Sanssa Stark Character Analysis

Sansa Stark, the eldest daughter of Lady Catelyn and Lord Eddard Stark, is introduced as a girl that very much fits the stereotype of a highborn lady in fantasy literature. Martin first introduces Sansa as a girl whose work is pretty as she is (68). This sentence sets the tone for Sansa’s character for the rest of the novel as the first information the reader learns about her is that her work is pretty rather than done well. The usage of “pretty” in describing Sansa tells the reader to focus on her appearance before anything else. Sansa is the perfect example of a medieval girl of noble birth as she excels in many of the lady-like hobbies:. As one would expect of a highborn lady, she is not good at activities generally associated with highborn men in their society, like riding and calculating. Matthew Williams explains that Sansa fits the “feminine female” gender role which is at complete odds with her sister, Arya Stark (8). Since Sansa does everything that is expected of a highborn lady, she expects to get the fairytale ending associated with such a lady: Unfortunately for Sansa, in the world of A Game of Thrones
Her hopes of life ending up just like the songs she liked are crushed when she meets prince Joffrey and his “knight” Sandor Clegane. Ironically, in old fantasy literature, the damsel would be saved by the knight (Clegane) and the prince (Joffrey); instead, Clegane and Joffrey are the ones to carry out Sansa’s punishment. Although this moment is the beginning of the end of Sansa’s world view, it causes her to embrace her wits rather than wait to be