Throughout the four books, Arthur is relatively consistent in staying true to his honor. Rather than focusing on his own tyrannical obsessions, he makes it a point to put the well-being of his kingdom first. In order to further establish a more democratic type of approach in his ruling, he develops the Round Table in book II. This is extremely significant, for he denounces his own power, and sits equal among the other knights of the Round Table in order to avoid a power hungry mindset among his knights, and ultimately his kingdom. This is not
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the first time he sacrifices his own pride for the well-being of Camelot. When Lancelot, his best knight, and Guenever, his wife, carry on with their torrid love affair, he pretends not to know anything about it, just so his kingdom and he can be saved. Though ignorance is not the kingly way to deal with a moral problem, he remains ignorant with the best of intentions.
Before any inkling of their affair, Arthur trustingly leaves Lancelot to watch the kingdom while he leaves for France to aid Lancelot’s father, King Ban, when under attack. Ironically, Arthur is gone for a twelve month period in order to insure the safety of Lancelot’s father, whereas Guenever and Lancelot freely carry on their affair, relieved of great stress with Arthur’s absence.
Though a good king, Arthur is not the perfect king. His first violation of knighthood lies in Book II, chapter 11 where he battles against Lot and the rest of the Gaels at Bedegraine. He attacks Lot during the night, and brings his French allies to help conquer, thereby easily defeating the Gaelic army, and with the help of the French, significantly enlarging the power of England, yet not in the glorified, knightly way. Similarly, the seduction from his half sister, Morgause, leads to the creation of Mordrid, who later tries to conquer England. Mordrid is the result of an incestuous, adulterous affair and is thereby the depiction of everything ugly, and ultimately, is the cause of Arthur’s last battle in Candle in the Wind. Arthur’s failure to resist her evil love potion results in his downfall, as White suggests in Book II, chapter 3.
Perhaps another reason for Arthur’s downfall is a result of his kind and honest disposition. When Lancelot and Guenever are directly caught in their adulterous relationship, Arthur, based on his own laws, is forced to burn Guenever, and yet feels relieved when Lancelot comes to her rescue. In everything he does, Arthur believes in justice and in doing
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what is right, but his faith in good sometimes makes him blind to the intrigue around him. These qualities are responsible for the deterioration of Camelot.
Lancelot, Arthur’s best knight and the commander of his forces, has a love affair with Guenever, Arthur’s queen. Although he is considered to be the greatest knight in Arthur’s court, he struggles constantly with feelings of guilt and inadequacy. The hidden tension between violence and chivalry is best embodied by Lancelot, for he cannot live up to the expectation of being both a strong knight and a pious man. As a result, his dishonorable actions cause Camelot, and knighthood alike, to decline.
White describes this conflict appropriately merely within the name of the third book in his series, The Ill-Made Knight. This is when Lancelot is first introduced to the reader. He forms a quick friendship with Arthur when doing squire work for his Uncle Dap. His talents shine through, and Arthur allows him to become his newest Round Table knight. This is when his relationship with Guenever further evolves, and White plays on Lancelot’s conscious and pleasure, stating in Book III chapter give, “If he were a less-principled man, Lancelot might simply run off with Guenever.” Instead, Lancelot fights his attraction. White, who continually emphasizes Lancelot’s distorted, ugly features, shows that by immersing himself in quests to try to forget Guenever, he becomes a hero, which in turn makes her fall more in love with him. Lancelot initially is unable to act on his love for Guenever because his religion and Arthur’s own principles about fairness and justice forbid him to do so. When debating whether or not he should sleep with her, he decides on the latter, and begins another quest. He encounters a young girl, Elaine, placed in a vat of boiling water, who only has the capacity to be rescued by the best Knight. Lancelot rescues her; she falls in love with him,
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and thereby tricks him into sleeping with her, thinking that she is Guenever. Sleeping with Elaine has contaminated Lancelot’s quest to the point where he thinks that his entire knighthood has been corrupted. Now that Lancelot’s two worlds have been forced to mingle, Lancelot sees no reason to ruin them altogether, and sleeps with Guenever.
Down the line, Guenever learns that Elaine gives birth to Ghalad, Lancelot’s son, which places distrust in an already dishonorable relationship. When Elaine tricks Lancelot into bed a second time, Lancelot, for a very long while, loses his state of mind, and thereby transforms into “the wild man.” He later regains his sanity, but no longer regards himself as the greatest knight, for he is defeated in combat thrice- by his son, a group of knights, and a knight dressed in black. This is extremely significant, for he thinks that when confessing of his deeds and cleansing himself of his soul, his knighthood would return. To further keep his own honor, he refrains from sleeping with Guenever, despite the love he feels for her. He tries his hardest be honorable, but is torn. Guenever orders him to leave, for his presence tortures her, but he comes back to rescue her when she is accused of attempting to poison the knights attending her dinner party.
Finally, Lancelot can no longer take it. He is a slave to his passions, and sleeps with Guenever by cutting through the bars of the window to her room. He leaves his blood mark there, and Meliagrance accuses Guenever of adultery. Lancelot again saves her by fighting Meliagrance for her honor, and she is acquitted. Lancelot’s return seems to have Camelot, at this point, in high spirits, especially when Lancelot once again is considered “the greatest knight in the world,” when a man named Sir Urre pleas that his wounds can only be healed by
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the greatest knight, and Lancelot, among all the other knights, is the only one that has the ability to heal him.
Lancelot is finally able to redeem his failures and once again is able to perform the miracles he used to, but he does so because of his sins, not because of his accomplishments. When Lancelot heals Sir Urre, he cries because it seems to him that even miracles have lost their sincerity. Lancelot is not honorable to his own virtues, and the fact that he is allowed to perform miracles despite his sinfulness makes the whole endeavor seem somewhat cheap to him. He is humble, yet proud; ambitions, yet self-loathing, feeling that his love for Arthur, Guenever, and God are in conflict. His desire to be with Guenever forces him to lie to his own king, kill Meliagrance for rightfully accusing Guenever of adultery, and furthermore, ignore Ghalad, his upright, virtuous only son. Lancelot is the epitome of power and greatness to those in Camelot, and yet he inwardly feels none of that honor, but feels helpless and unworthy. Yet, despite all his sins, he still has the capacity to perform a miracle, curing a man with deadly wounds. He can ultimately only save others, for he is swimming in so much sin that he cannot even save himself.
Despite all of Lancelot’s sin, White does not by any means portray him as a treacherous character, but rather, one rocked to the core by indecision. Rather than bragging of his amazing knighthood, he acknowledges his superb fighting skills but inwardly struggles with the idea of being “the greatest knight in the world.” This causes the reader to question how important honor is in knighthood, or in general. All of Arthur’s knights, including Lancelot, contradict the virtuous, knightly ethics. Among all the knights presented in The Once and Future King, Ghalad is the most honorable, and yet he is disliked by many. White
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thereby portrays virtue as a farce. Similarly, Arthur’s own honesty leads to the destruction of Camelot. Perhaps White is suggesting that corruption is essential for conquest, domination, and leadership. Mordrid, who possesses all those ugly characteristics, is seemingly on his way to overcoming Arthur’s benevolence, and Arthur acknowledges to the young squire, Thomas, that though technically his reign will most likely end, he encourages the young squire to have his legacy will live on.
In his novel The Once and Future King, TH White uses King Arthur and Sir Lancelot in order to portray the concept of honor in Camelot, or lack thereof. No matter how hard Lancelot tries to remain true to his own ethics, he ends up violating them, and spends his reign as the supreme knight living in self-doubt, which is hardly the qualification of a great knight. No matter how virtuous and upright Arthur is, Camelot stands corrupted.