How much control do you think Luzia has over her circumstances?

Early on, Luzia compares her situation with her employer’s, wondering if she had the opportunity, if she’d prefer to “sit on a cushion and embroider all day” like Valentina or if would it be better to continue spending her life as a scullion. How much control do you think she has over her circumstances? What would your choice be?

Tough question but my instinct is no she did not.

The question is a little confusing...do you mean, could she change from being a scullion to a lady of leisure...well, she tried to do that, and we know how that came out. I doubt if she would have wanted to really be Valentina--she didn't understand her circumstances, just saw that she was living a better life than Luzia. Would I rather be a scullion with powers or an unhappy married lower-level noble person? I guess I'd pick the scullion.

She was a scullion, if you think about a caste system, she didnt have any power. Just because she has magic, doesn't mean she has power. In a caste society, position is power. Magic doesn't change that unless she kills everyone and then she is alone and it doesn't really matter then, does it.

So basically this question is a weird one because obviously she's a woman in a time period where there was no power even if she was rich she wouldn't have had power.

I think it's pretty clear based on the last few pages of the novel, that she has total control over her circumstances. The author chose that point in the narrative to reveal this information but if she had made this point clear earlier, this story would have taken on a completely different story line.

I think in the beginning Luzia had no control. She grew into her control and in the end she had total powerful control. Did anyone see glimmers of “The Hunger Games” in this novel?

I do not think she had any control. Her parents were dead. Her aunt was not helpful. She had no one that cared about her. She was a scullion she had to work to live.

Women had very little power in those times. Even though Valentina was married to a moderately wealthy man, she had no control over her life despite better quality basics-food and clothes and shelter (as compared to Luiza), she still did not have very much relative to others in her circle. Hualit had lots of fine clothes and delicious food and a beautiful home, but she was totally dependent on the moods and whims of her patron, Victor. Luzia wanted to live in a fine home, but be safe from men, and have the opportunity to read as many books as she wanted all day-instead she slept on a floor, with little food or clothes and nothing to read. Either choice was horrible, to be a scullion or to live Valentina's life-but since Valentina had a slightly better quality of life I would have probably chosen hers.

For this period in history, Luzia had very little control over her circumstances in the beginning. She was fighting to survive. She might have had a bit more control as she was entered into the competition (choosing to win at each level or walking away). At this point, she is beginning to make decisions for herself. “She was done going hungry.” However, all decisions have costs.

That’s a complicated question as it depends on what she truly valued, true freedom would not include being dependent on a benefactor or husbands whims, yet being a indentured servant to an unhappy middle class noble, she would still have to deal with someone else’s temperament and needs. Which one could her magic make more tolerable? She chose to please her benefactor and live a more comfortable life but there was a cost.

In the beginning Luzia is depicted as a lowly scullion with no control over her life at all. Slowly Bardugo reveals little things that indicate Luzia's ability to control a lot of things. We learn that she used the words she had gleaned from letters to help her in her everyday work. Words to open locks so she didn't have to search for a key. Words to make the bread new again. Words to add extra eggs and vegetables to the market basket. The song she uses to split firewood. A song she used when the coals in the hearth went cold. Words to repair the gown and then words to restore the broken glasses. She has hidden her ability to read and write so is considered merely another little scullion destined to serve her masters. But she has been aware that there is a stronger refrane somewhere inside her. She feels it when she passes Victor's coach with Santangel inside. As the story progresses, Luzia learns more and more about the power she has, and is prepared to use it when she must. I think she has always had a great deal of control and has learned to use it.