A Clash of Kings Literary Elements

Epic Fantasy

The story takes place in the Land of Westeros and Essos, and the story begins in 298 AC (Years after Aegon’s Conquest)

The narrator is omnipresent and presents the story from nine different point of views.

Frightening, violent, tragic, suspenseful, exciting

Because there are many conflicts in the book that develop at the same time, the antagonists and protagonists are not universal to the whole story but they are relevant to the conflict they take part in. In the War of the Five Kings, the other four kings( Stanni Baratheon, Renly Baratheon, Joffrey Baratheon and Balon Greyjoy) may appear as antagonist to a particular King(Robb Stark)

A civil war starts in Westeros following the death of Robert Baratheon, when five different characters crowned themselves as the King of the Ion Throne. The North is also having troubles as wildings are preparing an army to march over The Wall. In the Essos, Daenerys Targaryen, having hatched three dragons is lookign for allies to march on Westeros.

The story reaches its climax when a war on King's Landing breaks out between Lannisters and Baratheons. Following the defeat in this war, Joffrey Lannister comes across as the winner.

The War of the Kings and multiple incidents, including the Red Wedding from A Storm o the Swords, are foreshadowed in the visions of Daenerys at the House of Undying. She sees five dwarves assaulting the body of a beautiful woman (The War of the Five Kings), a rotting feast with a man with a wolf's head sittign on a throne (The Red Wedding), a crowd calling her mother (her victory at Yunkai).

Daenerys had always been considered as weak and frail by her brother Viserys. WIth Drogo's encouragement, she starts to gain confidence in herself and later when he dies, she refuses to lose hope and is successful in hatching three dragon eggs. This is treated as a rumor in Westeros as no one expects a penniless girl of fifteen to be able to raise an army to march on Westeros.

Daenerys has some elements common with the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra. Like Cleopatra, she lived in exile before emerging as a victor later. Like Cleopatra, Daenerys had marital alliances made to expand her army, and in the traditions of Egyptians, marriages in siblings was common in Targareyns so as not to dilute royal blood.

The most common images in The Clash of Kings is of the destruction left as a result of ongoing war. tHe war had little affect in the lives of the royal people, but left many people with no resources or dead. As Arya Stark travels to the North, she notices multiple feilds burnging so as to starve the opponent army. Streams had been poisoned with dead bodies and people had been murdered and made a spectacle of to scare common folk.

Maester Cressen, in the prologue, tries to murder Melisandre by making her drink a poisonous drink. So as not to attract a suspicion, he takes a sip putting his life at stake so as to save Stannis from her influence and destruction. However, Melisandre drinks the entire goblet and is unaffected by its contents, and Maester Cressen falls prey to his web and dies.

The propehcies made to Daenerys in the House of Undying were in a groups of threes. She is alluded to three names, and then three prophecies are made and this pattern is repeated thrice.

Iron Throne is a Metonymy for power and strength. It represents the person who runs the Westeros. Sword of a man is synecdoche for a man's loyalty. Warriors are asked to join sword to a particluar person, thus showing their loyalty.

Westeros is personified as a woman in visions of Daenerys in the House of Undying. She sees fiev dwarves assaulting her at various places, symbolising the war of five kings and how the war between just five people was wreaking a havoc on the whole country.