun the religious teachings of her culture.
Competing Definitions of Family
In a setting where blood relations may also turn out to be her fiercest political rivals, Anna is unable to have what modern readers might consider a “normal” family. Members of the royal family frequently disown and disavow one another for political purposes. For instance, John challenges Anna’s claim that Alexios is her father, saying “What makes you think he is your father? […] You were born after he had been on campaign for many months. I have long suspected that you were not his daughter” (170). This accusation also implies unfaithfulness on the part of their mother. John thus weaponizes the political importance of familial blood ties in order to undermine both Anna and Irene’s authority and claims to the throne. The characters of Anna of Byzantium demonstrate that the traits that define a family can be manipulated in any number of ways to suit one’s political purposes. Furthermore, what constitutes family values is an entirely subjective matter, and the assassination attempt against John demonstrates that for the imperial family, nonviolence was not one of them.
To Anna, these conditions of animosity and violent betrayal are completely normalized, and her expectations for family members are set accordingly. This lack of trust and genuine affection in her life—as she is only shown sincere love by her mother, who she’s conditioned by Dalassene to disregard—leads her to be distant and self-serving in earlier parts of the novel. She does not consider that family can also take the form of loved ones who are not biologically related to her until the end of the book, when she realizes that Simon and Sophia were her truest allies all along. Still scarred by her biological father’s betrayal, she mourns the loss of Simon, telling Sophia, “Only now did I realize how he had loved me […] that he had been my real father all along” (205). Here, she redefines the essential factor in determining family as love, not blood ties. Subsequently, she introduces Sophia and Malik to the mother superior as her “family,” reaffirming this new definition. Adjusting her own understanding of family is therefore central to Anna’s character development, in addition to her gradually dulled desire for power. Even though it is too late to tell Simon that she saw him as a father or prove to John that Alexios was her biological father, the internal tranquility that she gains from these realizations ends up being the resolution that she needs.
Youthful Impressionability in Politics
As the presumed heir to her father’s throne, Anna enters the sphere of global politics at an extremely young age. As such, she approaches this central part of her life with the perspective of a child—a point of view that is highly impressionable and subject to the influence of the adults she trusts. This youthful naivete is best demonstrated in an anecdote she relays from her earliest memories. Her father has brought her to the throne room so that foreign emissaries can see her and pay her compliments, but Anna “was too young to know that this was mere courtier’s flattery, meant to please my father” (16). Here, it is evident that the formation of her young identity is intertwined with the politics that surround her; she is unable to discern what is personal and what is politics.
Anna’s naivete is also evident in her blind trust of Dalassene, who other adults, most notably Irene, do not trust at all. Anna even questions Irene’s judgment, thinking, “She was teaching me the arts of diplomacy, leadership, finance—certainly all skills that I would need in the future. I still did not understand why my mother objected to these studies” (73). Though it may be clear from an external perspective that Dalassene has insidious motivations for mentoring Anna, she cannot comprehend the complexity of the politics that she is involved in. It is precisely this youthful ignorance that makes her the perfect target for Dalassene to mold into a political puppet.
Knowing that her grandchildren are impressionable and that they will one day be able to dictate her place in the empire, Dalassene targets John as soon as it becomes clear that Anna has a rebellious streak. John seems to be even more impressionable than Anna, since he cannot read, and is therefore heavily reliant on others for information. Anna knows, however, that John cleverly “managed to hide his domineering nature from her” (116). Just as much as Dalassene seeks to sculpt John’s impressionable mind to her whims, therefore, John is utilizing her influence to get the power he wants before abandoning her. The prince’s adept navigation of backhanded imperial politics demonstrates that though the imperial children are vulnerable to manipulation because of their youth, they also can use that weakness to their advantage. This becomes apparent when John betrays Dalassene by freeing Anna instead of executing her and later forcing Dalassene out of politics, confining her to one wing of the palace. Overall, even though Barrett illustrates how easily young children can be manipulated in political settings, she also empowers both John and Anna to rebel against the adults who seek to control them.
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