A Darker Shade of Magic

Color symbolism plays a key role in Schwab’s worldbuilding and enhances the novel’s setting, stakes, and character development. Each of the four interconnected cities is represented by a color that gives insight into its true nature. Kell Maresh calls his home Red London after the color of healthy, balanced magic. His thriving world is illuminated by the Isle, a crimson river that “glitter[s] like a jewel, lit from within, a ribbon of constant light unraveling through Red London. A source. A vein of power. An artery” (44). Schwab associates the color red with vitality, life, and power. Red London’s color symbolism marks it as a safe and prosperous place filled with magic, a stark contrast to the other worlds Kell visits. Grey London is a grim place suffused with the smell of smoke; people there must rely on industry because they “had forgotten magic long ago” (22). Grey London is a representation of real-world 1800s London, a crowded, realistic metropolis concerned with industrial developments like steam and gas power. Color symbolism helps the reader understand the privileged life Kell enjoys in Red London and the struggles Lila Bard endures in Grey London.

If gray represents a world in which magic is forgotten and fading, white represents a world utterly starved for magic. After the realms sealed themselves off from one another, the people of White London forsook the balance between magic and humanity and sought to dominate magic. As a result, the magic retreated from them, taking the city's life and color with it: “[E]very inch of the city, day or night, summer or winter, bore the same pall, as though a fine coat of snow—or ash—had settled over everything. And everyone” (87). While many Western fantasy stories use the color white to reflect purity, light, and goodness, Schwab associates white with death, cold, and emptiness. The power imbalance in White London explains how corrupt rulers like the Dane twins can seize control and why they’re determined to take over the flourishing Red London.

Despite White London’s foreboding nature, the most ominous world of the four by far is Black London. In Schwab’s world, the color black represents “magic without balance, without order, without restraint” (44). Black London is the only world Kell didn’t name himself. The lost world “had a wealth of magic in its veins” (23), and it is the opposite result of White London: Rather than magic withdrawing completely from attempts to harness it, magic in Black London grew wildly out of control until the city was completely lost. Black London has become a warning of what happens when humans toy with the balance between chaos and order. Even a fragment of Black London, such as the black stone, is enough to bring havoc and ruin to the remaining worlds.

The author’s color symbolism adds vibrancy to the novel’s settings and helps the reader understand how characters are influenced by the worlds they call home.