Le Morte d'Arthur, The Death of Arthur by Sir Malory ‫شرح الدكتورة‬

It Is a romance that describes Arthur as a legend. Sir Mallory was in the prison
and he wrote his book while he Is at that prison and he is in the prison and some
said that Mallory was imprisoned because he lived In the time of the War of Roses
between the Lancaster and the York familIes, who are cousins, and at the
beginning he was with the York family but then he goes to the Lancaster family
and after that goes again to the York family and that's why when King Henry the
fourth received the throne he freed all the prisoners but Mallory and he
considered this as a kind of punishment to him. Any war destroys the society and
people were suffering, they ended the 100 year war but the enter a more horrible
war becausee it is a civil war. Mallory Is a very controversial person becausee he
is writing about knighthood but in fact he Is a criminal. Mallory us Mallory used
to change his loyalty from one house to another, he goes where the authority is
stronger .
Here this Is a romance while with Langland when he wrote Piers Plowman it is
realistic because Langland was a Reformer and but here there is a religious man
but here there Is a criminal and he Is out of all the codes that represent the knight,
though he Is a knight but he never carries any code of knighthood, even the sense
of loyalty which Is the main code of knighthood, he doesn't have It and that's why
It a romance becausee it is a fictional one, though this is the most comprehensive
work about King Arthur and he Is the one who represented the Legend of Arthur
In full because all the prevIous ones there Is only one aspect for example In sir
Gowan and the green night there Is basically a reference to sir Gowan the good
knight when, Monimouth of Britins there is the history of the Kings and Arthur is
one of them as If Arthur is a historical King while Wace there is the courtly Love
so there is only one aspect and with Brut by Layman there is the emphasis Is on
the strong King with the ignore of the other while here all of them gathered to
give a comprehensive legend of Arthur and that's why all the literature that is
written after It depends on Sir Mallory because he gathered all the characters and
with the characters there is a full development .
The Death of Arthur Is not a reference to Arthur himself, It is a reference to the
Institution that he represents becausee Arthur stands for Camelot which is in the
literary meaning is the physical castle of Arthur and his Knights while on the
metaphorical meaning It stands for chivalry, knighthood and the the utopia that
they are searching for, so Arthur stands for Camelot and here there Is the fall of
Camelot also Arthur stands for the knighthood, the death of Arthur Is the fall of
knighthood, the death of Arthur Is not only Arthur but the individuals who are
connected with Arthur who are four main characters, they are Lancelot, sir
Gowan, his wife and Arthur himself and those four, all of them, are related with
the death of Arthur .
This piece of work is written at the end of the 15th century, the beginning of
Shakespeare, when there is the presentation of the tragic Hero who is the man
who falls from his greatness because of certain flow. At the end there is only ruins.
Here there is a story of a fall, the fall of knighthood, the fall of Camelot, the fall of
morals and the fall of loyalty. Mallory is very controversial becausee he never has
any one of them because he's not loyal as he was sided with the stronger one and
that's why he ended by not being supported by anyone of them becausee they
used to support him to set hIm free from the prison but when he is discovered
that he Is no more loyal to the York or to the Lancaster so no one Is going to
support him. At the end of the book he starts talking about himself and he asked
the readers to pray for him whichh means that he dies In the prison after he
finished the book and he never Witnesses the success of what he writes and this
is the privilege of Caxton, the editor, who has done this and also he wrote In the
last chapter because they are 12 books and each book is divided in short chapters
and each chapter is one page or two pages, he asked the readers to pray for him
If he is alive so praise him and if he is dead, because he is not sure about what is
going to happen to him, to pray for his soul so at the end as if he Is asking for
Redemption as If when he writes this romance he realizes that he did something
great and he thought that this book would be a redemption for his soul that
whenever there is a reader who Is going to read It and enjoy It will pray for him
so there Is a kind of redemption that he already presented because here there is
also the Idea of sin, there are characters who are sinners and they reach a stage
of repentance and Redemption but Modred but even Modred can't be blamed
because he is illegal son that Arthur has it with his sister, he is illegitimate son and
he Is a treated as someone bad becausee he is the product of a sin but when we
think about him he is a victim becausee he is not the one who chooses to be
Illegitimate, he carries the sin of his father. There is always the question that Is it
a prophecy or the free will of man.
Here there are four main characters and there Is a story of a betrayal that starts
with the perfect utopia at Camelot but suddenly we are Introduced to the
characters to discover that it is not a utopia, what appears to be perfect is not
perfect at all and there is something that corrupts and distorts this perfection, the
knights of the Round Table are no more the same knights, they are the same by
their names. There was a kind of conspiracy against Lancelot because he is the
favourite knight of Arthur. It is said that Paradise Lost Is based on sir Mallory's the
death of Arthur becausee of the trick that satan plays on Adam and Eve, in
Milton's Paradise Lost, he Is presenting revolt and the rebellion against God, Satan
was the favourite angel to God so the moment that he felt that there Is someone
who Is created and he Is better than him so out of jealousy and pride, he starts
his rebellion and revolt and those who support him, they went with him and that's
why they fall and this Is the beginning of fall so here there Is the favourite knight
who Is envied by the other knights, though Arthur tells everyone that they are
equal but all of them know that Lancelot is the most favourite one. Lancelot was
In the queen's bedroom but he Is not caught in a physical relationship with her, It
is not physical but after all It is a courtly love. The Knights are the ones who
created the courtly love.
Lancelot is the most favorite knight of Arthur and he has only one sin and he is
the most favorite one becausee he is the bravest and the most loyal knight to
Arthur. Lancelot start to have a courtly love with Guenever and they know that
they are doing something wrong but they can't help It, they can't control their
hearts and at the same time they are surrounded by envy and jealousy, the sin
leads to another sin and this creates a chain of sins, they are not going to be
protected as no one is going to protect them. The conspiracy started by Gowan's
twin brothers. Gowan Is the nephew of Arthur, he Is the youngest with his twin
brothers, Gowan was a close friend to Lancelot but his twin brothers are the ones
who let Arthur about Lancelot's betrayal. They started a rumor and people start
to talk and here they start to have the misunderstanding and this
misunderstanding and jealousy led Lancelot to kill the twins and here the sin of
the illegal love led to the sin of killing Innocent people only because he suspects
that they are going to tell Arthur and here Gowan who Is a very religious knight,
Lancelot Is the most loyal knight and Gowan Is the most religious one and the
purest one and here and here Gowan starts to be overwhelmed by the spirit of
Revenge for his brothers so he wants to take revenge which is a sin and this Is the
chain of Sins and here there is the division among the Knights, those who are with
Lancelot and those who are with Gowan because they believe that Gowan stands
for Arthur although Gowan's purpose is not Arthur but he wants to revenge to his
brothers and here there is the beginning of fall and from here Arthur knows and
Guenever elops as she was afraid becausee Arthur decided that the best thing to
end this is not to kill lancelot but to kill his wife and to execute her and lancelot
helps her to escape and Lancelot himself escaped and Gowan with the other
knights go after him and lancelot kills Gowan, his best friend, and this Is another
sin and this is a very painful sin because when he killed his friend he kills part of
his soul .
Lancelot is not a bad person and lancelot Is the cause of the civil war and because
of him and because of what happens Arthur was obliged to leave the kingdom
and searching for lancelot and he is not supposed to leave his Kingdom because
Modred, his Illegal son, was waiting all the time for this chance when his father Is
not going to be there so this is his chance to take the kingdom and to be In control
and this Is his chance to control so he became a rebel although there are two
dreams and prophecies that told Arthur not to leave and one of them is that
Arthur dreams of seeing Gowan because Gowan is already dead and he warns him
not to leave Camelot and not to go to the Battle because he is going to die so here
there is a challenge to the fate, Arthur challenges his the fate, Arthur feels that In
order to keep his dignity and control he has to leave as he trusts his power and
trust, his Individuality, and his greatness and control more than fate and he forgot
that no one can be stronger than fate, so here he is the one who has chosen. So
Arthur Is responsible of what happens to him. Marlin tells Arthur not to marry
Guinevere but Arthur refused to listen to him as he Is confident of himself one of
the sources of his power and strength is his free will but he Is not supposed to
always trust his free will becausee humans are limited to a certain extent no
matter how much humans have free will they are supposed to be limited but with
Arthur and according to his character, he Is presented as If he believes that his
free will is limitless and he is responsible and ready to carry all of the responsibility
of what is going to happen and It is only at the end that he realizes that he Is not
supposed to do It but it Is to late.
So Arthur went and this was the chance of Modred that he was waiting for it all
of his time because he was never treated as a son and he never sees the good
face of Arthur and he is not even treated just like one of hIs knights because
Modred stands always for the black spot of Arthur, Arthur Ignores him and treats
him badly and that's why he never carries any feelings toward his father and It is
the time for Revenge for for him and the best revenge for a very strong and brave
person Is to take his position and this Is the right revenge and this is what he
believes and here Arthur left and when he left he hears the news that Modred got
the control at Camelot and he has to go back and here he Is in his campus when
he has the dream and then there is another dream, it Is the Dream of the wheel.
Arthur sees himself sitting on a wheelchair and It is made of gold, whichh is
reference to his glory, but Inside the chair there was a black water and then the
chair Is turned upside down and he falls In the water which is filled with serpents
and the serpents are a symbol of enemies and they refer to evil, hatred and
deception, when he wakes up he asks for good people to come and Interpret the
dream and they told him that someone Is going to betray him and they told him
the betrayal is accepted to be one of the family and close to him, it Is Modred and
in the next night Marlin who is a magician and he is supposed to stand for the
world of myths and fairy tales, Mariln warns Arthur that he's going to have a battle
as he, Arthur, decided his fate when he left that he Is going to be betrayed by
someone who is very close to him not even your nephew but by your son and this
is your fate and you will have the last battle and he told him that when you are
going to face your son, Modred ,don't kill him in the same day wait for the next
day and kill him so this is the third prophecy so here the prophecies come either
directly or in dreams .
He goes back and there Is the battle and It is a bloody battle In which most of
them are killed, all of them are killed and It is only Arthur and Modred facing each
other and Arthur is supposed to remember the prophecy of Marlin that he is not
supposed to kill Modred today but Arthur starts fighting Modred so here he Is
challenging his fate and he walked towards his death by his feet becausee of his
pride of his power, he belIeves that he Is the stronger than his fate, he feels that
he is still strong and Modred is In a very weak position so he Is the strong one so
he can do It so here Arthur challenges his fate three times and he never learns
from his mistakes so he went to kill Modred and he succeeds as he killed him but
Arthur is also wounded as Modred was about to die but the Spirit of Revenge Is
very strong that it makes a dying person able to kill, Modred was dying but in his
last moments he took the sword and hits with whatever remains of his strength
on the helmet on the head of his father, Arthur, and It passes the helmet and It
was a deadly wound, a fatal one, then Modred dies immediately and Arthur was
dying and he dies with the last two knights with him .
Arthur asked the knights to do a certain thing because he has a sword and it is a
mythical sword, it Is the only sword that belongs to Arthur and no one should has
the sword so he asked the knight to go and throw It in the lake but the knught did
not obey Arthur, he took the sword and he says that why he is going to throw it in
the lake after all It is Arthur's sword so he put It behind the tree and then he goes
back to Arthur and Arthur asked him did he throw it and the knight says yes so
Arthur asks him what did he see and the knight says nothing so Arthur says that
he Is lying and he didn't do It so again Arthur asked the knight to do it so the knight
goes but he hesItated and hide It and then he goes back to Arthur and Arthur
asked him what did he see and the knight says nothing so Arthur asked him why
he is disobeying him though he Is his knight so he is supposed to obey me so In
the third time the knight is convinced that he has to do it so he takes the Sword
and he was holding the sword for three times when suddenly there Is an arm from
the lake took the Sword and vanished in the middle of the lake and then he goes
to Arthur and Arthur asked him what did he see so he says that he says that he
saw an arm that comes and takes the sword and here Arthur feels that he Is in
peace becausee now the sword is back to Its safest place. Arthur says make me
stand becausee a ship with three women are coming and one of them is his sister
they were wearing black, crying and weeping and he tries his best to consult his
Knights telling them that I am going to be healed and I am coming back as I need
to be healed because I have a lot of wounds so he is going to Avilon which Is
mythical place that stands for heaven and here there Is the element of paganism.
When he says that he will come back so here he is raising hope Inside the others
that Arthur will come but In fact Arthur left and In the end there are ruins and a
man who challenges his fate, a man who was alwayss in conflict between his free
will and his fate.
Guenever is no more the same Guenever, both of them have a state of
transformation and it is a physical and spiritual transformation. Thet left all the
pleasures of life and even in the choice of eating and drinking for example
Lancelot is no more eating meat or drinking, he becomes thin and he becomes Ill
and die so he wants to redeem himself, lancelot and Guenever. Guenever dies
before Lancelot. Guenever asked not to see Lancelot anymore, she does not want
to see him becausee of their love whichh is the downfall and Lancelot Is part of
her sin and she Is in the stage of repentance and if man wants to repent so he
should give up his sins and she becomes a nun and she asked that she is not going
to see him anymore and she asked to be buried besides Arthur because although
Arthur is carried by the three women and one of them Is his sister but they make
a grave or a tomb for Arthur and she asked to be buried there and Lancelot comes
after her death and he cried a lot not only becausee of her lost but also to see
what kind of mess they created but it is too late, there will be alwayss this
question whether it is their fate to fall in love or they are means by fate becausee
here there is the wheel of fortune that when someone is great, from greatness to
the downfall, to the tragic end. Lancelot in the transformation process, In the
redeeming process where he believes that he was able to redeem himself at the
end and after two months he becomes a priest and died and this is out of the
sadness and the feeling that he is responsible for everything, for the death of
Gowan, for the fall of Arthur as an individual, as his king or Arthur as an Institution,
as Camelot, he was responsible for It so he ends by this .
There are many layers just like they relIgious layer and whenever we are talking
about religion so we are talking about morals becausee here there Is the
ambivalence of morals, someone who is supposed to be great, loyal and good but
he at the same time he is in love with the wife of his King and Gowan who stands
for religion but he is possessed by revenge, Arthur is a strong King and the role of
the King is to keep the unity and he is responsible for the others, Arthur Is
responsible for the fall of the kingdom becausee he was warned more than one
time to not to do It but he never listens, he become proud of himself and that is
why Melton, who Is a Puritan, Is influenced In his Paradise Lost by this, Satan Is
visualized as a tragic hero becausee he was an angel and he falls. Author is the
bravest and the greatest and he is the one who created the round table with his
Knights, he becomes a myth, he is a legend and authority corrupt, the chair
corrupts and this is the problem becausee he is a human being and here Mallory
Is not presenting him as a Jesus Christ figure, he is a human being and to make
errors Is a human but the error here is not of any human, it is the error of a king
because It will lead to the collapse, to the mess, the chaos that we have It here.
Arthur is someone who never listens to himself or to his fate. Arthur Is not perfect
and he has a sin and his sin Is having an Illegitimate son and having a sin means
that he Is supposed to be punished for this sin and a sin leads to anotherr sin and
In the previous versions they did not present Arthur as a legend, or as a man, he
was presented as a king but here Arthur is represented as a king and as a man, a
man with a sin. Mallory, Chaucer and Langland were in the same time so they are
alwayss compared together because there Is always this Idea of the fall.
The Death of Arthur is the rise and the fall of knighthood, the destruction of
Camelot which stands for loyalty, knighthood and utopia. Sir Mallory is different
form Brut, in a Brut there is a strong and brave Arthur but in Mallory he is not
brave, in Brut Arthur's knights were his source of bravery and strength beside his
physical power, in Brut there is no talk about Lancelot or the betrayal, Mallory
there is jealousy between the Knights which is something that is not found in the
version of Brut also in Mallory Arthur prefers Lancelot and this creates envy and
jealousy so the knights are not equal so there is no justice or unity while in Brut
all of the Knights are united and there is equality which creates Justice and there
is and they are creating envy and jealousy. In Layamon he did not focus on the
betrayal, he focused on the kingdom and he was presenting the unity of the
Kingdom in the form of Arthur and his Knight and this is how we see Camelot and
that's why at the end in all of the versions Arthur died but there there is a promise
that another author will come as if there is hope and that a saver will come but
here it is a romance and from the beginning, from the consumption of Arthur
when Arthur's father likes a woman who is married and how he was able to
deceive her as he took the shape of her husband and this is how conceived Arthur
and this story of his conception is different from what is mentioned in Layamon
because in Layamon, he was found in the sea and they believe that he is half a
human and half God but here from the very beginning that is from the rise of the
knights, when Arthur starts to be a knight and a then distinguished knight and
then he becomes Arthur the legend and then he falls. Arthur didn't know that he
is the distinguished to man. Kay asks Arthur to get his sword as he left it at home.
Arthur finds the sword in the stone while heading home, and he removes it easily.
However, on his return, Ector recognizes the sword, and they go back to the stone
so that Arthur can show that he was able to get It on himself, and again Arthur
was able to get the sword out of the stone easily.
Was Arthur fated to be a distinguished knight or because of his characteristics?
Arthur was fated to be a distinguished knight, he is the one who is chosen to pull
the sword and become the knight. Luck and chance are forms of fate and he
became a legend by his works, he makes the round table which is supposed to
represents the idea of equality that all the Knights are equal and also creates
Camelot but then the fall starts with Arthur himself by his choice of the wife
because Marlin tells Arthur not to Marry Guaniver because she will betray him
and Arthur's mother also warned him not to marry Guaniver as this is not a
successful marriage and this will lead to his tragedy but Arthur did not listen and
he insists to marry her. When Arthur the reached the peak he becomes so much
proud of himself and his free will as if he forgot that he is the one who is fated to
be Arthur as he is the chosen one and this is of fall because there is something
wrong with Guanivar that is she is loved by his favorite knight Lancelot so she
betrays Arthur here there is the breaking of the unity of knighthood as they were
very united but they start to be broken because of a woman and Lancelot admires
Guaniver and this admiration developed because it is a mutual one and that's why
it is no more Spiritual courtly Love because the courtly love is supposed to be from
one side, it is the knight who is ready to Sacrifice himself and serve the lady he is
in love with no matter if she loves him or not. So this can be seen as the point of
view of Christianity that women are the source of sin, betrayal and fall because
Adam falls because of the Eve also there is another thing that is related to women
that is Arthur has a relationship with his sister and he got an illegitimate son,
Modred, so Arthur committed another sin so he committed two sins because it is
adultery and this sin is going to follow him till the end as he is supposed to be
punished, and this sin will lead him to his tragic end. Morgan le fay is half
Goodness and half human.
Arthur's sin will lead him to his tragic ending so is this from a Christian
perspective or a Shakespearean perspective?
Arthur has a fatal flow which is his pride and that he is too much confident in his
free will so here he's not only a Shakespearian tragic hero but as a religious hero
because he committed a sin and he has to be punished according to religion so
here Arthur is not God, he is a human not only him because Lancelot is punished,
Goenever is punished and Gowan, who is the very religious knight, is punished
because of the sin of seeking revenge and all of the other knights are punished as
each one of them has his sin which leads to another sin and this creates a chain
of sins. Gowan's sin is seeking revenge and he forgot the main principle of
knighthood which is forgiveness so this this is the rise and the fall of the knights.
When we talk about the fall so we have to talk about it from different
perspectives, we have to talk about it as the fall of a human who has a flaw and
when we talk about this fall, we have to talk about him challenging his fate with
his free will and as a sinner, as someone who could not resist temptation whether
for Arthur himself, Lancelot, Goanivr or even for Gowan because Gowan could not
resist the temptation of seeking revenge because he was unable to control his
anger and to forgive is not easy and anger is one of the seven deadly sins, and this
is the Christian perspective. Arthur knows that he is created and fated by a
prophecy so the prophecy controls his life he comes Arthur because there is a
prophecy that a boy will come to pull this sword and become the King so Arthur
is a part of a prophecy so he is supposed to believe in prophecies. This is the fall
of knighthood. The utopia, Camelot, Arthur and Camelot are represented by
Jeoffrey of Monmouth and with Wace represented the Round Table and the
courtly love and with Layamon there is the battle of Modred. Camelot is physically
a castle for Arthur and his Knights but symbolically it stands for the utopia because
they create a perfect society or the perfect vision of knighthood and here die
knighthood stands for the code of chivalry, models, unity, loyalty, obedience and
all the virtues which are needed so with the fall of knighthood this will lead to the
destruction of Camelot, the utopia as it is no more the same Castle or house. One
simple sin will lead to another. Arthur is the head and when the head is sick it is
going to affect the whole body, the knights, so Arthur's sin affect the other knights
like Gowan, lancelot and Guinevere. So the fall of knighthood will lead to the
destruction of the utopia, Camelot, here it is not the physical place but the values,
morals and the institution that fall. Arthur did not believe in the prophecies till
the end, so he is just like any Shakespearean tragic hero with a flaw that he is not
fated, he is responsible of having this fate, his free will is his tragic flow.
Why there is a fall of Legend? Why there is no survival?
In Brut it is not a fall of a legend, there is survival till the end but here there is no
survival. Layamon gives Arthur a chance glory and greatness because Layamon
creates Arthur as a Christ figure because they need a Saviour as they were under
the conquer of the French and Layamon was a clerk while Sir Mallory is a fallen
knight, he did all kinds of crimes so the vision will be different, there there is a
religious Vision and that's why Layamon gives Arthur a chance, he presented
Arthur as a Jesus Christ figure so there is a legend that is not going to fall and
there is survival, he gives him a chance by saying that there is an Arthur that will
come but here there is no other Arthur, here there is fall.
Mallory is a wild knight not a moral one because he breaks all the codes of
knighthood and he committed many crimes and sins but at the end he reaches
the stage of redemption and here what Mallory felt in the prison especially at the
end he conveys it to Arthur that's why in the fall of the legend there is a kind of
redemption, he has to die and he is not supposed to have another chance or
greatness because if he has another chance this means that he is not redeemed
and man is redeemed when he accepts whatever he did, when he realize, even if
it is a late realization, that what he did is wrong and this is the end and he should
accept it and this is seen at the end when Arthur was talking with his Knight about
the sword to put it in the lake and that knight was crying for losing Arthur, Arthur
tries to console him but at the same time he reaches a stage that he realizes that
this is the end and that he is going to die so he resigned to his fate. Lancelot and
Guinevere repent and this is the idea of redemption. Mallory was able to make
Lancelot and the Guinevere repent and have a happy marriage so they are going
to be rewarded but he did not do it but on the contrary Guinevere asked for not
to see Lancelot even when she dies and lancelot realizes that and Arthur realizes
that he is responsible and at the end, when it is too late, he resigned to his fate
so here the idea of redemption is that you is not going to wait for a reward
because you realize that you are a sinner and the most important thing and the
reward is to be redeemed and that your repentance is going to be accepted, to be
forgiven by God. So it is a fall of a legend, he become a legend. He has to repent
and his repentance needs to be accepted and not to wait for another thing. At the
end these characters are no more waiting for pleasures, they realizes that this is
not the time for another pleasure or reward by God, that they are going to be
redeemed so they want to be rewarded by God by another thing and repentance
by itself if it is accepted so this is the ultimate reward, and that's why Mallory at
the end was after redemption and maybe if Mallory is not in prison, he will never
have it so it is a chance for him to have this realization. Mallory was committed to
himself not to his Society though it was the time of the Civil War and they are
broken but he was not trying to redeem the Society, on the contrary he was
presenting us the fall so he was committed to himself, to the individual not to the
all and that's why he is a weak person who is given power in one way or another.
Caxton deleted things from Mallory's writings in order to be published because
Mallory did not present praising but criticizing and he presents certain aspects
which Caxton thinks that they are going to be banners for this book to be
published and be successful. The seeking for the golden goblet is the seeking for
salvation, so it is not the idea that you are after something physical that you can
touch it, it is the soul.