Mare Barrow is the protagonist and point-of-view character of Glass Sword. After what she experienced in Red Queen, she feels like different parts of herself have died. She isn’t sure who she is now: “I only know what she has been and what she has lost, and the weight of it is almost crushing” (31). At the outset of the series, Mare knew who she was and where her life was going—a Red destined to live poorly but surrounded by people who care about her. Now, Mare has become the face of a rebellion and the most wanted Red in the kingdom, things that weigh on her more and more as the story progresses.

In Red Queen, Mare’s greatest flaw was her quick temper and inability to hide her emotions, which proved a weakness in the Silver court. In Glass Sword, Mare’s temper has become a tool, and her new fatal flaw is her fear of being alone. This is ironic as she also spends much of the book thinking about how she wants no one around her because they are a distraction. Her fear also foreshadows her choice to give herself up to Maven at the end of the book and how she will be alone as a prisoner at the beginning of the next book.