In this series, I’ll be working my way through Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea works and analyzing her prose chapter by chapter. Spoilers follow.
Darkrose and Diamond
Length: 22 pages
Setting: Havnor
“Darkrose and Diamond” is a love story. It’s simple, well-executed, and I have very little to say about it except how believable I find the characters. Diamond and Rose get it all wrong in a way that is totally true to teenagers.
Golden and Hemlock, I think, impress me the most. Le Guin obviously doesn’t like these characters. They’re a study in character flaws, but they’re not irredeemable. Le Guin has a light touch, and she isn’t contemptuous. Golden is greedy, short-sighted, stubborn, but I don’t think we’re meant to doubt his love of his son. It’s not for lack of love that he fails as father but for refusal to change his mind. Hemlock is much the same, though of a different tenor.
Tomorrow we’ll visit a young Ogion in “The Bones of the Earth.”
Until next time.
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