50 pages • 1 hour read
The Tombs of Atuan
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Themes
The Nature of Faith
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender-based discrimination and religious discrimination/trauma.
The nature of faith is one of the primary elements of the novel and the central component of Tenar’s internal conflict. The narrative portrays a complex culture and religion grounded in darkness, isolation, and the subjugation of women under the guise of respect. While the Kargish Empire’s religion includes several gods—the Godking/emperor, the Twin Gods, and the Nameless Ones—it is apparent from the outset that the Nameless Ones are the primary power in the faith. Belief in the supremacy of the Nameless Ones is paramount in this religion. Meanwhile, several characters, including Kossil, Penthe, and Ged, seem to understand that the Godking is not truly a god, but merely one ruler in a long succession of rulers who have stylized themselves as living gods. Even Tenar, who is blindly devoted to the Nameless Ones, suspects the Godking is not as powerful or sacred as he claims. Where the Nameless Ones are concerned, however, the faith takes on a cultlike quality, in which any sign of doubt or resistance is met with severe punishment or death.
As the cultlike devotion to the Nameless Ones suggests, faith can also become a weapon of control. The religion and cultlike atmosphere of the Tombs impact the social structures of Kargish society, especially regarding gender, tying directly to the theme of The Roles of Women in Patriarchal Society. The Kargish religion functions to uphold strict and oppressive gender roles for women in the heavily patriarchal social system, keeping the women in the temples isolated and controlled by their roles, despite the illusion of power and respect. This power ultimately serves only to increase the power of the empire’s gods and Godking.
The novel demonstrates the power, both positive and negative, of such faith. Faith can be a source of strength, stability, and community, as Tenar and Manan demonstrate. Their unwavering loyalty to the Nameless Ones, gives them (Tenar in particular) the strength to live through great suffering. They find connection in each other, even when they are isolated from the rest of the world. However, this faith is all-encompassing, preventing Tenar and Manan from seeing or understanding their oppression. Their state of being is the only thing they have ever known, never even encountering the idea of an alternative until Ged enters the story. Their faith distorts their perceptions of reality and gives them a false sense of certainty and self-righteousness that prevents them from seeing the truth.
Only when blind faith is questioned, the author suggests, can the faithful see the truth and acquire agency over their lives. While Manan’s continued blind devotion to the Nameless Ones eventually leading to his death, Tenar learns to question her faith. Her faith is shaken by several incidents: her shame over the deaths of the three prisoners, learning about Penthe’s unfaith, and interacting with Ged. Though they are painful and destabilizing for her, these moments provide fuel for her internal struggles between faith and freedom, dark and light, and good and evil, leading her to difficult decisions.
The Roles of Women in Patriarchal Society
The theme of the roles of women in patriarchal society is explored through the priestesses of the Kargish religion. Women in the Kargish Empire are devalued and subjugated, as highlighted by the treatment of Tenar’s mother when she tries to keep her daughter, Tenar’s father’s frustration that the priestesses will not even pay them for taking Tenar away, and Penthe’s story about her father dedicating her to the Godking so he would have fewer mouths to feed. In comparison to other Kargish women, the high priestesses in the Tombs believe themselves to be powerful. They have eunuchs and guards under their command and the Place of the Tombs is their private domain. Yet this power is limited and only encourages them to struggle among each other for the little power they are allowed, as illustrated by the struggle between Kossil and Tenar. Tenar believes that she holds immense power as the “highest of high priestesses in the Kargad Lands, one whom not even the Godking himself might command” (24). However, context clues demonstrate that her power, and the power of all the priestesses, is an illusion. In fact, Tenar and the other priestesses are imprisoned by their faith within a patriarchal system that uses religion as a form of control.
Penthe appears to understand this reality better than Tenar, who has been raised within the religious system and is unaware of how the outside world perceives them. Penthe’s profession of unfaith shakes Tenar because it makes her aware of her own dissatisfaction. However, the author suggests that once subjugated women become aware of their lack of social power, they have several ways of responding. Penthe demonstrates one of these, resigning herself to her role with a sense of pragmatism. She would prefer to be a poor wife of a pig herder, rather than isolated in the desert in a glorified prison for women, but she knows she has no say in the matter and accepts her role with relative ease. Like Penthe, Kossil understands that she is caught within a patriarchal system of oppression, but she neither accepts this nor feels ambivalence or resistance. Instead, she elects to enforce this oppressive social system to her own ends, working within the structures to which she is beholden to take what control and power she can. Tenar eventually understands that the only thing Kossil cares about is power; she has no true faith but uses the trappings of religion to remain in control of her environment.
Tenar, on the other hand, has fully internalized the patriarchal structures that control her and struggles between her desire for freedom and her sense of loyalty and devotion. She eventually chooses to resist the system entirely. This is the culmination of her struggle between dark and light, spurred on by Ged’s presence and encouragement. Tenar’s struggle underscores the tension between women’s identity and agency and their role within oppressive patriarchal structures. To fully claim her identity as an individual, she must resist both her patriarchal faith and society, which are inextricably entwined.
The True Meaning of Freedom
Extending naturally from the themes of faith and patriarchy, the theme of the true meaning of freedom emerges as Tenar responds to her struggles with both faith and oppression. Ged offers a solution to Tenar’s struggles with her desire for freedom and a sense of identity, demonstrating that true freedom comes from inner strength and knowing and accepting oneself, rather than from exerting control over others as the Kargish religion, represented by Kossil, does.
Through Ged’s leadership, the narrative suggests that this inner sense of identity and agency leads to true freedom. Tenar can only be free once she knows and accepts herself as a powerful individual with agency despite her enslavement to the Nameless Ones and her role within the oppressive empire. In this vein, her name becomes a symbol of both her identity and her path to freedom. As Ged tells her, she must let the imposed identity of Arha die to become Tenar once again, or she can never be free.
However, Le Guin suggests that true freedom also comes from trust and community, through collaboration between equals. As Ged states in Chapter 10, “alone, no one wins freedom” (11). Here, he argues that people must trust and support each other to be free in a world of dark and powerful forces like the Nameless Ones and the Kargish emperor and people like Kossil. The author reinforces this concept through the symbol of the Ring of Erreth-Akbe, which represents unity and peace for the kingdoms of the Inner Lands. Only together can Tenar and Ged reunite the two broken halves of the ring, and only with Tenar’s help can Ged successfully bring it back to Havnor. The ring’s power, both magical and symbolic, only works when the two halves reunite, just as Tenar and Ged can only escape the Tombs when they work together. After the escape, Tenar considers another component of freedom: she can only attain it with Ged’s help. Indeed, she was not even entirely aware of her desire for freedom until Ged’s arrival forced her into action.
With or without the support of others, however, the novel suggests that true freedom also requires conscious choice. This is part of freedom’s difficulty and painfulness, which explains why Tenar resists it for so long. In the final chapter, Tenar concludes that freedom is not something one is given but something that one must choose over and over throughout life, just as Tenar chose to spare Ged’s life in the tunnels and chose to escape with him. Freedom is a constant climb “upward towards the light [and] the laden traveler may never reach the end of it” (141), which is why many, like Penthe and even Kossil, elect to remain within their oppressive systems instead.
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By Ursula K. Le Guin
