Lancelot A Perfectionist example essay topic
In Once and Future King, T H White explains how loss of purity can result in unwanted hatred. Lancelot learns about keeping his purity through the means of Elaine. For example, a messenger comes and tells Lancelot that Guenevere is waiting for him at her castle. They get him drunk and take him to a dark room where really it's not Guenevere it's really Elaine playing a trick.
She knew that Lancelot did not love her, but yet she still played a trick on him. While Lancelot was under the influence of alcohol, he loses his virginity to Elaine when he thought it was really Guenevere. According to the code of chivalry, one was supposed to save their virginity until they were married and knew that they were with the one woman that they loved. Even though Elaine knew that Lancelot had expectations to live up to, all she really cared about was herself. In result Elaine became pregnant and Price 2 Lancelot became very irate. Knowing that he should have not even of gotten drunk in the first place, he knew that he had been tricked into having sex with Elaine instead of Guenevere.
Lancelot should have known not to even go to the castle in the first place. He knew he ha a reputation to uphold. As you can tell Elaine played a major role in the way that Lancelot grew up into a man. She was the main reason he lost his purity. All because of the little games she liked to play. Guenevere also played a major role in the loss of Lancelot's purity.
Guenevere was the woman that Lancelot had loved all his life. He would have done anything for her. The reason he got Elaine pregnant is because he thought that it was Guenevere that called for him. He thought that finally Guenevere had found the reason the Lancelot loved her so much and felt the same about him. If Guenevere would have just loved Lancelot the way that he loved her, he would of lost his virginity to the right person instead of being tricked by Elaine. Furthermore, if Guenevere would have realized how much that Lancelot loved her and loved him back just the same, Lancelot would have been able to carry on the right way with the code of chivalry was supposed to be.
In conclusion, if Guenevere would have seen the light and just loved Lancelot the way he loved her, everything would have been flawless. Finally the code of chivalry played the most important role in the loss of Lancelot's purity. The code of chivalry was the reason that Lancelot had the expectations thrown on to him. If there wasn't a code of chivalry, it would have been alright for Lancelot to do whatever one pleases. The code of chivalry said that a knight had to save himself for the one woman he would marry and he had to know that he loved her before Price 3 giving that one his virginity. Excluding the fact that he was tricked and was under the influence, Lancelot would have probably stayed pure until he found the right one for him.
The code of chivalry was an excellent idea to keep one pure because the knights knew that if they did not follow the way they were supposed to they would not be the "perfect" knight. Lancelot had an idea set in his mind that everything he did had to be perfect. Since he lost is virginity to the one he did not love, that was a flaw that made him an im perfectionist. That which made him think down on himself. In conclusion, the code of chivalry was the reason that Lancelot thought of himself un-pure after his affair with Elaine. In conclusion, T H White's portrayal of Lancelot showed how a perfectionist can be when they think that everything they do has to be perfect.
Thus making Lancelot a perfectionist showed how people in the 1900's think in comparison to the people of the mid-evil times. The Once and Future King sucessfully portrays the ideals of a perfectionist.