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Character Role Analysis

King Mark / King Arthur

King Mark and King Arthur share some obvious similarities. Like, they're both kings. And although the mythology surrounding Arthur was just growing up at this point, people reading the Romance of Tristan might have been aware that Arthur, too, formed part of a tricky love triangle with his wife and one of his knights. Unlike Mark, though, Arthur seems able to control his knights. When he commands them to show up in Cornwall ready for jousting, you better believe they do it. Though there's also that detail about Camelot falling in the end.

More importantly, Arthur's able to protect the members of his household, something Perinis reminds us when he remarks that "no threats have ever been made to your court, even by a man from some distant kingdom, that have not been properly dealt with" (14.126). Perinis may be slyly alluding here to an episode in which Mark allowed a wandering minstrel to kidnap Yseut. Arthur would never allow something like that to happen in his court. Mark, on the other hand, is not even able to prevent his own barons from accusing his wife of adultery, forcing Arthur to step up to the plate as his enforcer.