A Column of Fire

One of the central themes of A Column of Fire is the conflict between love and community on one side and ambition on the other. The characters’ actions and the novel’s events often demonstrate the push and pull between these opposing ideals. At one end, Ned and Sylvie epitomize love and connection, the protection of which often comes at the expense of their safety and well-being. Ned, as a spy and advisor for Queen Elizabeth, dedicates his life to serving his queen and England, thereby placing the ideal of the nation above his own personal glory. Similarly, Sylvie embodies a deep connection to her community. Towards the end of the novel, she chooses to chase the conniving Rollo and dies in the attempt. Ned describes her loss as “an amputation” (833), and he notes that he can never fully recover after her death. However, their love and connection linger, and he imagines her continuing to give him advice and support long after her death.

On the opposing end of the spectrum, characters like Rollo Fitzgerald and Pierre Aumande exemplify the pursuit of personal ambition. Rollo cannot feel love, and more importantly, he does not understand other characters’ desire for it, for he does not understand the power of the connections that love can forge between people. His belief in his own superiority is rooted in his lack of desire for relationships. Toward the end of the story, he has a strained and distant relationship with what little family he does have, while Ned is surrounded by many generations of his extended family.

Meanwhile, Pierre is always driven by an insatiable need for power that leads him to ruin. For example, he further disconnects from reality and the people around him as he becomes an influential figure in the French court, and he takes disproportionate revenge for old slights and grossly mistreats his family. However, despite all the work he does for the Guise family over the years, they never treat him as an equal. He also fails to see the dangers posed by the people he manipulates. When Duke Henri de Guise is assassinated, Pierre’s plans crumble, and his stepson and the marchioness Pierre exact their revenge. Just before his death, he realizes that he “could not have been more surprised if the knife had moved of its own accord. This was Louise, the terrified mouse, the helpless woman he abused just for fun, and she had cut him” (819). For both Rollo and Pierre, their lack of genuine connection to anything outside their ambitions leads to their downfall. To Pierre, Louise and Alain are never truly people, and so he is incapable of foreseeing their revenge. Likewise, Rollo never sees Margery as a person, so he does not imagine that she would ever betray him.

Margery is situated between the extremes of selfless and selfish motivations. At the end of the novel, she is the only person who knows that Jean Langlais is Rollo, but she chooses not to act out of fear for the well-being of her sons. She decides to lie, prioritizing her safety over her obligations to morality or to Ned. Margery's initial choices reflect a mother's instinct to shield her children from harm, even if it means disregarding certain truths. However, once she realizes the extent of the planned Gunpowder Plot, she exposes her brother’s involvement. Rather than being punished with death like Rollo and Pierre, she is rewarded and allowed to return home with Ned.