Who Is The Protagonist In The Palace Theif

The typical fictional protagonist is a dynamic, likeable and awe-inspiring character. Someone you could be proud of in the end, someone you wish you knew or could be. That is the sort of person one might have expected Mr. William Hundert, main protagonist of the short story “The Palace Theif” in the book, The Palace Thief, by Ethan Canin, to be. That expectation is supported by the fact that Hundert started out as a moral-driven, passionate, school- and student-loving teacher and antiquarian. Unfortunately, Hundert falls (quite) short of those expectations. By the end of the story, after years of teaching, being the headmaster, and eventually beginning retirement, Hundert had become a morally-depraved, obsessive, narcissistic old man who not only refuses to learn from past mistakes, but remained stagnant for the better part of his life – and not for the better. While time may pass, people do not necessarily change or improve. As mentioned before, Hundert started as quite the admirable person. He loved teaching, he loved his student, and St. Benedict’s “was [Hundert’s] life” (Canin, p. 155). He firmly believed in what he was teaching his kids and that it was for the betterment of their futures, even …show more content…
Hundert was betrayed – the completion, the gathering, whether Sedgewick had won or lost was still all about Sedgewick. Hundert, jealous and upset, had believed the gathering was all about him and his former students bathing in his glory, but it was not. In retaliation, Hundert resolved to avoid Sedgewick. “How my mind raced that night through humanity’s history of injustice, depravity, and betrayal!... I felt like the spurned sovereign in the castle tower, looking down from his balcony onto the procession of the false potentate” (Canin, p.