The four sons of Morgause
Book two is very enlightening as to the four boy's, the sons of Morgause and King Lot, characters.
Gawaine-- is strong but not very smart, but he is the oldest and therefor the other three are forced to listen to him. He elects himself the captain of the expedition based on that right even the Geharis thought of the idea to get a unicorn first. He also almost kills Agravaine with his bare hands and the other two were forced to pull him off. He is the one wants to fight in wars and battles the most. He wants to carry on the blood feud.
Agravaine, the book flat out says is a bully. He is cunningly smart as opposed to true intelligence. He is arrogant and prideful. He must always be right even if that means he must be hurt doing so. Tied with that he can't do wrong either, when he killed the unicorn against the other's plan he defended himself with such anger, he could not be wrong in this or anything else. There is something twisted about him.
Geharis- seems very hesitant about doing anything. He doesn't cause arguments. He stays out of the others way.
Gareth- He's thoughtful, he thinks of more then war. He thinks much like King Arthur does. He cried at the death of the unicorn and thought they should never have gone after it. As the youngest he is rarely if ever listened to and often told to be quiet.
This insight into the four sons makes them seem less like flat cardboard cut out plot characters but real people with real problems. And makes one curious, how is Gawaine going to come to serve Arthur and so loyally as he is said to do? Gawaine's fits of anger, like his brother's death seems more in character. Agravaine's mischief about Guinevere seems completely in character for him now.
Sorry it's late Murphy has been haunting my house, and I am desperately trying to dodge him...
Another interesting development I noticed is with Arthur, though he is head strong Arthur still manages to begin to have true development as a character. He is not painted to be perfect, having extended knowledge of Guinevere and Lancelot also brings up the interest of how he will deal with what he already knows is inevitable now. I also now feel bad for cats, as they are quite the potion ingredient for all your magical needs in this narrative....
ReplyDeleteThat's why witches have black cats, they can always get a new one, and they always have a cat on hand...
ReplyDeleteThis book has a weird take on magic... Cats are extremely necessary and Unicorns only appear to virgins.
ReplyDeleteI do enjoy the additional insight that White gives us towards some of the best known characters in Arthurian legend. Seeing them as children can give us some insight as to why they act the way they do when they are older.