Summary:
In his book The Once and Future King, T.H. White presents the reader with the very different lives of King Arthur and Lancelot and show their actions in a way that allows the reader to formulate different opinions about these men. While both men display flaws in judgment and achieve great things, Lancelot is clearly the more flawed of the two.
The integrity and honor of a man is based on many aspects in life. One may look at the actions of a person to determine how they react to certain situations. Deceitfulness and loyalty are common attributes of a person from which judgments can be obtained. Friendships are also a reliable source to ascertain one's self-morals and principles. In T.H. White's, The Once and Future King, the reader is presented with the lives of two very different men and their actions allow the reader to formulate different opinions about these men. Either one of them could be seen as the hero of Camelot or the down-bringer of it. Camelot is a place of deceit and sin and while many people think that the most honorable people in Camelot are Arthur, the king, and Lancelot, Arthur's best knight, these men have many of their own problems. So, who characterizes the lesser of the two evils? Arthur is able to accomplish many positive things such as using might for right and staying loyal to his friends, where Lancelot is a disloyal man whose only loyalty is to the code of knights, which he eventually breaks, showing that he is the more flawed man.
Throughout Arthur's rule, he learns from his experiences, as some of his decisions come back to haunt him. One of Arthur's faults results in being seduced by his half-sister, Morgause. In order to kill the child they have, Arthur sends all of the children of England of a certain age out on a boat to be killed. Arthur claims, "I wanted to destroy Mordred for his own sake" (548). Arthur didn't want his son to be raised as a mistake between he and his half-sister but this may be one decision, which his country's citizens frown upon. Everyone with children will be deprived of them, causing hatred towards Arthur and he cannot risk such a devastating blow to his reputation in his career. Arthur's desire to avoid fate becomes evident here. He should have just gone to Morgause and taken care of the problem himself but he does not. Arthur, however, shows many good leadership qualities. He is a just leader who stresses the technique of using might for right, which was necessary for Camelot to evolve and to gain the trust of his people. The times are described, "When the old King has came to his throne it has been an England of armored barons, and of famine, and of war" (529). Without King Arthur's changes to society he would not have become such a famous king. He was able to stop the bedlam in which knights had more freedoms than anyone else and they could go around killing and raping whomever they wanted with no consequences. King Arthur shows again that he is the less flawed man with his devotion to loyalty. Even when he knows his best friend, Lancelot, is sleeping with his wife, he has the decency to warn them of upcoming danger. He says, "Mordred is an unhappy young man, and I am afraid he might try and means of giving me an upset. It, for instance, he could see a way of getting at me through you, dear, or through Gwen, I am sure he would try it. Do you see what I mean"" (550). Arthur is noble enough to warn his friend of a trap. As king, this may be a flaw, but Arthur values his friendship more than anything else and this is a good quality of any man.
Lancelot is supposedly Arthur's best knight. Having the ability to beat anyone in a fight makes him appear as such more an innocent man. People look up to Lancelot because he is the strongest and the bravest of all men, but what the common folk do not see is his unfaithfulness to his King. After sleeping with Elaine, whom he thinks is Guenever, Lancelot rushes to Guenever to sleep with her. He thinks, "He has slept with Guenever already in deceit, already had been cheated of his tenfold might. He was a lie now, in God's eyes as he saw them, so he felt that he might as well be a lie in earnest" (379). This is a daring move by Lancelot because he knows the punishment of treason is beheading but he still decides to move upon his sentiments. After Lancelot sleeps Elaine he rushes to sleep with Guenever because he figures he cannot be a pure knight anymore. He is not concerned with the fact that Guenever is his king's wife. Another flaw of Lancelot is his ignorance of danger. Besides the fact that he is forewarned about the trap set by Mordred to catch him sleeping with Guenever, he still decides to go to her room anyways. Lance talks about Arthur saying, "But he doesn't want to have things upset. He would never catch us unless he was made to" (541). Lancelot's ignorance leads to Mordred and Agravaine trapping him in her room, thus letting the kingdom know of his treason. Lancelot takes advantage of Arthur's kindness and abuses it to the point where he should be killed. Lancelot's poor decisions and attitude thankfully catch up to him.
Many readers compare these two men and ask which is the better man. Lancelot and Arthur both achieve miraculous things. Lancelot is able to pursue the toughest quests and win the most grueling fights, but this does not compensate for the treason that he commits. He lives with a dirty secret a good portion of his life and this is what makes him the more flawed man. Lance again proves himself unworthy to the king. After being caught in the act of cheating, he escapes for a while and during his process of rescuing Guenever from being burned at the stake he kills two unarmed men, which is very unknightly. Gawaine comes into the chamber announcing, "It is true! It is true! I found a man wha' saw it done. Poor Gaheris and our wee brother Gareth-he has killed them both, unarmed" (587). This is strange because the one aspect of purity of a knight that Lancelot has kept up until this point is not to kill unarmed men. Arthur shows himself to be increasingly respectable through the book. There is one time, in particular, when Arthur goes against his loyalty to his friend. When the bishop of Rochester decides to make Lance walk back to France to be banished from England, Arthur goes with Gawaine to keep the law of justice. One day back at the castle a maid asks why King Arthur has gone with Gawaine and Guenever explains, "I think the King goes with Sir Gawaine because he is trying to be just. He thinks that the Orkneys have a right to demand justice for Gareth's death-and I suppose they have" (606). This could be seen as disloyal but he is trying to keep the order that he has been fighting for his whole life. If he did not than all the steps he has taken to create a justice system would be meaningless. Every action that Arthur takes has much thought behind it and a just reason but Lance acts rashly and does not think his actions through.
Arthur is able to accomplish many positive things such as using might for right and staying loyal to his friends. Lancelot shows many more flaws as a disloyal man whose only loyalty is to that of the code of knights, which he does not keep. As an inexperienced leader, Arthur makes the stupid mistake of sending off all the children of England to die. This was an act of mass murder but he redeems himself with all of the other things that he does, which are to try and improve his kingdom. He gives his best friend a second and third chance to redeem himself and is able to change the ways of the time so that might is used for right. Lancelot, on the other hand, is the more flawed man because he cannot get his priorities straight. He falls in love with his king's wife and is ignorant about it, but the only thing keeping him the littlest bit civilized was that he kept to the code of the knights, which he eventually breaks when he killed the two unarmed men at Guenever's burning. Literature uses a comparison aspect to excite the reader and contrasting characters are the ones that intrigue the reader. Lancelot does not belong in Camelot.
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