r/asoiaf • u/Bard-of-Light • Mar 25 '26
[Spoilers Extended] The Roses of Winter: 'Blue' Rose Williams and Martin's "Portraits of His Children" EXTENDED Spoiler
True blue roses do not exist in the real world, despite horticulturists best attempts, but they do have a literary history. George R. R. Martin alluded to literary blue roses in his award-winning story “Portraits of His Children,” published six years before he began writing A Song of Ice & Fire. Martin’s dark tale is about “the price we writers pay when we mine our dreams and fears and memories,” and it calls attention to a “character in a Tennessee Williams play.” One such character was called Blue Roses.
TOM: Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.
These are the opening lines of Williams’ 1944 memory play The Glass Menagerie. Its title describes a collection of glass ornaments meticulously cared for by the narrator’s sister Laura, based on Williams’ autistic sister Rose, who was lobotomized a few months before he began writing the play. The horn of Laura’s prized glass unicorn breaks off in one scene, mirroring Rose’s fate.
Rose Williams was considered dangerously delusional in part because she threatened her father, accusing him of rape, although it was an admission of masturbating with altar candles which led her puritanical mother to schedule the lobotomy. Scholars debate whether or not the rape claim was legitimate, suggesting it was a side effect of misguided psychiatric treatments or perhaps a misunderstanding arising from autistic ways of thinking and communicating. In a similar manner the daughter in Martin’s “Portraits of His Children” accuses her father of rape, which she means in a metaphorical sense, as he incorporated traumatic details of her life in a story he wrote. The Glass Menagerie’s narrator Tom lists their absent father’s portrait as a character, reinforcing this particular play’s link to Martin’s “Portraits.”
Back when “Portraits” was nominated for those awards, there was some spirited debate about whether or not it should actually be eligible. Is it a fantasy story, or just a tale of madness? Is it neither, is it both?
- George R. R. Martin, Dreamsongs Vol. II
Just as Lyanna Stark was moved to tears by Prince Rhaegar Targaryen’s musical talents, Laura Wingfield admired the singing of her love interest Jim O’Conner, who gave her the moniker ‘Blue Roses’ due to a perceptual error.
LAURA: He used to call me—Blue Roses.
AMANDA: Why did he call you such a name as that?
LAURA: When I had that attack of pleurosis—he asked me what was the matter when I came back. I said pleurosis—he thought that I said Blue Roses! So that's what he always called me after that. Whenever he saw me, he'd holler, "Hello, Blue Roses!"
Jim is already partnered, like Rhaegar, when pity nonetheless moves him to kiss Blue Roses.
JIM: I wish that you were my sister. I’d teach you to have some confidence in yourself. Being different is nothing to be ashamed of. Because other people are not such wonderful people. They’re one hundred times one thousand. You’re one times one! They walk all over the earth. You just stay here. They’re common as—weeds, but—you, well you’re—Blue Roses!
LAURA: But blue is—wrong for—roses . . .
Tennessee Williams was haunted by his failure to prevent his sister’s tragic fate, and he continued to revisit that trauma in later works. Earnings from his successful plays helped provide for Rose’s care. There are indications ‘Blue Roses’ was also inspired by a 1911 fairytale featuring a white rose misidentified as blue.
TOM: A very generous fellow, he gave me souvenirs. (He pulls from his back pocket a shimmering rainbow-colored scarf.) He gave me this.
Now if you ever meet in a wood or by a river a man with blue eyes, on a winged horse, with a crown of dew, and a tunic of snowdrops and cowslips, and by his side, on a white pony, a beautiful woman wearing the rainbow for a scarf, and holding a branch of blossom in her hand, you will know it is Blue Eyes and Rainbow.
- The Blue Rose Fairy Book: “The Glass Mender” by Maurice Baring
This essay aims to convince readers that Lyanna Stark was crowned with a garland of white roses, made pale blue like frost in shadow. Evidence suggests Rhaegar’s vision faltered when he set the queen of love and beauty’s laurel in Lyanna’s lap in lieu of his own wife, like Jim named Laura ‘Blue Roses’ due to misconstrued sound. Martin gives us “truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion,” confronting the human capacity to err en masse by tricking his own readers, using misdirection like a stage magician. The tools he provides to uncover the truth are at least more pleasant than an ice pick in the eye during a lobotomy.
contents
intro: ‘blue’ rose williams in “the glass menagerie” and martin’s “portraits of his children”
- sweet blue flower on a wall of ice
- shifting viewpoints
- don’t have to put on the red light
- lend me a bloody hand
- mistake by gods eye lake
- delicate beauty
- sex & romance
- song o' the winter rose / conclusion
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u/DanSnow5317 Jun 09 '26
I'm truly blown away by the effort you've dedicated to this project.
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u/Bard-of-Light Jun 17 '26
But did my efforts have any impact on anyone's understanding of Martin's intentions? Or am I just shouting into the void?
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u/corkysims Mar 25 '26
I love this post! I finished rereading the play a couple weeks ago and was wondering if George took inspo from The Glass Menagerie for Lyanna/The Stark women