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King Arthur Tragic Hero Essay

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A tragic hero must have elements such as; nobility, wrong judgment, and an awful death as a result from wrongdoings. King Arthur is the king of Camelot and throughout his life he becomes very powerful and wealthy yet he makes some not so great decisions which harm him. King Arthur has elements that identify a tragic hero because he becomes a king, trusts the wrong people, and dies in a tragic way. An important element or a characteristic that a character must have to be distinguished as a tragic hero is nobility. With nobility the character must possess a type of high status and wealth. Arthur did come from a noble family who happened to be a king and duchess but was not born from pure origins and was later raised as a bastard. Afterwards he pulled out the sword from the rock that many tried but failed. As shown in the …show more content…

A decision that causes harm to King Arthur is his decision in falling in love and marrying Guinevere. Arthur was warned by Merlin right away when he caught sight of Guinevere. The biography video explains this when Merlin states, “Marry her and you will suffer misery.” King Arthur completely ignores the warning and proceeds with making Guinevere his queen. King Arthur very much loves her but later suffers betrayal and heartache. 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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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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