A Wizard of Earthsea

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1968

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapters 7-8

Chapters 9-10

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 3-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 3 Summary: “The School for Wizards”

Ged arrives at the school for wizards on Roke. He quickly proves himself to be one of the most naturally gifted students there, excelling beyond older students who have been there longer. He meets Vetch, a good-natured student who quickly becomes fast friends with Ged. Ged also meets Jasper, a stuck-up but talented student, who quickly becomes Ged’s rival. Ged begins to learn the theory behind the magic he longs to practice, including the dangers of overuse. He also meets an otak, a small creature who becomes his familiar of sorts. By the end of the chapter, Ged’s dislike of Jasper has increased to the point of irrational animosity, though both students usually remain civil on the surface.

Chapter 4 Summary: “The Loosing of the Shadow”

Ged continues to excel in his coursework, though he longs to learn more of the dangerous types of magic that are forbidden to younger students. At a yearly festival, Ged and Jasper’s feud comes to a head. They challenge each other to a duel of skill, where each hopes to prove his superior power. In an effort to prove himself to Jasper, the other students, and to himself, Ged recalls the spell for summoning the dead that he read in Ogion’s book. He successfully enacts the spell but unleashes an evil shadow that nearly kills him in the process. Ged has spent his strength again, and the Archmage of the school restores Ged’s life by giving his own.

Ged eventually returns to his studies after many months of recovery. He now carries scars down the right side of his body, and he has trouble speaking. His confidence is shaken, and he carries guilt that makes him struggle to keep up with his peers. Ged offers fealty to the new Archmage, but the Archmage is skeptical of what Ged is now after his encounter with the shadow. The Archmage tells him he would not allow Ged to leave Roke (Ged doesn’t want to leave anyway) because the minute he left he would be possessed by the shadow that is still looking for him. Ged must stay long enough to learn to protect himself. Ged also reveals he has seen the shadow in his dreams. When Ged returns to his studies, he does not interact with the other students.

Vetch, having earned his staff, comes to see Ged to say goodbye before leaving Roke. Vetch tells Ged he does not see studies and solitude in front of Ged but travels, dragons, cities, and seas. Vetch also tells Ged his real name, Estarriol, which Ged recognizes as a great honor and returns the favor.

Ged is now 17 years old, and it has been four years since he left home, but he remembers his past after Vetch leaves, and his purpose and resolve to be a wizard is reawakened. Ged remains protected on Roke while he finishes his studies, and he attempts to learn enough to be able to eventually vanquish the shadow he let into the world.

Chapters 3-4 Analysis

Chapters 3 and 4 focus on pride and the cost of power, and they begin to expand upon the motifs of light and dark.

When he first arrives at Roke, Ged is shown to be extremely prideful. He excels in his coursework and quickly comes to resent Jasper, another bright and prideful student. Ged “[swears] to prove to Jasper, and to all the rest of them […] how great his power really was—someday” (49). This prideful streak is what eventually causes Ged to unleash the shadow; he attempts to raise the dead to prove he is more skillful than Jasper. In this way, Ged’s pride very nearly brings his downfall as well as untold destruction if the shadow were able to possess Ged and his sorcery. However, by the end of Chapter 4, Ged has learned humility through his experience and the next year he spends at Roke. In fact, it is only through humility that Ged is allowed to leave—his final test is to speak the name of the Doorkeeper, who is the ninth Master at Roke, but he does not know it. After spending the night outside on the bank of a river pondering how he could use his magic to discover the Doorkeeper’s name, he returns to the door and admits he is neither powerful nor wise enough to learn the Doorkeeper’s name through tricks or sorcery. He tells the Doorkeeper that he will stay there and serve him unless the Doorkeeper will simply tell Ged his name when he asks, which he does, and then Ged is on his way as a full-fledged wizard.

The cost of magic and power is another major theme in these chapters. Ged’s teachers attempt to impress upon him the dangers of unchecked magic and the responsibilities they all have as practitioners of magic; one teacher tells Ged that “[a] wizard’s power […] can shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power […] It must follow knowledge, and serve need. To light a candle is to cast a shadow” (51). This lesson, however, fails to make its mark on Ged until it is too late. Here, Ged’s professor also uses the imagery of light and dark to illustrate his point.

Another of Ged’s teachers points out that Ged used magic he wasn’t ready for out of “pride and hate” (78) and that it is therefore unsurprising that Ged summoned something so terrifying. He tells Ged that the “power you had to call gives it power over you: you are connected. It is the shadow of your arrogance, the shadow of your ignorance, the shadow you cast. Has a shadow a name?” (78). This passage is especially meaningful when viewed with respect to the ending of the novel; the shadow Ged unleashes seems to be the dark parts of Ged himself.