Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews March 27, 2023 March 20, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
King Arthur is the protagonist of The Once and Future King and the novel’s narrative and emotional center. The novel follows Arthur’s life from beginning to end, and the major events in his life shape the story. After Arthur becomes king, his ideas about government reshape English society, and these changes determine the plot, chronology, and setting of the four books that make up the novel. Even the novel’s title promises that although the story ends with Arthur’s death, he will always be England’s ruler. Despite Arthur’s extraordinary importance to the novel, however, he is a fairly simple character. As a child, Arthur (then called the Wart) is honest, trusting, modest, and good-hearted, and he preserves these qualities when he becomes king. King Arthur shapes his government with an important new philosophy that makes him a great king, but the ideas are Merlyn’s rather than Arthur’s. Arthur is exceptional because he believes in these ideas and is able to enact them when he becomes king.
Arthur develops a sense of world-weariness and wisdom in the novel’s later books, but this development is gradual and his basic nature is not drastically altered. Benevolent optimism keeps Arthur from acknowledging Lancelot and Guenever’s love affair early in the novel; later, the same benevolence causes him to persuade them to keep their behavior secret. Even as he grows older and wiser, Arthur is incapable of acting harshly toward the people he loves, no matter how hurtfully they treat him. In a sense, it is Arthur’s very simplicity and earnestness that enables the downfall of his reign. While the direct cause of the tragedy is Arthur’s incestuous affair with Morgause, we do get a sense that Camelot is also doomed because it has stagnated. The energy and progress of Arthur’s early reign slows to a halt, and Arthur becomes a defender of the status quo. This lack of innovation sets in around the time that Nimue imprisons Merlyn, suggesting that Arthur cannot think and develop without his old tutor. It is as though Arthur can only ride the momentum of his earlier ideas without forming any new ones. As Camelot stagnates and the quest for the Holy Grail takes its toll on the Knights of the Round Table, the Orkney faction is able to gain more power, until Camelot is too corrupt to survive.
Please wait while we process your payment