Protagonist

Character Role Analysis

Wart/Arthur; Lancelot

In Books 1, 2, and 4, Arthur is the guy we're following most of the time. The narrator pays the most attention to him, and we root for him as he learns his lessons from Merlyn (and later through his own process of trying things out) and struggles from boyhood into kingship and into the more complex and challenging relationships he has with Guenever, Lancelot, and the Orkney clan.

But Book 3 (the longest book) shines the spotlight on Lancelot and his developing relationship with Guenever. It's his turn to take center stage, and move our attention away from Arthur for big chunks of time. We follow him through his knightly training, his love affair with Guenever, his troubled relationship with Elaine and Galahad, and all the fallout that eventually happens because of the whole adultery thing.