I'm still drained from the ending of Left Hand - and still wondering what Tibe gave to Thessicher (is that his name?) to get him to turn in Estraven. (30 pieces of silver?) What was the significance of the betrayal? Is it a comment on the human condition - man's weakness? His unworthiness? Was Thessicher Judas? How different would the ending have been without this betrayal?
Joan, yes it was upsetting that Thessicher gave up Estraven to Tibe. Estraven conjectures to Ai that "Tibe must have a price on my head." Ai replies, "The damned ungrateful traitor!...whose betrayal was of a friend."
"He is that," said Estraven, "but I asked too much of him, strained a small spirit too far."
Earlier we are told that Thessicher risked the confiscation of his property by sheltering them. Since he owed that property to Estraven who had bought the farm for him, and might be destitute if Estraven had not done that, it seemed not unjust to ask Thessicher to run some risk in return. But Estraven asked for help, not "in repayment but as a matter of friendship, counting not on Thessicher's obligation but on his affection."
Estraven didn't want to put a formal obligation on Thessicher but wanted to ask him for this risky favor out of his own good will, courage and affection. Apparently Thessicher was a "small spirit" and didn't have enough of those characteristics. He was either (or both) greedy for financial gain or to be in favor with Tibe, rather than risk being found out as a traitor consorting with a traitor.
It seems to me that Le Guin is saying that we're all traitors to someone at some times in our life. We are all flawed but what motivates us is what makes the difference.
Here are some
traitor relationships I see:
--Estraven became a traitor in the view of Karhide by working with people like Thessicher, in order to prevent a war
--Thessicher became a traitor to Estraven for personal gain
--Ai became a traitor to Estraven by not asking the king to clear Estraven's name
before Ai called for his ship to land, as a condition of its landing. He was concerned the king would be persuaded not to go through with the meeting with the Ekumen if he made that demand.
It also was heartbreaking that Ai only recognized in the instant that Estraven skiied toward the guards all that Estraven had risked to help Ai fulfill the quest of the Ekumen--something that Estraven (and only Estraven of all the planet) fully believed in from the start.