The Once And Future King Lancelot Analysis

Medieval Europe had a code for love know as, The Rules of Courtly Love. These rules were exemplified in characters seen in a book written about that era, The Once and Future King. One of the main characters, Lancelot, follows these rules. Lancelot follows the Rules of Courtly Love because he follows the rules that, the easy attainment of love makes it of little value: the difficulty of attainment makes it prized, he whom the thought of love vexes eats and sleeps very little, a slight presumption causes a lover to suspect his beloved, and that a true lover does not desire to embrace in love anyone except his beloved.

Lancelot follows the Rules of Courtly Love because he follows the rule that, the easy attainment of love makes it of little value:

Early in the relationship between Lancelot and Guenever they met with along with the King at a beach. Guenever kissed the king as a greeting because of their marriage. The day after this event he suspected that she didn’t care for him, so he asked to leave the court to go questing. Another time later in the book Lancelot wants to be with Guenever one night, but Arthur is home so she knows they can’t or they will get caught, so she says no. The two start then start bickering coming to a point she threatens to leave, “ “Very well if that is all you have to say, you had better go.” “So you can make love to him, I suppose.” (pg 547) He instantly becomes jealous and suspicious, believing that she wants to be with Arthur over being with him when she doesn’t want to meet that night. He again becomes suspicions that she loves him more. Lancelot often becomes suspicions of his lover over small acts. Both of these examples from the books are small acts that caused Lancelot considerable suspicion of his beloved. A kiss causes him to believe she didn’t have feelings for him and a logical argument for why they shouldn’t get together on one night made him think that she’d rather be with Arthur then him. These slight presumptions caused Lancelot to suspect his love,

After sleeping with Elaine, believing that she was Guenever, Guenever felt betrayed. She confronted Elaine and Lancelot about what had happened. As Elaine attempted to take responsibility for what she had done by admitting to the trickery she had used on Lancelot, he just stood there shell-shocked. The book describes him as staring around as if he had gone blind, completely confused and ashamed with what he had done. The thought that he had been with someone other than his love literally drove him insane to a point where he jumped out the window. This proves that he doesn’t want to be with anyone other than his love. It is also well known that many women throw themselves at Lancelot. Lancelot complains to Arthur and Guenever about how he doesn’t have a home, and Guenever says to him, “… as if every woman you met didn’t chase you for miles.” (pg 551) Some of these women even propose to him, which if he accepted, would give him a home and wife. He, however, is noted to ignores these women. The book shows that Lancelot continuously rejects women because wouldn’t be happy with these women because he doesn’t desire to be with anyone except his beloved. He even goes crazy when he realized that he embraced in love someone other than his beloved. The evidence shows that even if he sometimes does embrace in love someone other than his