Complexity Of King Arthur
Complexity of King Arthur King Arthur is a long beloved and passed down story that originated in the 5th century and still lives on today. The first story was about Arthur being a savior to the people at the cusp of the Dark Ages and saving them from countless dangers and the newest story to my knowledge is the recent TV series Merlin, which mainly focuses on the magical side of the story and the friendship between Arthur and Merlin, as well as adding some different twists than previous famous stories about Arthur. There are many adaptations of the King Arthur fable and we still don’t know today whether he was a real human or just a story, and we never will. Actual being or not, in Sir Thomas Malory’s version of King Arthur in Le Morte d'Arthur,
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King Arthur did show some chivalric traits but not all of them. Arthur showed loyalty in Arthur and Pellinore when a knight whom had only been Arthurs knight for a short time was injured by Pellinore and Arthur ventured after him to avenge his injury (1). Arthur is also loyal to his family, which makes him a very honorable and family oriented man; he always trusts Gawain and Mordred even when he shouldn’t, in my opinion just because they’re family, not because he feels it is the right thing to do. You see Arthur feel regret for following the decisions of Gawain or for trusting Mordred to look after his kingdom while he was away and trying to steal it away from Arthur by any means (228,231), but that didn’t stop him from trusting them over someone like Sir Lancelot whom we see, even after he’d been shunned for his affair with Queen Guinevere, still be loyal and a good friend to Arthur, to an extent. Another good trait about Arthur is that he can accept his mistakes. Arthur recounts on his actions and says “Alas that I should ever have come to war with him!” when he sees the full rage and strength of Sir Lancelot in war, and realizes he should’ve accepted the peace treaty with him (229). Arthur also shows remorse and empathy throughout the story, but especially when he sees his entire army slaughtered by Mordred’s army and when he is grieving about his conflict with Sir Lancelot and accepting the wounds that would kill Sir Gawain (229). He accepts that both of those problems within his life are his fault and he feels remorse for them, which I think is a very honorable quality, however it adds to the fact that King Arthur is a complex character because in order to feel remorse he has to have made some substantial mistakes in his life, and a perfect character like Beowulf, doesn’t make mistakes. An attribute that makes Arthur a successful king is his quality to
King Arthur did show some chivalric traits but not all of them. Arthur showed loyalty in Arthur and Pellinore when a knight whom had only been Arthurs knight for a short time was injured by Pellinore and Arthur ventured after him to avenge his injury (1). Arthur is also loyal to his family, which makes him a very honorable and family oriented man; he always trusts Gawain and Mordred even when he shouldn’t, in my opinion just because they’re family, not because he feels it is the right thing to do. You see Arthur feel regret for following the decisions of Gawain or for trusting Mordred to look after his kingdom while he was away and trying to steal it away from Arthur by any means (228,231), but that didn’t stop him from trusting them over someone like Sir Lancelot whom we see, even after he’d been shunned for his affair with Queen Guinevere, still be loyal and a good friend to Arthur, to an extent. Another good trait about Arthur is that he can accept his mistakes. Arthur recounts on his actions and says “Alas that I should ever have come to war with him!” when he sees the full rage and strength of Sir Lancelot in war, and realizes he should’ve accepted the peace treaty with him (229). Arthur also shows remorse and empathy throughout the story, but especially when he sees his entire army slaughtered by Mordred’s army and when he is grieving about his conflict with Sir Lancelot and accepting the wounds that would kill Sir Gawain (229). He accepts that both of those problems within his life are his fault and he feels remorse for them, which I think is a very honorable quality, however it adds to the fact that King Arthur is a complex character because in order to feel remorse he has to have made some substantial mistakes in his life, and a perfect character like Beowulf, doesn’t make mistakes. An attribute that makes Arthur a successful king is his quality to