As I was reading "The Candle in the Wind", a lot of the events that occurred were like a soap opera on steroids. Every time something happened, one party tried to respond in extravagant fashion. The first example of this is when Arthur has a "bad feeling" about his son Mordred and his immediate response is to put all babies of the same age out to sea! To me, there must have been a less intense way of solving this issue. Another example is the way the whole adultery situation was handled. It seemed a little bit excessive to bring a crew of 14 knights to try to catch a woman cheating. It also makes me wonder how Lancelot managed to kill Agravaine and escape unharmed, especially with Mordred there, whom Lancelot has sworn to never harm.
Chapter 8 reminded me of all of the movies that depict violent criminals finally being captured only to be rescued by their clan from captivity, despite the imminent threat of escape. Lancelot was almost guaranteed to try to rescue Guenever, but there still wasn't enough in place to halt his rescue attempt.
I assume the dramatics are for the sake of story telling, they make the stories much more entertaining in the least. i think its so interesting though that no matter how maybe times someone tries to avoid fate or destiny (Arthur throwing babies into the Sea), it cannot be avoided. I think our idea today of destiny is much weaker than it used to be
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if you've ever read the short story Oedipus Rex but the similarities between Arthur's dilemma and my man Oedipus are astounding. Both trying to outmaneuver fate and destiny through any means necessary and then finding it anyway. Seems to be a common theme throughout writing everywhere.
ReplyDeleteJames' comparison to Oedipus is spot on - authors throughout the ages keep telling us that we definitely can't fight Destiny. But does that mean we should just give up and assume we have no free will and no ability to have any control in our lives? I would say nope! Because, as Jacob points out, things still happen that you wouldn't think could happen (L can fight his way out through 14 dudes even though he has no sword or armor or anything). Just shows that Destiny isn't always predictable and so we should just make sure we make our own choices and live the life we believe in.
ReplyDeleteI also thought that the reactions of these characters were a little excessive. To think that Arthur would get rid of his son this way is insane. However, like Abbey said I also think it is for the sake of telling the story. Arthur trusted his gut so much that he would put all these babies on a boat and push them out into the ocean. This exaggeration could just show the reader that Arthur thought his son was gonna turn out so bad the world would be better without him.
ReplyDeleteActually, the whole "drown all the babies" move that Arthur pulled when he found out via prophesy that Mordred was going to kill him reminded me of the story of Moses in the book of Exodus (or the movie Prince of Egypt if anyone's seen that). The Pharaoh had all of the male infants killed to cut the Israelite population and keep them under control. This happens only for the very miracle child that his daughter adopted to grow up and bring about the 10 Plagues. Crazy how these things happen isn't it?
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