Isolation

The novel explores the ways in which isolation is used as a tactic of oppression against women in the court setting. When Hollis first meets Valentina, she is apprehensive toward the young queen. Rumor has it that Valentina is cold and distant, and when Hollis first meets Valentina she believes that the rumors are true. Valentina only has a single lady-in-waiting and she hardly attempts to make conversation with Hollis at all.

As Hollis grows to know Valentina, she learns that the queen is kept in strict isolation by the king as a means to control her. Silas, who was at court with Valentina in Isolte, describes her as “one of the loneliest people I know” (181). The women at court detest her because she married the king that they all wanted to marry. None of the men at court will look at her, let alone speak...