Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Arthur as the antithesis to Jesus ???
While reading The Once and Future King, I was struck by how Merlyn and Kay had a conversation where they compare Arthur to Jesus Christ. Throughout the stories we have read we have seen King Arthur either being portrayed as a laid back king who lets his knights do his fighting for him or as a legendary leader that can do no wrong. When Arthur is fighting his war on the rival kings to prove that he is the rightful heir of the kingdom he says that he is doing it to, "institute a sort of order of chivalry" (White, 241). He believes that he is in the right as he is finally fighting a just war with just reasoning behind it. However, with the help of Merlyn, Kay realizes that Arthur is, "imposing his ideas on King Lot" (White, 261). I thought that this was interesting because they were not comparing Arthur as being the same as Jesus, but rather as his opposite. Jesus made the ideas available to everyone that wanted to accept it, but Arthur was forcing this idea down their throats that they needed to accept this new form of chivalry. It was also interesting to me that Merlyn did not flat out say that what Arthur was doing was wrong, but allowed for Kay to deduce this for himself. I feel as if this may come into play later that Arthur and Kay may not always see eye-to-eye on what is the best way to run the kingdom. I believe that Arthur looks more at restoring order in the kingdom, while Kay believed there should be more free will.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I appreciate the fact that Arthur was almost portrayed as the opposite of jesus christ here. In recent stories, he is almost held as high at Jesus, but in this story, at least in this moment, it is more about showing us the human nature of Arthur, how he is not perfect like Jesus. makes him more relatable. Also reminds us that he is young and inexperienced, which also helps to lay a foundation for his character development
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think that seeing Arthur in a different light than is normal it allows for us to remember that he is not a perfect person. I do think that his inexperience makes up for the way of thinking, but I hope they keep showing his character flaws in the stories. Too many times we are accustomed to seeing Arthur as the perfect ruler and how everyone should act like him.
DeleteI agree with Abbey. Typically, King Arthur in our readings thus far have been praising him, as one would with Jesus. I can also appreciate this take on his youth and inexperience. It reminds me of the character we saw in the show we watched in class.
ReplyDeleteI can see the similarities to the show's Arthur and this Arthur too. However, I think that the books Arthur was able to adjust in his role as a king quicker than the shows Arthur.
DeleteYeah, it's nice to see Arthur have flaws - we are always drawn to those moments because perfect characters are boring (no slam to Jesus, I mean, he was Jesus). We can't understand them or relate to them, as ya'll have pointed out. Malroy's Arthur has a few pretty big flaws (though I didn't give you guys that part to read because I am really trying to strip back our readings!!) ... and it's important to see flaws early in the story, otherwise you're like, DUDE, you are so perfect, how come you didn't pick up on the whole Guinevere/Lancelot thing?
ReplyDelete