The quest for the human: characterization in T. H. White's The Once and Future King and The Book of Merlyn

Resumo

This work is an analysis of characterization in T. H. White's version of the Arthurian Legend , a tetralogy entitled The Once and Futune King and a fifth novel, The Book of Merlyn, which was
published posthumously. The first part of this study presents an outline of the legend up to and including Sir Thomas Malory's text, which is the basic source for T. H. White's Arthurian series. The second part deals with the novels which constitute the tetralogy: The Sword in the Stone, The Queen of Air and Darkess, The Ill-made Knight and The Candy in the Wind,and also with The Book of Merlyn. More emphasis is given to The Sword in the Stone, the first novel of the tetralogy , which narrates the boyhood of King Arthur under the guidance of Merlyn, since it is White's original contribution to the legend and for its bearing on the other novels. Characterization is discussed as it becomes a thematic vehicle for White's contemporary preoccupation with the search for identity. Tne quest for the human is at the same time a theme and
the basis of the process of characterization used by T. H. White.