SOURCE: “The Character of Character in the Chansons de Geste” in The Craft of Fiction: Essays in Medieval Poetics, edited by Leigh A. Arrathoon, Solaris Press, Inc., 1984, pp. 475-98.

In the following essay Kay investigates the interaction of character and plot in various chansons de geste, particularly in Raoul de Cambrai, and argues that neither aspect holds a simple priority over the other.

The relationship between character and plot confronts the literary critic with a chicken and egg problem of ostrich proportions. How far can we dissociate what a literary character is from what he does, and supposing such dissociation to be operable, which is the proper, primary level of description in any text? Should we say, for instance, that Othello is a character liable to violent jealousy, and so can be set up to kill his ever-loving wife, or do we say that the killing of an...