Misbehaved or Misunderstood?: Sir Kay and His Audience in Four Arthurian Romances

Abstract

In Arthurian romance, Sir Kay is a controversial character. Usually, it is assumed by scholars that he is an irritant and a failure as a knight. In my thesis, I disprove this assumption, and show that there is more to Kay than meets the eye. I look at four stories from four different countries (France, Germany, England and the Netherlands) and establish Kay's character through close-reading and by studying the reactions of the intra-diegetic audience to Kay's words and actions.