Why Arthur?

I. Malory’s narrative style

         a. The narrator speaks in first person, directly to the reader. (103)

         b. We view the narration as “knightly” with

                    i. “…a distinct subjectivity that is to some degree unique and to some degree socially determined” (103-104)

                    ii. “masculine, militarily formed sensibility” (104)

          c. “The Malorian characters speak in a strikingly similar language” (104)

                    i. The ways in which the characters speak is almost undistinguishable.

                    ii. The voice of the narrator is also really similar to the characters’.

                    iii. Sometimes the characters speak in chorus.

          d. Two explanations/sides to Malory’s uniform style:

                    i. “He writes in late medieval English prose style used for recounting events” (105)

                    ii. He writes in an “originally Germanic oral tradition that favored alliteration, balanced statements, and the two-stress pattern found in the halflines of verse and in the phrases of rhythmic prose” (105)

                    iii. Twomey postulates that it is “the voice of a narrator whose language is constructed to suit the practical exigencies of a text meant to be read aloud” (105)

          e. “Orality” vs. “Aurality”- Orality is the tradition by which the text is circulated, aurality “refers to the stylistic features that capture attention and guide a reader’s understanding” (106) (mnemonic repetition) f. Prelection- “reading aloud from a book before one or more people” (106)

II. Narrative Aurality

          a. Parallelism, repetition, and envelope structures in Sir Tristram- “All conjunctions, nouns, verbs, and prepositional phrases are balanced with one or more others. Only the adverbs ‘over’ and ‘twyse or thryse’ have no parallel in other adverbs, which gives them emphasis” (107)

          b. Syntactical parallelism

III. The Aurality of the Soliloquy

          a. Balanced statements “[provide] focus and intensification” (112)

Read the essay here. 

            Although Arthur never met his father, Sir Thomas Malory has forged a deeply wrought typological relationship between them. But what would Arthur’s life have been if Uther hadn’t committed adultery? Well, assuming that Arthur would still exist, one could reasonably argue that many of the troubles that Arthur faces in his life as king are a direct consequence of Uther Pendragon’s adulterous lust for Arthur’s mother, Igraine.  At the very beginning of Malory’s first tale in Le Morte Darthur, “How Uther Pendragon begot the Noble Conqueror King Arthur”, it is said that the Duke of Tintagel “held war against [Uther] long time” (3). It is because of this war and Uther’s apparent wish to resolve it in peace that he sent for Tintagel.

His plan seems noble and chivalrous, except for that it appears that he has some underlying adulterous plot in also insisting that Tintagel bring along his wife, Igraine, primarily not because she might enjoy herself or because she might help in the resolution of their conflict, but because she was said to be beautiful. If he had not intended to at least think adulterous thoughts about her, why bother to invite a woman to what was in those days thought to be men’s business? Even if Uther was just being cordial to Tintagel and his lady, his obvious advances on her were clearly intentionally adulterous.

When Igraine and her husband retreat to Tintagel due to Uther’s inappropriate advances, one might think that Uther would get the hint to leave the matter be. Instead, he demands Igraine from Tintagel, and when he is refused, he wages war upon them. From here, the fault must be laid upon Merlin, for Merlin must have known that Tintagel was slain three hours prior to the disguised Uther’s tryst with Igraine. If Merlin had convinced the king, as he most definitely could have, to call off the plan to sleep with Igraine, then they might have been married and conceived Arthur within wedlock. Perhaps then, Arthur’s own love life would not be so damned. 

             Lancelot’s ride into the cart is only the first example of his willingness to give up his knightly honor for the sake of Guinevere. He demonstrates his determination to please the Queen in almost every adventure he has thereafter, from nearly jumping out the window at the sight of the Queen to purposefully doing his worst at the tournament on his lady’s behalf. His hesitation before he gets into the cart should then make the reader skeptical. One might argue that he hesitated because his honor as a knight was the last thing that he truly possessed (having already lost his Christian credibility as well as his honor as a citizen), but it is to be assumed that Lancelot had already developed this undying love for the Queen much longer before the beginning of this story. Therefore, does he really even have knightly honor at the point when he decides to get into the cart? The King and the rest of the knights might not suspect his affair with Guinevere, but both the Queen and Lancelot know that his deepest loyalty doesn’t lie with the King or the wellbeing of the kingdom. His adultery doesn’t only make him disloyal to God and one who might be outcast from society, but it also turns him against the knights’ code to be loyal to the king. What knight, then, would hesitate to get into the cart when he has already committed treason directly against the King himself?

            Whatever the reason was that may have crossed Lancelot’s mind at that moment, it was certainly not because he was unsure of his love for Guinevere. Over and over again throughout his tale, Lancelot says, thinks, or demonstrates how his love for Guinevere is boundless. He seems to have accepted his sins against the Christian faith not by repenting, but by taking up a new religious faith in Guinevere. Lancelot is always saying things like “Thanks be to God,” but his actions and feelings toward the Queen seem to contradict those utterances. When Guinevere confronts him about his hesitation before the cart, he asks for forgiveness from God but he accepts the forgiveness given to him by Guinevere as if it were of equal value. Everything that Guinevere asks of him, Lancelot does unquestioningly, as any good Christian might respond God. The tournament is a good example of this, as he does his worst at his lady’s request, thus further sullying his honor, when he could have easily come out victorious as he does in the third round. Whether or not Lancelot is conscious of his religious-like idolization of Guinevere, it would be unreasonable to say that his love for her would have caused the hesitation he had before the cart.