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Justice In T. H. White's The Once And Future King

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During the first two books of T.H. White’s “The Once and Future King”, the lives of Arthur, Lancelot, and Guenever are drawn out for the audience, everything in order and the friendship between them strong and faithful. By the fourth book, the relationship between these three characters has become severely broken, the Author vividly illustrating their lives of sin, adultery, and hypocrisy that none of them can recover from, the Kingdom’s downfall set into motion. As Lancelot and Guenever continue to do wrong, Arthur must make the difficult decision of going against the two people he loves most. Honoring his new set of laws and expelling justice is the only route he can take. Arthur continuously struggles to deal with harming his friends when they have been proven guilty, being bound by …show more content…

Arthur’s response to their plan, saying that “ the only hope I now have left is that Lancelot will kill you both and all the witnesses—a feat which, I am proud to say, has never been beyond my Lancelot's power” (p.427), gives him hope that Lancelot and Guenever will escape his societal law so he doesn’t have to punish them and fall into Mordred’s trap. Part of Arthur wants to warn Guenever and Lancelot that Agravaine and Mordred are plotting their destruction, but he must go against his feelings because if he helps them in any way, he would be going against the new justice system he created for the Kingdom and would be aiding their way out of prosecution. The laws he made were created by the idea of might versus right he created a stance on during his talks with Merlyn, and following his feelings to help his friends would be going against himself and everything he stands for. Arthur, to keep his morals and laws, must let go of the people he holds most dear to him, no matter how much it

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In the Once and Future King written by TH. White, White manifests the work’s whole in a single moment by giving Arthur several epiphanies throughout his life. He shows how Arthur develops gradually in a realistically complex way and having him face challenging situations, but also manifests the fact he still has flaws even as a simple person. Arthur’s epiphany ultimately developed him into a morally correct and pacifistic person.

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The parallels found between White’s fictional work and the governmental campaign speech by Beth Noveck show that Arthur was nearly successful in his plans but also displays the differences in what they did which determined who would achieve their goal while the other did not. The connections made between real world situations and Arthur’s life demonstrated clear conflicts arising, often impeding Arthur in his quest for success for the good of his kingdom. While our modern society is adversely different to the fictional setting of The Once and Future King, the goals for Arthur and Beth were easily comparable yet it was clear that the King had many flaws leading to his demise. Arthur constantly made sacrifices that hurt him personally for the good of kingdom as did Beth by challenging those above her. In regards to changes, both leaders had a strong affinity for justice, the goal was to separate from the biased ideas that only served those who had a certain power in the government.

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The “contract” enforced by King Arthur and Queen Guinevere forbids behavior such as outrage or jealousy, treason, murder, denial of mercy, and crimes against women. The rules are necessary for a Kingdom to run smoothly, however there is a flaw in the code. All parts of the oath are equal, and Arthur’s knights have no guidelines for deciding which part to obey when faced with several problems at

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These examples and more shows how White skillfully conveys a compilation of themes to his reader in his book, The Once and Future King. To begin with, one theme White discusses in the story is a problem that is still present in modern times, how committing adultery can have serious consequences. First, Lancelot’s affair with Guinevere took a huge toll

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In Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, the major theme around this famous story written by Chretien de Troyes, is romance. Of a knight who fell in love with Queen Guinevere, of whom is married to King Arthur, and who Lancelot was sworn to protect, and to always tell the truth; even if this meant costing their lives. Thus, creating a dilemma for a normal person, but Lancelot would have no trouble doing everything it takes even risking his life multiple times to be with who he loves. Lancelot would prove his love to Queen Guinevere by doing everything that she would ask of him, showing that only she could control him; in which he could be an unstoppable force not to be reckoned with.

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Because of Arthur’s denial of Guinevere's affair with Lancelot, Mordred seizes his opportunity to accuse Guinevere, which causes Arthur to stage her “execution” and her rescue. Because of this, Gaheris and Gareth are placed in danger, and killed by Lancelot in his rampage, as well as many other soldiers who were only doing their duty. “” (White #) However, this has wider repercussions, and Mordred and Agravaine use Lancelot’s crime of “treason” to persuade some of the knights of the Round Table to follow his ideas. This culminates in a battle between his followers and Arthur’s, and ultimately ends in Arthur’s death, marking the end of his kingdom. “” (White #) All of Mordred’s actions would never have occurred if not for Guinevere’s affair. The chain of events causing Camelot’s collapse would never have happened if Guinevere had not loved both Arthur and

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He suffers heartache and betrayal through the affair that a very trusted knight who is Sir Lancelot has with Guinevere. King Arthur suffers since he chose the wrong decision of who to marry and easily trusting his wife and Sir Lancelot. Another wrong judgment that King Arthur commits is when he chooses to sleep with the unknown woman who seeks shelter. He sleeps with this unknown woman who turns out to be one of his stepsisters who purposely planned the sexual encounter. This careless act turns out to be harming since it creates the birth of Mordred who is one of King Arthur’s greatest

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