The Struggle Of D'artagnan As a main Character To Be and After Being A Musketeer In Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the struggles of D’Artagnan as the main character before and after becoming a musketeer in Alexandre Dumas’ novel The Three Musketeers. The novel tells the story of a young man from Gascony who travels to Paris with the ambition of joining the King’s Musketeers. Throughout his journey, D’Artagnan encounters various challenges that test his courage, loyalty, determination, and personal values. His experiences demonstrate how an individual’s character develops through conflict, friendship, and responsibility.

This study employs a qualitative descriptive method using a literary approach. The primary data consist of words, phrases, sentences, dialogues, and narrative passages taken from the novel that describe D’Artagnan’s struggles. The data are collected through close reading and documentation, then classified into two main categories: his struggles before becoming a musketeer and his struggles after achieving that position. The analysis focuses on the obstacles he faces, the strategies he uses to overcome difficulties, and the changes in his attitudes and behavior throughout the story. Characterization and conflict theories are used to support the interpretation of his experiences and personal development.

This study is expected to reveal that D’Artagnan’s struggles before becoming a musketeer are primarily associated with proving his abilities, gaining recognition, and adapting to life in Paris. After becoming a musketeer, his challenges increasingly involve protecting his friends, demonstrating loyalty, fulfilling responsibilities, and confronting threats to his honor. These experiences contribute to his maturity and strengthen his sense of duty. Through D’Artagnan’s journey, Dumas portrays struggle as an essential process of personal growth, in which courage, perseverance, friendship, and loyalty help an individual overcome obstacles and achieve meaningful goals.