Working Title: “Alas That I Ever Was Against Thee!”: The Trouble With Arthurian Honor

In my paper, I will be examining the events of Malory’s Morte D’Arthur alongside Meg Cabot’s novel Avalon High. Avalon High presents Arthurian characters reincarnated in a modern high school setting, and presents the same issues that plague Arthurian court in Malory’s text, such as Lancelot and Guinevere’s affair and Mordred’s betrayal. Ultimately, in this modern text, Arthur overcomes Mordred and his court stays together. This success stems from his forgiving Lancelot and Guinevere for their affair rather than fighting with them, a marked difference from the events of Morte D’Arthur. This suggests an alternate path that Arthur could have taken in the original text, one that shifts the values the original story prioritizes.

The actions that Arthur does take in the Morte D’Arthur stems from his adherence to chivalric values, primarily honor. Malory’s text exposes the clash of such values with Christian values in multiple places, and this break between Lancelot and Arthur is certainly one. Forgiveness is a key Christian value, but neither Arthur nor Gawain wish to forgive Lancelot for his misdemeanors, something which they both come to regret as they die. However, in the moment, they choose chivalric notions of honor over Christian teachings of forgiveness. Reprioritizing these conflicting values could have led to a different ending for Arthur and the Round Table, which the modern text exposes.

I intend to investigate the events of these two stories and show how the differences in Avalon High all stem from those characters’ different priorities. Sources such as Sarah Hill’s “Recovering Malory’s Guinevere” provide excellent juxtapositions of the chivalric code and Christian values, which I intend to utilize in my discussion. Hill suggests that when the chivalric code comes into conflict with Christian ideals, the chivalric code wins out and violence ensues. It is this prioritization and subsequent violence that leads to the fall of Arthur’s court. Alternatively, we see in Malory’s text that Arthur and Lancelot’s fight can only be stopped temporarily by the divine power of the Pope, a physical representation of Christian values. I intend to investigate how the intersection of these two conflicting sets of values alters the outcome of Arthur’s story.