logo

77 pages 2 hours read

Neil Gaiman

Stardust

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1999

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Character Analysis

Tristran Thorn

Tristran is a half-faerie, half-human boy who grows up in the small border village of Wall with his parents—a birth father and an adoptive mother—though it’s not until the end of the novel that he comes to understand the truth about his parentage. He comes from the Stormhold line and shares some of their sparse magical ability for locating places within Faerie. The name Tristran may be an allusion to the romantic story Tristan and Isolde, spelled with multiple variations, including “Tristram” and “Yseult.”

Tristran is an “everyman” character archetype: a relatable, realistic young man whom many readers (male or female) will be able to see aspects of within themselves. Like most teenage boys, Tristran is “half the way between a boy and a man, and was equally uncomfortable in either role […]. He was painfully shy, which, as is often the manner of the painfully shy, he overcompensated for by being too loud at the wrong times” (44). He’s presented as having a dreamy, fantastical quality one might attribute to his inherent faerie blood but might also be due to his being a restless teenager in a small, isolated village filled with people he’s known all his life.

At the opening of the novel, Tristran takes a simple view of the world around him; he sets his sights on the prettiest girl in town, chasing the idea of romantic love rather than real love itself, and is grateful for the opportunity to work toward a tangible goal. This aspect of his character sets up and reflects the theme of Love, Infatuation, and Desire, and his overall character arc helps to make the distinction between the three emotions. When he discovers that the star isn’t the lump of rock he anticipated, he’s only momentarily perturbed; it’s easier for him to simply stick to the plan than it is to step back and recalibrate his understanding with new information. It’s not until he and Yvaine become separated that he begins to take some responsibility for his actions: “‘There’s a young lady that I have offended with my behavior,’ said Tristran. ‘I wish to make amends.’ As he said it, he knew it to be true” (159). This becomes the pivotal first step in his growth as a character.

By the time Tristran returns to Wall—as he must, since the return is an essential step in this classic story archetype—he finds he has outgrown the world he once knew, embodying the Physical and Spiritual Transformation theme. He’s able to find closure with Victoria, parting on good terms and wishing her well in her new life. Tristran no longer fits into people’s expectations of him or the limitations of his world (thus also highlighting the theme of Freedom and Restriction), and instead returns to Faerie where he can claim his birthright and continue having the adventures that make him feel whole.

Yvaine

Yvaine, loosely speaking, is an anthropomorphism—a human personification of a non-human entity. When Tristran sets out to retrieve the star for Victoria, he isn’t expecting to find a star in human form. Yvaine begins as aggressive and irate; without the ability to use her body in the way she would like, she resorts to hurling as much verbal abuse toward her captor as she can muster. However, she begins showing her vulnerability when they encounter the unicorn, to whom she feels a sense of kinship. Initially, the unicorn and Tristran are presented as antitheses of each other; like the lion, Tristran exercises power over another, and Yvaine and the unicorn are able to escape together. However, she begins to feel more comfortable with Tristran after he and the unicorn save her from the witch. She displays the way her barriers begin breaking down when she sings for the first time. She opens up about her sisters in the sky and tells Tristran, “I was lucky to have fallen in Faerie. And I think I was probably lucky to have met you” (202).

Despite her celestial origins, Yvaine seems unprepared for the dangers she faces on Earth. She trusts the witch immediately upon being welcomed into her inn and is unable to see the malice and selfishness of the woman caring for her. While Yvaine is powerful and determined, she lacks the ability to see beneath the surface of humanity until she spends more time on Earth. Through her adventures and her experiences with Tristran, however, she gains more nuance and empathy. At the end of the novel, she meets the witch queen again and is able to show her compassion: “Yvaine realized she felt nothing but pity for the creature who wanted her dead” (261). This compassion carries her on to being a respected ruler in the years after Tristran’s death. Her whole character arc reflects the theme of Physical and Spiritual Transformation.

Victoria Forester

Victoria is considered the most beautiful young woman in Wall and the focal point of many affections. She is also privileged, determined, and “used to having her own way” (41). Even though she has no intention of marrying Tristran, she enjoys his attention enough to spend an evening with him under the stars. Although she is not present for the majority of the novel, the idea of her is a constant guiding force for Tristran throughout the first half. She comes to represent an ideal, a prize to be won; although Tristran’s journey takes him on a quest to retrieve the star, the star is only a means to an end. She represents the understanding that Tristran must acquire to discern the distinctions between Love, Infatuation, and Desire.

It’s worth noting that Victoria’s choice at the end of the story is one of the most marked differences between the film version of Stardust and the novel. In the film, Victoria offers herself to Tristran upon his return, and Tristran scorns her. In the novel, Victoria makes it clear that she is in love with Mr. Monday; however, she acknowledges that her rash and selfish actions put Tristran in danger and is willing to honor the promise she made.

While this character evolution is perhaps less cinematically satisfying, it shows that while Tristran has been away, Victoria has grown into a more mature, self-aware woman, which complements the primary characters’ journeys of Physical and Spiritual Transformation. She is able to see her childish arrogance with objectivity and growth and take responsibility for her actions. This allows Tristran and Victoria to part on something like a friendship as they each move toward their own respective adventures.

The Lords of Stormhold

There are eight children of Stormhold, among them seven boys. Each is named for a Latin number representing the order in which they were born: Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quartus, Quintus, Sextus, and Septimus, as well as Una—Latin for “only”—the single daughter. Prior to the novel, Secundus, Quartus, Quintus, and Sextus have all been killed by their brothers in pursuit of the crown; Tertius is poisoned not long after, leaving Primus and Septimus to try to outdo each other and survive. Despite being part of a large family, they would have grown up in an environment filled with hostility and ambition, knowing that no true friendships could ever grow between them.

Septimus and Primus are inversions of each other; Primus is “the oldest, with white hairs in his thick brown beard,” while Septimus is youthful, “his black beard still coming in, tall and crowlike” (64). As Tertius reflects before his death, Primus is the best bet as a loyal ally. Primus also shows Tristran compassion and friendship during their brief encounter. Septimus, by contrast, has already killed more than either of them, despite his youth, and favors poison as his ideal method. The irony is that when he finally meets his end, it is through a poisonous serpent as he tries to avenge his brother.

Primus’s death is a turning point for Septimus’s journey. Even though he had intended to kill Primus himself, Septimus is unable to condone the dishonor to his family at another’s hand. This illustrates the family’s adherence to blood tradition. Even though Septimus is angry at being saddled with the responsibility, he doesn’t turn his back on his duty, which also supports the theme of Freedom and Restriction.

blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text