Arrogant Lancelot?
I know that Lancelot’s love for Guinevere was great, but how arrogant does he have to be to not only disregard even the advice of a closest brother, but take not consider how suspiciously the king treats him? He could not even wait a short amount of time for a little of the suspicion to die down, or find some way to get the queen away from the castle and later meet her. It just seems a bit far-fetched to me that even with the blind devotion Lancelot had for Guinevere, he would be so arrogant as to discount even simple common sense. Perhaps his victories in the tournaments gave him this overconfident attitude, but this underestimation of the hatred and desires to see him caught by some of the other knights (especially Agravain) is atrocious.
Also, the speed at which he gives up his friendship with Arthur and the Knights in general was appalling. This ties into his arrogance, that he would be willing to tear apart everything his once closest friend and had worked for his love. He believes that he has the strength and support to escape with his love should he need too, and is not afraid to fight with the strongest man in Britain. This makes it seem more that the whole purpose of him being a Knight of the Table was to get closer to Guinevere, especially considering how quickly he reverted after his solemn oaths after the Grail quest. I suppose in another point of view it could be considered romantic that he gives up everything and fights for his love, but this is going too far in my opinion, especially with how far in the wrong he was in loving her in the first place.
BraveSirRobin wrote:
To be even lazier, I repeat my lazy solution to the Guinevere problem: As much as the author’s conception of character psychology is “ahead of its time” and hence susceptible to a thoroughly modern critical reading, I think there is still a fatalist imperative here that requires that the characters do the most tragic thing possible at any given moment, for the sake of tragedy and suspense, even if it’s psychologically unconvincing.
Posted 02 Oct 2007 at 12:48 pm ¶
Mary wrote:
I don’t know if the Guinevere thing is necessarily just an arrogant Lancelot problem. Like I said in my presentation, Lancelot is just so in love with Guinevere that it really is ridiculous, and think about it. He hasn’t been able to go see Guinevere in a looooong time. He’s been seriously wounded twice, and the one chance he has to possibly see her Guinevere shuns him because she thinks he’s in love with someone else.
I think he’s just decided that since he’s been able to get away with his relationship for so long that he wouldn’t get caught now. I mean, Lancelot isn’t perfect, so it’s not that big of a surprise that he slipped up this time.
Posted 04 Oct 2007 at 2:14 pm ¶