CHARACTERS
The
characters who live in the village are fifteen but in the text doesn´t
appear
all of them.
Melchior à he has twelve years old
and as
Agatha (one of the women of the village) said “is a lost cause”. He also believes that he will never be a
good
man,”he is a hoodlum”. Melchior hasn´t dialogue at any time in the text, the
characters simply mention his name.
Mike
Benedetti has another hypertext with the title of Melchior and Melchior
in this
tale is also a young boy who decides to take revenge of the king
because he has
killed his entire family, but this story has nothing to do with The
Monkeys.
William
à
is
a child
of the village that has one year old. We could say that is the main
character
of the story because the action revolves around him. Is the child that
the women
chose to act like a monkey in the palace of the king during a whole
day. He
speaks like an adult and if it was not because the author tells us his
age we
can perfectly think that he is an adult person.
His attitude and his way of speaking are cold, something unusual in a
small
child. He is impulsive. He kills the king and has no remorse for it,
and after
that defies the king's soldiers with provocative manners, as if he were
a
killing machine.
Agatha
à one of the women of the
village.
In the meeting at which they decide which of the two boys (William or
Melchior)
must be submit to the king, Agatha said arguments against Melchior and
supports
William because in her opinion Melchior
“is a hoodlum and a lost
cause”
Agnes
à
other of
the women of the village. Contradicts
Agatha and supports Melchior because she thinks that, being
older, Melchior is more likely to survive
than
William.
Alberta à spoke only once,
interested in the
opinion of Adriatica. Accused Abbatreia of knowing the martial
arts.
Adriatica à is the woman who proposed
the end
of the demandation of the king and his assasination, training one of
the two
children in martial arts and sending him to the king. She seems the
smartest of
all the women, and it shows that she has influence over the rest because they, inmediately,
accept
her plan. She worries about the
fate of
the village and think that, basically,
they don´t have to
decide the
fate of the youth.
Abatreia à is the only one that does
not seem
agree with the plan of Adriatica and rejects it with hysteria. He knows
martial
arts but when the rest of the women accused her to know these arts
denies it
and remains silent, sitting on the floor, while the other developed the
plan.
With this attitude, we can see that Abbatreia has a weak and coward character and is not very good defending
herself when is talking face to
face
with others.
The
king à The king of this story is
not a
king like in the usual stories. In usual tales kings may be different :
noble
king´s, good king´s, wise and courageous or tyrants and evils.
Generally the way in that they acts is often based on a rational
reason, in a
plan drawn up, and although they committ follies, this tend to have a
justification.
In the stories of Mike Benedetti there is no justification, acts are
irrational
or impulsive.
The king of this story has a curious obsession and demands every year
that a
child from each village acts like a monkey in front of
him.
His
entertainment consists in stupid and encourages William to behave
badly. He
finally dies drowned at the hands of William. He is not a good example
of how
it should be a king and in the history we can see that his subjects did
not
have much appreciation to him.
Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
©Marta Soler Gamero /marsoga@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press