Le Morte D Arthur Round Table

In Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, the Round Table brought together the knights of the realm and was a symbol of knightly brotherhood, unity, chivalry, and honor. The Table was created by Merlin, who designed it in the shape of a circle to reflect the world.

King Arthur is usually portrayed in a way that makes him out to be a victim of circumstance; however, I do not agree. In fact, most of what caused the Round Table to fall, could have been easily prevented had King Arthur been willing to take the necessary steps to ensure its stability. In this paper, I will bring to light that King Arthur himself is responsible for the destruction and disbandment of the Round Table, due to his utter refusal to adhere to the warnings of his counsel and …show more content…
However, if one wanted to get by this rule, he could fight another knight in disguise, (Book VIII, Chapter IV). It is no secret that most of the knights of the Round Table did not live up to the expectations they swore to uphold, most famously, Launcelot. He was known for disguising himself regularly to fight with the other knights, and most notably, his affair with the queen could be seen as treason against King Arthur. However, despite these shortfalls of Launcelot which definitely played a role in the fall of the Round Table, King Arthur is the one who holds the greatest blame.

The beginning of the end for the Round Table was the grail quest. After Gawaine had sworn to follow the grail quest, several of the knights of the Round Table were inspired to follow his example. King Arthur knew that this was the beginning of the disbandment of the Round Table:

Here, we see King Arthur’s sorrow at the impending breaking of the Round Table and his fear of the future, knowing that several of the knights would be killed on their quest for the Holy Grail. However, the fellowship survived the quest, and its final downfall came at the hands of the …show more content…
Unfortunately, his own selfish desires took control and he ignored the council of Merlin once again. This creates a second factor for Arthur contributing to the decline of his kingdom. Not only is Mordred working amongst the knights to cause discord and plotting his vengeance upon the King to take his throne, but now Arthur has to worry about his wife having an affair. The queen’s affair is bad news for the king not only because she broke their wedding vows, but also in relation to how his people will view it. If the king cannot even ensure the loyalty of his wife, how can he effectively rule a kingdom and preserve the loyalty of the people? The affair also creates a break in the Round Table because of their positions: Launcelot is a knight, and Guenever is not only Arthur’s wife, but the queen as well. As punishment, Arthur sends Guenever to her death, which causes the knights to split up into loyalties: those who stand with King Arthur, and those who stand with