12 Analytical Essay Prompts for The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
These prompts are designed for readers who have finished the novel. Each question focuses on a specific element of craft, theme, or character arc, with a defensible thesis direction and concrete chapter evidence. Use the links to explore related content on the site.
1. How does Brother Diaz’s journey from bureaucrat to moral combatant illustrate the novel’s critique of moral compromise?
Why it matters: Diaz begins as a self‑serving monk who only wants a comfortable living, but he is thrust into a world where he must make gut‑wrenching ethical choices. His transformation mirrors the central tension between integrity and expediency.
Sample thesis direction: Diaz’s arc shows that moral growth springs not from rigid adherence to doctrine but from facing the human cost of one’s choices; he becomes effective only when he stops hiding behind rules and accepts the messiness of doing good.
Evidence leads: (1) Chapter 3 – Diaz protests he is merely a bureaucrat but is told the Church uses devils to fight devils. (2) Chapter 19 – He refuses to trade Alexia for relics, directly defying Bishop Apollonia. (3) Chapter 40 – He breaks his monastic vows with Vigga after reasoning that her werewolf nature creates a loophole. (4) Chapter 61 – During Alexia’s coronation, he publicly praises the “devils” as God’s instruments.
2. What does Alex’s impostorship reveal about the nature of identity and legitimacy in the novel?
Why it matters: Alex is not the real princess; she is a thief who steps into a dead girl’s role. The story continually questions what makes a ruler legitimate—birthright, performance, or the willingness to sacrifice.
Sample thesis direction: Alex’s impostorship demonstrates that legitimacy is a social fiction maintained by performance and belief; her success comes not from blood but from learning to act like a ruler and gaining the loyalty of her companions.
Evidence leads: (1) Chapter 2 – She instantly accepts her new identity when Duke Michael announces her. (2) Chapter 6 – The Oracles’ ritual confirms her “born in the flame” status, a lie that becomes truth. (3) Chapter 22 – Baron Rikard teaches her deportment to manufacture a convincing princess. (4) Chapter 60 – She confesses to Sunny that she is not the real Alexia, yet Sunny chooses duty over flight. (5) Chapter 69 – As Empress, she negotiates with Cardinal Zizka as an equal, fully inhabiting the role.
3. How does the relationship between Vigga and Brother Diaz create a paradox of salvation and damnation?
Why it matters: Vigga is a werewolf who struggles with violent urges; Diaz is a monk who breaks his vows for her. Their bond challenges the novel’s ideas of clean versus unclean, holy versus monstrous.
Sample thesis direction: Diaz and Vigga find a perverse salvation in each other: her wolf instincts are tempered by his calm, while his moral rigidity is shattered by her raw honesty, suggesting that redemption often requires crossing lines considered sacred.
Evidence leads: (1) Chapter 18 – Vigga warns Alex the binding does not control the wolf, showing her fragile self‑control. (2) Chapter 40 – Diaz reasons that Vigga’s werewolf nature creates a loophole in his vows, then kisses her. (3) Chapter 47 – They sleep together in an excommunicated abbey; Alex discovers them at dawn. (4) Chapter 51 – Diaz confesses the encounter to the group, and Vigga later kills Baptiste, intensifying his guilt. (5) Chapter 71 – Vigga lies in a cage consumed by guilt, yet Diaz still visits her.
4. What role does the papal binding play in testing the characters’ agency and free will?
Why it matters: The binding compels the “devils” to protect Alexia. It is a literal enchantment that raises questions about whether moral choices matter when one is forced to act.
Sample thesis direction: The binding exposes the difference between enforced obedience and genuine loyalty; characters who initially resent the compulsion ultimately act beyond its requirements, revealing that true commitment cannot be magically imposed.
Evidence leads: (1) Chapter 7 – Balthazar tries to defy the binding and is violently sick. (2) Chapter 16 – He privately resolves to break the binding but cannot overcome its power. (3) Chapter 25 – During the illusion maze, the binding is tested under extreme stress. (4) Chapter 43 – Balthazar summons a demon who cannot break the binding, proving its divine origin. (5) Chapter 63 – Baron Rikard reveals he was never bound (having no soul), yet voluntarily joins the rescue.
5. How does the novel use contrasting scenes of peace and violence to develop its themes about human nature?
Why it matters: The story repeatedly juxtaposes moments of tenderness or comedy with brutal combat. These contrasts highlight the precarious balance between civility and savagery.
Sample thesis direction: Abercrombie uses tonal whiplash to argue that violence is always just beneath the surface of society; moments of calm are temporary pauses that make the ensuing chaos more shocking and meaningful.
Evidence leads: (1) Chapter 9 – The group bickers and jokes at the inn moments before a monstrous attack. (2) Chapter 42 – A peace parley between a married couple becomes a battlefield threat, then a kiss averts war. (3) Chapter 51 – After the plague‑pit massacre, the survivors drink wine and share confessions. (4) Chapter 67 – The duel between Jakob and Duke Michael is described as “a war in miniature.”
6. What does Sunny’s invisibility and her desire for belonging reveal about the theme of the outsider?
Why it matters: Sunny is an elf who can become invisible, physically and socially erased. Her longing to be part of the group mirrors the novel’s exploration of loneliness and found family.
Sample thesis direction: Sunny’s invisibility is both a curse and a gift: it allows her to protect her friends but also renders her emotionally invisible; her arc tracks the journey from fearing abandonment to trusting that she can be seen and loved.
Evidence leads: (1) Chapter 20 – Sunny reflects that she longs to belong to the group she imagines as a family. (2) Chapter 26 – Frigo tells Sunny she is lonely because everyone is lonely. (3) Chapter 35 – After sabotaging the enemy camp, she doubts her ability to connect. (4) Chapter 41 – Alex kisses Sunny, and Sunny thinks worrying about what you cannot change is pointless. (5) Chapter 71 – Sunny refuses a final kiss, urging Alex to save herself, a selfless act of love.
7. How do the recurring symbols of fire and the Pillar of Troy structure the novel’s narrative arc?
Why it matters: Fire appears in the Oracles’ prophecies, the coronation ritual, and the final battles. The Pillar of Troy is a literal and symbolic center of the story.
Sample thesis direction: Fire represents both destruction and purification, while the Pillar symbolizes power and height; together they frame Alexia’s rise from fraud to ruler, culminating in the blue flame that signals crisis.
Evidence leads: (1) Chapter 6 – The Oracles chant “fire at her beginning … fire at her end.” (2) Chapter 52 – Alexia rides to the Pillar of Troy, the architectural heart of the empire. (3) Chapter 63 – She triggers Saint Natalia’s blue flame as a distress signal. (4) Chapter 68 – Jakob bursts from Saint Natalia’s Flame to kill Duke Michael. (5) Chapter 54 – The Hanging Gardens atop the Pillar represent a fragile paradise.
8. What is the function of the werewolf (Vigga) and the vampire (Baron Rikard) as monstrous reflections of human desires?
Why it matters: These supernatural beings are not pure evil; they struggle with hunger, identity, and morality. Their presence asks what separates human from monster.
Sample thesis direction: Vigga and Rikard embody the animal instincts and predatory appetites that humans repress; their moments of control or mercy suggest that monstrosity is a choice, not a state of being.
Evidence leads: (1) Chapter 5 – Baron Rikard uses ensorcelment to try to feed, but Diaz is warned back. (2) Chapter 11 – Vigga transforms and massacres enemies, then collapses into a sobbing woman. (3) Chapter 16 – Rikard feeds on pilgrims while claiming to take only “what can be spared.” (4) Chapter 58 – Vigga insists she is “clean inside” despite her wolf; Rikard mutters he wishes he were. (5) Chapter 68 – Vigga kills Baptiste in wolf form, showing the beast can overwhelm the human.
9. How does the novel use foreshadowing and prophecy (the Oracles, the binding) to create tension and shape reader expectations?
Why it matters: Prophecy is a classic device, but Abercrombie subverts it by making the prophecies ambiguous and often misinterpreted.
Sample thesis direction: The Oracles’ predictions are deliberately vague, creating dread rather than certainty; the story rewards rereading by showing how early hints (the binding, the fire, the threat of elves) pay off in unexpected ways.
Evidence leads: (1) Chapter 6 – Oracles speak of “a hunt within a hunt, a crooked path by land by sea.” (2) Chapter 7 – Pope Benedicta’s binding ritual is described as a simple red line, but its power is immense. (3) Chapter 43 – Balthazar’s failed demon summoning proves the binding is divine, shocking the reader. (4) Chapter 69 – Cardinal Zizka’s warning about elves is dismissed but frames the sequel. (5) Chapter 71 – Diaz wonders if the devils were tools chosen by Saint Beatrix, retroactively reframing the entire quest.
10. In what ways does the ending (the deaths of Jakob, Baptiste, and Duke Michael, and Alexia’s political compromise) fulfill or subvert the traditional heroic arc?
Why it matters: The novel ends not with a triumphant ride into the sunset but with losses and pragmatic deals. This challenges genre expectations.
Sample thesis direction: The ending rejects clean heroism: Jakob dies a martyr, Baptiste is killed by an ally, and Alexia must marry and negotiate with her enemies, showing that survival in a corrupt world requires painful compromise.
Evidence leads: (1) Chapter 68 – Jakob drags Duke Michael off the lighthouse to their mutual death. (2) Chapter 68 – Baptiste is killed by Vigga‑Wolf; Balthazar screams in horror. (3) Chapter 69 – Alexia negotiates with Cardinal Zizka, agreeing to pay a high cost for unity. (4) Chapter 70 – Jakob refuses Alexia’s offer of a crusade, choosing his oath to the Pope. (5) Chapter 71 – The “devils” are imprisoned or departed, and Alexia rules alone.
11. How does the relationship between Balthazar and Baptiste illustrate the tension between pride and vulnerability?
Why it matters: Balthazar is arrogant and desperate; Baptiste is flamboyant and sharp‑tongued. Their dynamic evolves from mutual irritation to deep affection, ending in tragedy.
Sample thesis direction: Baptiste’s relentless teasing strips Balthazar of his pretensions, allowing real intimacy; her death shatters his pride, forcing him to accept both his powerlessness and his capacity for love.
Evidence leads: (1) Chapter 5 – Baptiste jokes about Balthazar’s necromancy; he is embarrassed. (2) Chapter 16 – She taunts him, stirring unwanted attraction. (3) Chapter 27 – Baptiste binds Balthazar’s wound and scolds his self‑pity. (4) Chapter 33 – After a shipwreck, they loot corpses together; Balthazar raises the dead to claim boots. (5) Chapter 68 – Baptiste is killed; Balthazar screams in horror, a turning point.
12. What is the significance of the Chapel of the Holy Expediency as both a secret institution and a thematic symbol?
Why it matters: The Chapel operates outside conventional morality, using monsters to serve God. It embodies the novel’s central question: can evil means achieve good ends?
Sample thesis direction: The Chapel’s existence critiques institutional hypocrisy while advocating pragmatic ethics; its members are all “devils” who collectively do good, despite their personal flaws, suggesting that purity is neither possible nor necessary for holiness.
Evidence leads: (1) Chapter 3 – Cardinal Zizka tells Diaz “to fight devils one must use devils.” (2) Chapter 5 – The Chapel’s opulent exterior conceals a dungeon of prisoners. (3) Chapter 9 – The group’s origins are revealed as “last resort” agents. (4) Chapter 61 – Diaz’s coronation speech calls them devils who did God’s work. (5) Chapter 72 – A new character, Mother Beckert, is summoned to the Thirteenth Chapel, hinting at the institution’s ongoing role.
Further exploration: For a deeper discussion of themes, character profiles, and a full list of study questions, visit the main book page and the questions and answers page.