A Feast for Crows
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Any reason why some chapters don't have the characters names?
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I first noticed this with Theon/Reek and thought that he uses it as a means of showing character development or, if you will, their current self view.Although this works way better with Theon than with Arianne, she also goes through an identity crisis, with her plan having failed and so on
There is a distinction between major POV characters (Arya, Brienne, Danaerys, Tyrion) and minor POV characters (Aeron, Areo, Arys, Barristan), and the chapter titles are generally used to distinguish them. The exceptions are Reek/(view spoiler), where the different headings show his current emotional state, state of identity, and/or character development, and Victarion, who for some reason in ADWD gets a chapter that's simply his name.
It's more in the direction Siocan commented. Arya's chapter names also change as she goes through certain parts of her story (which I will not spoil), and she's definitely a major major major PoV character (in fact, the only one to appear in both last books). Sansa's title name does, too, later.It can be an identity crisis (Theon/Reek) or simply the role they're playing in that chapter (Arianne/The princess in the tower).
I think it's partly a way of introducing new characters - for example, a chapter titled 'Areo' would leave people wondering who the heck Areo is - but a chapter titled 'The Captain of the Guards' suggests that this is a hitherto unknown character. It's also partly a way of showing how certain characters - mainly Arya, Sansa and Theon - are conflicted about their identity or trying on new identities.
And of course, it could just partly be because GRRM was bored with the old style and wanted to try something new. ;)
Laura wrote: "It's more in the direction Siocan commented. Arya's chapter names also change as she goes through certain parts of her story (which I will not spoil), and she's definitely a major major major PoV c..."Oh, yeah, I forgot about the Stark sisters' names changing as (view spoiler)
*Wall o' text warning!* Because I have thought about this a lot.I read it as being a commentary on a couple of things. As some have pointed out, there is definitely an element of identity crisis to some of these characters. But not all of them are in crisis. It's a way for George to signal characters for whom fluidity of identity--or lack thereof--is important to their arc.
The characters whose chapters are denoted by titles or descriptors rather than names seem mostly to be characters who identify themselves more with the role they are playing than a true, solid sense of self, whether they're conscious of it or not. I am trying to avoid spoilers here, so take an early example--Aeron Greyjoy. He could care less about his individual identity--to him it's all about his position as the chief priest of the Drowned God and the role he plays in Ironborn society as a result. It doesn't hurt that he is an intensely damaged individual, his sense of identity worn away by vague traumas in early and middle life.
Now, sure, plenty of other POV characters have undergone traumas, but George is just being realistic here, as he is so good at doing--for some, trauma has a debilitating effect on identity, while for others, it reinforces their sense of self. Again, avoiding spoilers--our friend Tyrion travels under several pseudonyms, but his chapter titles never change to reflect them the way other characters' do. Tyrion is one of the characters in the series with the strongest sense of self, the greatest investment in his own identity, and he has built that investment almost consciously in spite of all the crap he's been through all his life.
This trauma thing is just one of the factors that effect how and why characters subsume themselves into a title or role or pseudonym. There's also Areo Hotah, whose chapter titles reflect the honor with which he approaches his service to Doran Martell--he completely gives himself up to it, and there's no indication that he had to be traumatized to do so. It's just the kind of guy he is. (There's another character in DwD who fits this category too.)
Contrast this with Eddard, who, despite being similarly honorable, was never so utterly 'selfless' in his service to Robert that he would ever consider himself The King's Hand above all other things. Nor could he be merely The Lord of Winterfell or Warden of the North or Chilly Yet Loving Family Man. He was all of these things, and those things added up to Eddard. "But wait!" you say. "Arya, for example, is a lot of things too, yet her chapter titles change now and then. Why doesn't she embody her daddy's 'I contain multitudes' style?" Indeed, but Arya is a little girl whose identity is in a time of great flux. She doesn't know what she's going to be, how the facets of her troubled little life are going to end up ordering themselves. She, like some other characters in similar circumstances, is a work in progress, and, like most young folks, she takes the process of self-definition to the extreme. (And the fact that other similar characters *don't* find themselves in identity flux despite their disordered lives is another example of George's realistic portrayal of different reactions to similar circumstances.)
My little theories don't work for every character, of course. To an extent that's because George didn't start this scheme til the later books, leaving it up in the air as to which characters he might have title-shifted if he gave himself the opportunity to do so earlier. Might Bran have gone by a different name or title throughout book 3? Would Jaime's chapter titles have reflected the seismic shifts in his own personality--from Kingslayer to Shit-for-Honor to Kingsguard to Jaime? We can't know. Though we can presume, if we choose, that George introduced this conceit exactly when he wanted to--exactly when existing characters were in circumstances where they'd be testing the limits of their identities, and when he'd be introducing new characters in permanent flux and/or permanent service to their chosen roles. My biggest clue that this is the case is that he introduces Brienne as a POV character in this period as a title-stable addition. She's just Brienne. I feel that she exists at the borderline of characters with stable identities and those in flux; she could have gone either way earlier in the series, but by coming in at this point, George is saying, "I'm committing to this dichotomy now because now is when it is relevant to the themes I'm exploring. Here, have a troubled yet confident new POV character to stand it all in stark contrast." I'm not sure if that makes sense out loud, but it does in my head :)
The one fly in the ointment is Asha, who certainly has a strong sense of self but is nevertheless indicated by 'title' chapters. My thinking on this is that it's an example of titles being dictated by the way others view the character--views that the character then adopts ironically. That's why we don't see the same thing with Brienne--she wouldn't have the confidence to adopt the "Wench" moniker, even in her head, as any form of rebellion the way that Asha adopts some of the views her fellow Ironborn hold of her.
Then there's the question of why certain 'titled' characters switch to 'named' characters later on, which is related to all of this but which I won't get into because this has gone on way too long already ;)
Alex wrote: "*Wall o' text warning!* Because I have thought about this a lot.I read it as being a commentary on a couple of things. As some have pointed out, there is definitely an element of identity crisis ..."
Cersei's POV is also introduced in this book without name changes, and her sense of identity is dangerously rigid.
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Was their a reason why GRRM did this? The new characters names would have clicked with me if he had just named the chapters with just their names. I noticed he does this in ADWD too.