Confusion With The Sword

So I am going am address the confusion with the whole situation with Sir Bedivere and the sword. Now the knights and knights Arthur caught themselves in an absolute predicament with Arthur being wounded and everyone else submitting, but himself. Even after Arthur question his actions of disobedience and such it still leaves a question unanswered. Now I have read some comments about this and they all seem to make sense and the one that stick out the most is the representation on the sword. It is a one of a kind, powerful, well known weapon that is used and when someone who is not used to that is able to wield that. You have to think whaat kind of confidence or power this might have given him. I think one of the reasons he didn't throw it down is because of how he felt. Sir Bedivere probably thought for that time he was invincible and able to take anything and anyone on that challenged him while in posession of Excalibur. I relate this to how I would kinda feel if I had the opportunity to hold a real lightsaber. I don't know if I would ever let it go or what I would do with it.

reason the the madness

"Were it well to obey then, if a king demand
An act unprofitable, against himself?
The King is sick, and knows not what he does."

This is from the scene where Sir Bedivere was given the order by Arthur to throw the sword, this quote is showing why he wasn't throwing the sword, he realizes Arthur is not thinking straight and believes not throwing it would be best. 

Just Throw the Sword Bedivere

I'd love to know what's going on inside Sir Bedivere's mind right about now. His fellow knights are all but extinguished and his king is wounded so much so that he can't walk by himself. So, naturally, he brings his king to cover away from the fight, which is fine. These actions all make it seem like Bedivere truly does care for his king, however, when Arthur asks one request Bedivere he seems to blatantly disobey his king. I would like to know why. Was it because he actually despised his king and the possibility of the other knights of the round table dying was just too much? Or was is the sword talking to him telling him to keep it? Tennyson writes that "He gazed so long That both his eyes were dazzled as he stood, This way and that dividing the swift mind, In act to throw: but at the last it seemed Better to leave Excalibur concealed" (Tennyson 58). Eventually Bedivere ends up completing the task (3rd try) however I still want to know he directly went against his king's dying wishes.

The Frusteration

Why the hell did Sir Bedivere not listen to King Arthur, two times. It's stuff like this that frustrates me about these stories; they stress the importance of something so much and so many times, like the wits of Arthur or the loyalty and chivalry of his knights, then those concepts are turned in their heads, but not in a fun 'plot-twisty' kind fo way. Like Lancelot's affair with Guinevere; that turned out to be fun for no one. But even smaller examples like this, Sir Bedivere not listening to Arthur's literally DYING wish, two times! Because he doubts hi wits?? :"The king is sick and knows not what he does" (Tennyson 96). Throwing the sword into the lake is utterly crucial, and it almost didn't happen to Sir. Bedivere's 'slip-up'. Annoying..

The End of the World huh?

"But now the Round Table is dissolved
Which was an image of the mighty world,
And I, the last, go forth companionless
And the days darken around me, and the years,
Among new men, strange faces, other minds." (233-237)

This quote might be somewhat insignificant, but it struck me as the line that really put the nail in Arthur's coffin. Bedivere mentioned the end of the world, but it's not the kind where the actual planet explodes or catches on fire. Rather the world as he knows it is going to change. From this point forward, everything is going to change. Everything.

Not like they used to be

Honestly Sir Bedivere bothered me so much in this poem. I mean your King is dying before your eyes and you cannot follow his simple orders?? King Arthur orders him to toss Excalibur into the waters but he does not do it. Not only does he not follow orders once, but twice! Even after the first time King Arthur called him out, he tried again. Sir Bedivere no longer seems like a knight. At one-point Sir Bedivere tries to make an excuse for why he will not throw Excalibur into the lake, "The King is sick, and knows not what does" (line 97). Sir Bedivere tries to justify his actions by placing blame on his King. I think that Sir Bedivere not following what King Arthur ordered him to do shows that the time of knights is over. No longer do knights follow a king. The “code of conduct” a knight is required to follow seems to no longer apply. I think that knights no longer hold the power they once used to. If anything, their credibility is gone. I mean King Arthur trusted Sir Bedivere to throw away Excalibur and he could not follow it. I think it shows that Kings do not have the power that they once had.