Anna Of Byzantium

In the earliest chapters of the novel, Anna’s relationship with the nuns is suggestive of her previously competitive mindset. In particular, she has a testy attitude toward Sister Thekla, who she perceives as challenging her. When Anna forces the senior nun to leave the scriptorium before she does, she “almost laughed out loud. I had triumphed, indeed, but what a triumph! A nun had tried to humiliate me even further than I had already been humiliated, and I had resisted” (10). This high-stakes understanding of a relatively mundane event—one work shift at the convent—introduces the intensity with which Anna approaches social settings and how she anticipates that others are her adversaries. On the other hand, Barrett provides no concrete insights into what Sister Thekla’s intentions or thoughts are, so it remains ambiguous whether Anna’s confrontational interpretation of the situation is accurate or not.

In the process of asserting her authority over Sister Thekla, Anna mourns the life she lost. These allusions to the events leading to her exile help set up the book’s embedded narrative structure: It is clear that the story of Anna’s childhood will be incorporated into the story of her exile. Other glimpses of the past are sprinkled throughout these chapters for the same purpose, most notably the memories she relates between her interactions with the nuns. When Anna engages in potentially imaginary competition with Sister Thekla, therefore, it can be assumed that she was conditioned to behave that way during her life at the palace. This suspicion is confirmed when Anna reveals her frosty attitude when meeting her younger brother: “We don’t need him, I thought. If he were gone, everything would be the way it was before. The ambassadors would not ignore me, and they would never again think someone else was my father’s heir” (21). Such hostility between siblings, incentivized by competition for the crown, helps to confirm that Anna has been raised to automatically see others as competitors. This introduces a central theme in the novel, Competing Definitions of Family. Instead of exhibiting sisterly affection for her baby brother, who hasn’t technically done anything wrong yet, she only considers how he could threaten her.

Despite all of Anna’s attempts to antagonize the nuns, they treat her with unfailing kindness. The mother superior’s concerned words to Anna are nothing but hospitable and empathetic: “Are you troubled, my daughter?” she asked. “Is there something you lack? […] You have seemed dissatisfied of late. Can I do anything to make you more comfortable here?” (2). Indeed, she fulfills Anna’s request to work in the scriptorium without any scruples. Similarly, Sister Thekla provides Anna with writing materials to use in her private room, a moment of generosity that empowers Anna to eventually complete the Alexiad. Instead of fully recognizing these kindnesses, however, Anna is preoccupied with the microaggressions that she perceives all around her. When the mother superior clarifies that she will have to gain the emperor’s permission to grant Anna’s request, Anna thinks, “If my face had shown what I felt, I would have terrified the meek little women still lining the hallway with the sight of the bitter hatred that welled up in me at the mention of my brother” (3). And when Sister Thekla provides the practice writing materials, she dismissively thinks, “Practice my letters, indeed!” (13). Self-superiority and reflexive antagonism are therefore established as character flaws that Anna will need to grow out of throughout the book, and they are made especially stark against the backdrop of the nuns’ kindness.

Anna’s most emblematic of character flaws, hubris, is easily identified through Simon’s warning at the end of Chapter 5 that Anna should not “fly too near to the sun,” (43). Anna’s Youthful Impressionability in Politics leaves her feeling that she can chase her goals without considering those who would act against her; she earnestly believes that she is entitled to the throne and that her claim will go unchallenged. Her constant quest to assert power over others—the nuns, her brother, or otherwise—is ultimately an attempt to secure the supreme authority of a god. This idea is expressed throughout the novel with references to classical Greek myths, a significant choice on Barrett’s part since “hubris” is a concept original to classical Greek culture. In making such a pointed reference to Icarus and Daedalus through the voice of Simon, Barrett signals that mythological allusions will operate as a code through which Anna’s flaws may be understood moving forward.