The Bear and the Nightingale

What are the main traditional fairy-tale tropes and character archetypes that Arden employs in The Bear and the Nightingale? How does she either conform to them or adapt or subvert them?

Analyze Vasya’s bonds with her father, siblings, and stepmother. In what ways do familial loyalty and conflict drive the story?

How does Arden explore gender and the roles and expectations placed on women through the three “mother” characters to Vasya: Marina, Anna, and Dunya?

How does the conflict between Konstantin and the village’s adherence to household spirits parallel the larger tension between the advent of Christianity and the traditional Slavic cultural identity?

Closely analyze Konstantin. How is he characterized? What is his role and wider significance in the text?

How does the novel play with the idea of sacrifice? What are some of the most important things the characters have to give up, and why?

Examine the use of setting in the novel. How is the village, and its surrounding forest, depicted? How do these settings contrast with one another, and what is the role of each in the narrative?

Consider the fairy tales told by Dunya and the legends of Morozko and the Bear. How do these stories influence the characters’ perceptions of their world and their choices?