The Protagonist and Antagonist Self

Roland and The Story of the Grail both amplify the power of self throughout the lines and characters that are told in different styles and different formats. Self is a powerful protagonist or can be an evil antagonist in any story. Self is important to any story. In these stories, the Roland and The Story of the Grail, there is the need to show how self is a powerful protagonist but at the same time a really bad antagonist. First, before one can demonstrate that, self needs to be identified. Second, self will be identified as a protagonist in the Roland. From this, there will be identifications into the protagonist in The Story of the Grail and how it relates to the protagonist in the Roland. After this, there will be a few examples of self as an antagonist in both stories the Roland and The Story of the Grail.

The idea of self or the definition of self in the dictionary states: expressing reflexive action directed toward oneself or itself. This definition of self can mean a different variety of things. First, the word reflexive means action diverted to the subject. This means that self is when a person is doing something for oneself or for itself. Second, the action towards oneself or itself could be anything. For example, self could be jealousy. Jealousy is the action to the subject. This subject being self; the self is jealous. Thus, jealousy is the action that it has towards itself or for oneself. This simply means self is amplified by the action of itself or for oneself. In a sense, self can be identified as the protagonist or antagonist depending on the action it has towards itself or for oneself.

The protagonist self in the epic “Roland” are the courageous characters Charlemagne and Roland. I believe that the King Charlemagne has the most self and exemplifies the most growth of the characters in the epic. In laisses 13, Charlemagne’s protagonist self feels an urgency to win against the infidels. Wisely, he asks his knights for advice. “King Marsilion has sent me messengers, wants to give me a great mass of his wealth…but what lies in his heart?” His self, the action of its self or for oneself, is the religious battle with the Muslims, whom they think of as an inferior race “and the antagonist in the epic”. As stated in the first laisses, “Charles the King, our emperor, the Great…has conquered the high land down to the sea. No citadel left to break down…Except Saragossa, high on a mountain. King Marsilion holds it, who does not love God.”

Charlemagne’s self has characteristics that give him the traits and action of his sense of duty, sense of honor, loyalty, chivalry, sorrow, guilt, and sense of friendship. A good example of one of these traits is from his sense of loyalty towards his men, especially Roland. In Laisse 133, 134, 135 and in 136 have examples of Charlemagne’s self. In Laisse 136 Charlemagne feels responsible for Roland’s life. After Charlemagne hears the horn, and he turns around to go backs to Roland. Laisse 136… “If only we find Roland before he’s killed, we’ll stand with him and then we’ll do some fighting!”

Roland is the second main protagonist. He is different from Charlemagne as he is trying to fight an outer battle and an inner battle for his self. This inner battle is the battle of pride, honor, duty, courage, and commitment, with an emphasis on pride. A good show of Roland’s sense of pride for his defiance in front of the enemy is from Laisse 85 from his friend Oliver. He says, “Roland, Companion, sound your olifant now, Charles will hear it, marching through those passes. I promise you, the Franks will come at once.” Roland replies. “May it never please God that any man alive should come to say that pagans … made me sound this horn: no kin of mine will ever bear that shame.” He refuses to blow the horn in order to bring Charlemagne back to help. He refused in face while facing the masses of the enemy to sound for help. It was in desperation at the brink of death that he sounds the horn. His self changes as the action or the story unfolds. His pride dwindles, and he dies.

Ganelon and the Muslims are examples of the antagonist self in this epic. The antagonist self is someone that has traits such as jealousy, greed, the idea of fortune, hatred, thoughts of murder, ill will towards others, lack of honor, lack of chivalry, lack of duty, lack of friendship, and lack of virtue. The dealing between the Muslim King and Ganelon takes place in Laisse 42. Ganelon starts to sell his nephew out by saying, “while one man lives: Roland!” Muslims are seen as the pagans. They make a deal with Ganelon to kill Roland. Marsilion the King of the Muslims asks of Ganelon from Laisse 49, “Show us the way to put Roland to shame.” They set a trap. Ganelon betrays Roland. Betrayal is an action of self at oneself or itself. The Muslims are shown to have no honor, and have no virtue. Naimon announces Ganelon’s betrayal in Laisse 135 by saying, “It is a baron’s breath…. He betrayed him! And now asks you to fail him!” Ganelon is the traitor and dies for his betrayal. The ultimate antagonist self is one that lets their jealousy, hatred, lying, lack of duty, lack of friendship, and lack of virtue lead their actions towards the destruction of one self. As one can note from above, the epic “Roland” has its protagonist and antagonist selves.

The Story of the Grail also has two characters that show the self in a protagonist way. In this story, the plot line is more complicated and there is greater character development. It’s not a story driven by the action against the Muslims. This is a story of bad Knights, a journey, and a myth from the Celtics. This story is also about King Arthur. This story’s selves exhibit knight traits such has honor, duty, commitment, loyalty, courtly behaviors, and religious faith towards God. Both characters Perceval and King Arthur are the protagonist self. The antagonist selves are the knights that go against the honor code of knight traits. Lets look at King Arthur as a protagonist and what his importance to the story is, and how his self shows the traits of a good king.

King Arthur is the king of Britain as the legend goes. He is one example of a protagonist for The Story of the Grail. His action towards oneself and on itself is his honor toward his knights. From page 1337 King Arthur says,

“Good brother, welcome! Pray do not take it ill that I met your greeting with silence. Anger kept me from replying. My worst enemy, who hates and terrifies me most, has even here laid claim to my land, and is so mad as to threaten to take it, whether I will or no […] That knight would not have roused my anger, whatever he said, but he snatched the cup before me and raised it so widely that all the wine with which it was filled poured over the Queen. That was a vile and churlish deed.”

King Arthur’s commitment to his knights and his company of men show he is a good king. People love him. There are people who are jealous. There are knights that want to take his lands. He has fear as a leader. He is not a weak leader. He shows this through his actions and his words. He has deep regrets and takes no pleasure in killing. Killing for King Arthur in this story is the last resort. King Arthur’s self as a protagonist is he is the good king. He is the king anyone would want. He was admired for centuries, and stories were written about him across the channel. The Celtics and their legends are well known. Perceval is another protagonist in “The Story of the Grail.”

Perceval’s trait as a protagonist self is in the way he is naïve to his situation. He has no clue as how to become a knight, or what a knight is. Perceval’s mother states his ignorance on page 1333.

“You will go to court of the King and ask him to give you arms. There will be no refusal. I know he will give them to you. But when you try to use those arms, what will happen? How will you know how to do what you have never done before and never seen others doing? I fear you will do badly; you will be wholly unskilled, and it does not seem strange to me that one does not know what one has not learned.”

His other traits make him a flip flop as an antagonist as well as the protagonist. He serves two purposes. At the beginning he has no knowledge of the honor code of a knight, and has no honor code towards the advice of his mother towards women. He shows this on page 1335.

“The youth had strong arms and embraced her clumsily, knowing no better and stretched her out under him, and though she defended herself and struggled to escape as best she could, her effort was in vain.”

He grows throughout the story and learns the Chivalry code of honor, commitment, virtue, duty, and taking out knights who are the antagonist. There is also the question of faith as a part of the protagonist self in this story. The antagonist knights in this story are a bit darker then Perceval’s mistakes along the way.

Those knights that Perceval meets along the way as a knight are the antagonist self. They go against honor, commitment, virtue, duty, and their treatment of woman. There is also the use of woman as antagonist in some situations. Like when Perceval takes a woman that has a lover, and the lover blames the woman. The woman is seemed to be the antagonist self. She cheated and should have been able to stop Perceval. The lover comes back to the maiden. On page 1336 he states the following.

“Say rather that you took pleasure in it and refused him nothing! […] Surely, I know you too well and am not so blind or so squint eyed that I do not see your falsity. You have started on a wicked path; you have taken a painful road. […] The clothes which you are wearing shall not be changed, but you shall follow me on food and naked until I have his head. No other punishment will I choose.”

There is also the self of lying being an action for oneself or at itself. The action of lying, the action of being too forward is an attribute in the antagonist self. Perceval has some of these traits.

I believe the epic “Roland” and in The Story of the Grail contain examples of both the protagonist self and the antagonist self. These two stories amplify the self and the definition of selves. Throughout both, there are challenges and instances where the traits can be found in the characters in the two stories. While The Story of the Grail is a novel and Roland is a poem, they both deal with Chivalry and knights. They both deal with jealousy, hatred, anger, lying, faithfulness, honor, duty, and love of both antagonist and protagonist self. The self as defined is expressing reflexive action directed toward oneself or itself.