Once And Future King: Analytical Paper :: essays research papers

Once And Future King Analytical PaperSir Lancelots intense desire to perform heroic deeds was brought on by his neglect of confidence and insecurity. His childhood was exhausted in seclusion,training for a job desired only to escape the hellish flavor that his hideous facewould other than hold in store for him. Lancelots adulthood was spent trying toovercompensate for this ugliness by performing Herculean feats and good deeds.And the twilight years of his life were spent in remorse for the bad things hehad done. Although held up to al near godlike stature in T.H. Whites novel TheOnce And Future King, Lancelot was truly the most human character of them all.Lancelots childhood was spent sequestered, training to be a knight inorder to escape from his ugliness and give him something to be soaring of.Lancelot wanted to be a knight because he felt that he was a depraved,lubricious soul. His hideously twisted visage was a sure sign up to him that deepin his inner self he was an evil pe rson. Night and day he brooded over hisugliness, his malfeasance. The boy thought that there was something wrong withhim. either through his life - even when he was a great man with the world at hisfeet - he was to feel this gap something at the bottom of his knocker of which hewas aware, and ashamed, besides which he did not understand.(p.315) As a result ofthis fear of himself, Lancelot trained to become a knight. The knighthood, abastion of chivalry and nobleness, would be the only way to counter his immoralsoul. Secondly, Lancelot lived a baneful existence as a boy. He was kept awayfrom all the other children and spent his every waking hour with a fiery old manin a single room, learning to fight, joust, and fence. This may seem extreme tosome, but for Lancelot, it was all he had. Three years may seem a long timefor a boy to spend in one room,...unless you take in from the start that...thisrather sullen and unsatisfactory child, with the ugly face, did not disclose toanybody that he was living on dreams and prayers.(p.320) While this single-minded seclusion would make him a great knight, it also kept him alone. He hadno childhood friends, nobody to relate to, nobody to tell him that he was a goodperson. Consequently, his misgivings about himself took a firm root. Finally,Lancelot was filled with terrible, hateful thoughts toward himself and his face.The only job he could succeed in would be the knighthood, a profession in which