Thursday, September 5, 2013
Morte Darthur
While harsh I believe that Arthur's decision to put his wife to death for adultery was the appropriate response for that time period. We discussed how the Anglo-Saxons allowed for blood payments for wrong doings against each other. They depicted people that broke the social norms as monsters. I believe that this story is doing the same thing to Lancelot and Guinevere. For knights the woman held on a pedestal and is unachievable. However, when Lancelot taints her purity, she falls from that pedestal and must be pay for her sins with her life according to the customs of the time. Lancelot must also pay a blood price for his betrayal of his lord. At the cost of all of his followers and his own life, Arthur rights the wrong done by Lancelot to the social norm of chivalry. What I find strange is that Lancelot calls upon Jesus for help against his foes despite his obvious betrayal of his religious beliefs through his actions with Guinevere. If there is an attempt at a christian mode in the story it seems unusual that Lancelot is allowed to triumph for so long against the righteous character of Arthur.
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Its interesting that you noticed the convenient values these knights seem to have as well. human weakness seems to be at the core of all these conflicts, and when they break their code, whether it chivalry or Christianity, they immediately identify and align with those same codes in attempts undo their situations.
ReplyDeleteThe whole debacle was caused because two core values were broken: Courtly Love and Chivalry. In your particular example, Guinivere was held responsible for breaking that cultural concept of Courtly Love. She cheated on her husband and therefore must be punished. Therefore your stance that Arthur was justified is 100% correct. However, what I found interesting was that Arthur mentions that he is more upset about Lancelot's death than Guinivere's. He values his knights more than his own wife, as his wife is replaceable.
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