Arthurian Legends Character Analysis

A wife’s behavior affects her husband’s portrayal. This is true for any relationship, but more evident when it is a relationship between a queen and a king. If she is not an obedient queen then the king is seen as weak. Looking at it from a different perspective, they must act together as a unit in order to maintain a firm appearance. In a relationship each partner has different characteristics, and although the couple develops in the relationship as a whole, each individual develops as a unit. In Arthurian Legends like Chretien de Troyes’ The Knight of the Cart and Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte de Arthur it is shown to be true. The three protagonists Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot revolve in a love triangle which affects each one of these characters. Thus, referring to the first …show more content…
xix, ch. iii). In this scene, Guinevere is depicted as a hero, showing braveness, perceptiveness, and cleverness, by not panicking, and making the most of a tough situation. Instead of waiting to be saved by her knights she bargains with the captor giving him an ultimatum, that if he wishes to take her alive he must spares her knights and allow them to accompany her. In conclusion, both Chrétien de Troyes and Thomas Malory portray Guinevere with a variety of characteristics, such as, cleverness, braveness, authoritative, and much more. However, in The Knight of the Cart she is somewhat bipolar; when she is with Arthur she acts more rational and performs her duty as the Queen, but when she is in Lancelot’s company she is more free and in control of the situation. Similarly, Malory’s Guinevere is Like Malory, Chrétien does not show Guinevere and Arthur in a romantic setting, alluding to the fact that she has two roles, one as a wife and the other as an adulteress. Moreover, in both she is proving Lancelot and Arthur to be righteous characters who follow the rules of the play. This is shown when Arthur always stays faithful to his