In The Once and Future King, by T.H. White, the protagonist Arthur goes through a series of lessons given to him by a wizard named Merlyn. To prepare Arthur to eventually become king of Camelot, Merlyn transforms him into animals to teach him about the morals of ruling. Particularly, he is taught about the errors of absolute might, the insanity of a military society, the importance of free will, and the wrongness of war. Arthur’s success as a king mostly relies on how skilled he is at translating Merlyn’s morals into a just and fair government. The first animal Merlyn transforms Arthur into is a fish, specifically a perch. The fish are ruled by a tyrannical pike who reigns with supreme power, who states that “power of the body decides everything in the end” (White, 48). The pike very much believes in the concept of Might is Right, that the strong can do what they want for they have strength. This idea is repeatedly deconstructed throughout the novels, even though it is heavily popular with other boys around Arthur’s age and Arthur himself at first. By the second novel, Arthur believes that “you can harness might for right” (White, 254). Arthur learns that instead of the powerful and strong using their abilities for themselves, they should use it for …show more content…
The geese are a peaceful animal, who do not believe in war. A goose even chides Arthur’s like of war because she believes that he is being childish and immature, and that he does not understand the brutality of war. She is horrified by the idea of war, questioning “what creature could be so low as to… murder others of its own blood” (White, 171). The geese teach him that war is unnecessary and immoral, even though Arthur does not truly comprehend until Book 2, where he has to deal with an actual war. Arthur does not participate in war for the sake of fighting, like he would have as a child. Instead, he has a clear purpose, such as to “impose his ideas on King Lot” (White,