Who Is Hundert's Character In The Palace Thief

“ And I see that you have not changed either,” spoken by Sedgewick Bell reveals the central idea of “The Palace Thief,” a short story written by Ethan Canin. Hundert, the main character and narrator, is a teacher at St. Benedicts School who narrates his encounters with Sedgewick Bell, the son of a formidable Virginian senator. The story is narrated after Hundert’s experiences during the second competition. Hundert’s character is greatly reflected in both of the “Mr. Julius Caesar” competitions. Possibly the most prominent and important theme is that because of Hundert’s conflicting motivations and interactions with Sedgewick and the other students he does not change throughout the short story.
Prior to the abrupt arrival of Sedgewick Bell

To the narrator, “it was apparent that such efforts (teaching humility through history, etc.) would be lost on him (Canin, 157).” Hundert experiences a reality check when he meets Bell Senior and is intimidated into realizing that the changing of Sedgewick’s character is beyond is control. The arrival of Sedgewick shows Hundert how flawed his characters is, such as when in the first “Mr. Julius Caesar” competition Hundert is not mentally strong enough to stand up for what is right and expose Sedgewick’s cheating. Sedgewick is slowly able to manipulate the narrator, as shown on page 172 when Hundert says “ instead of enforcing my own code of morals, I had allowed Sedgewick Bell to sweep me summarily into his.” From this statement not only can we see that Hundert is feeble minded, but we can also determine from various confessions on pages 172 and 173 that Hundert clearly recognizes the fact that his “conviction waned” (Canin, 172). Hundert has developed the basis for a continual cycle of conflicting motivations. At the end of this cycle, Hundert does fail to commit to his morals and later in the short story he realizes that maybe if he had had the will to do the right thing, Sedgewick’s future and the narrator’s own career might have been

Hundert, despite the chain of events affecting everyone else, remains unchanged by time. In both competitions, Hundert’s morals were tested and failed, Sedgewick cheated, and Hundert felt proud for Sedgewick, then worried that he would fail, then ashamed that he cheated and felt responsible. Both times one can observe that the narrator lacks the will to do what is right, “…it became perfectly clear…that I lacked the resolve to do so” (Canin, 178)