Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Arthur has an almost superhuman capacity for forgiveness and an unfailing belief that other people can live according to the principles of justice, truth, and fairness. Guinevere calls him God’s “highest creature here,” the “highest and most human too” (651, 644), suggesting that Arthur is the purest expression of humanity, someone for whom “man’s word is God in man” (“Coming,” 132).
So, if you ask Shmoop, that makes our Artie a symbol for the ideal man. If honesty and truth are an omnipotent moral code that guides and rules a person’s behavior in the Idylls, then Arthur is the perfect person to uphold that code. Of course, the problem for Arthur is that he’s practically the only person in the Idylls who actually lives up to such high standards.