For Part 2 of the Exam

Throughout the course, we have discussed how each of the knights represents certain values of Arthur’s court. For example, Chrétien’s Romance poems demonstrate how Lancelot and Yvain represent the values of a courtly lover and a noble knight. In the second half of the course, we saw those same values lead to the fall of the round table in the “Alliterative Morte Arthure,” and Malory’s “Lancelot and Guenevere,” and “Death of Arthur.” Using any of the texts from before the death of Arthur, can you find any evidence of knightly values leading to the fall of King Arthur’s court? Were there warning signs that the round table would end in tragedy because of the inability of the knight to keep up their reputations?

Following the first prompt for the final project, I am going to do a literary analysis of how Lancelot is portrayed in Chrétien’s The Knight with the Cart compared to Malory’s Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere. Beginning with the different titles for these similar tales, it is clear that the authors have different opinions of Lancelot as a knight. Lancelot is widely known in the world of King Arthur as one of the greatest knights, however, he is also known for his affair with Queen Guinevere. I am going to examine how these opposing identities make a very human character in the world of magical occurrences. In Chrétien’s earlier version of the story, he focuses on courtly love and does not attend to the fact that Lancelot is betraying Arthur. That is his way of ignoring the situation so that Lancelot can still be the greatest knight. Malory also favors Lancelot’s positive attributes as a knight but brings to light his sins throughout the story. Cole and Scala’s essays will help me find argue the complexities in Malory’s depiction of Lancelot go beyond whether he is good or evil. Raabe’s argument about the paradox of courtly love is also helpful to show that the standards Lancelot is trying to live up to are not reasonable. Lancelot stands out in medieval literature because of his contradictions when he is supposed to be a perfect knight. In truth, he is a more human character than most as he tries to appeal to love and to loyalty, but is unable to find the balance.

I have been exploring this idea, but feel that I need a narrower focus so I am open to suggestions/comments!

In the end of this tale, Galahad is crowned the new king and praised for his nobleness and holiness.  As Lancelot’s son, Galahad is a strong and great knight, but he seems to outdo Lancelot in this story.  Lancelot struggles on his quest because of Galahad’s existence and his failure to see God.  Using examples from the text, do you think that Galahad is a greater knight than Lancelot because of Lancelot’s revealed sins, or does Galahad’s greatness come from just following in his footsteps?

In his preface, Caxton seems to debate whether Arthur was a true man or not, but comes to the conclusion that such a noble man should have existed for his great qualities.  While we know that Arthur was not a real person, what can you say about social and political norms in society at that time from looking at Caxton’s take on his character, and Mallory and Lull’s order of Chivalry?

We know from the opening that the queen and Tristan’s love is because of a potion.  However, in every instance that the narrative speaks of the affair, the queen is honorable and the knight is great while the barons and dwarf are seen as evil? Why is their affair accepted by the general public when they are betraying the king? Do you think that their love could be considered true love if affected by a potion?