Character and characterization in some Middle English Arthurian romances

Abstract

Recent studies of the Middle English romances have concentrated on either defining the genre of romance itself, or on structuralist analysis of the story level of particular romances. In both of these approaches, character and characterization are not given attention in their own right. This thesis describes and discusses a selection of Middle English Arthurian romances as works of narrative fiction, with both the story and the discourse levels of the narrative being considered. Thus, character, characterization, and aspects of the narrator and the narratee can be discussed in each of these romances, which are grouped for comparison. Firstly, Libeaus Desconus and Sir Perceval of Galles are examined, as 'biographical' romances with a single central hero; then The Avowing of Arthur and Golagros and Gawain, as romances in which there is more than one central character, and thus, more than one point of view presented in the discourse. Next, The Carl of Carlisle and The Wedding of Sir Gawain are examined as romances constructed explicitly as tests of one central character, in which the point of view of another character provides the defining characterization of the hero. Finally, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is discussed, as the discourse presents differing points of view of the hero, and the narrator's own unrestricted point of view is employed more equivocally than in any of the other romances here. It is concluded that an important aspect in the construction of characters is the narrator's point of view. Where there is a single central character, the narrator tends to adopt a favourable point of view towards that character, and other characters are presented either as oppositions or as authoritative characterizing voices. Thus, their characterizations are very often interdependent. In the romances where implicitly differing points of view are presented, the narrator reconciles them by assimilating the potentially antithetic ones into the overall point of view of the Arthurian world, so that the discourse effectively prevails over the story. In those romances where the hero is tested by another character there is no real opposition of points of view, as the tester's point of view is the one that provides the ultimate characterization of the hero in terms that preserve the inner consistency of the discourse. This is not so, however, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as the differing points of view in the discourse are not so explicitly resolved for the narratee, so that multiple judgements remain possible. Even in these Arthurian romances, characters are to a considerable extent closed constructs. These narratives contain everything that is necessary for the narratee to construct the characters, even where well-known characters from the Arthurian literary tradition are present. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the characters can be constructed from the discourse, although the multiplicity of points of view of the hero presents some aspects of a reputation drawn from conflicting traditional characterizations, so that his character is an open construct to this extent.