Queen Guinevere in Malory’s “Le Morte d’Arthur” Essay

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The book Le Morte d’ Arthur explores various topics that can be linked to the modern issues related to society and the reflection of culture and power dynamics. Certain characters majorly demonstrate detailed and complicated set of values and unique morals that can be exemplary within the literature’s projection on modern society. Queen Guinevere’s character represents the reflection on the loyalty through the set of specific actions that can have a confusing tone to them due to the moral obligations.

Despite being a wife of Arthur, Queen Guinevere’s conscious choice is to become a lover of Launcelot. The juxtaposition of marital betrayal and forbidden passion gives the sinful depth to this character and encourages the reader to question her moral codex. Through the narrative of Queen Guinevere, it is possible to reflect on the concept of loyalty and the extent to which it can expand, and the contradictory morals related to love and betrayal.

The component of betrayal is evident within the story of Queen Guinevere. Although she was a married woman, she had a long-lasting and emotionally impacting affair with Launcelot. Simultaneously, Queen Guinevere was struggling to accept her status. When Dame Eleine said: “Alas, madam, ye do great sin, and to yourself great dishonour, for ye have a lord of your own, and therefore it is your part to love him”, she points out the queen’s inability to use the privileges to her benefit (Malory 622). This way, her actions reflect the values of self-centrism that is generally contradictory to the moral standards.

The concept of unconditional loyalty is applicable to Queen Guinevere, as eventually she was ready to sacrifice things in the sake of her love. This behavior represents the willingness to sacrifice one’s own happiness for other people, which correlates with various sacrificial motifs present in literature. In fact, sacrifice is majorly socially accepted as a sublime behavior and tends to be treated with respect and encouragement (Corbett 55). Therefore, through evidently elaborating on sacrificial motifs Queen Guinevere represents a widely accepted moral dynamics.

The clash between conscious and deliberate betrayal and sacrificial tendencies of Queen Guinevere creates a contradiction related to the judgment on her morals and the relevance of her actions. The way this character places herself below her lover in terms of internal priorities represents the highest scale of loyalty. Thus, Queen Guinevere carries betrayal and loyalty related to her love interests at the same time, which makes it impossible to firmly categorize her into the label of a morally wrong or a morally right person.

This contradiction is a direct reflection of a widely accepted modern perception of morals. Le Morte d’ Arthur elaborates on the issues of biases applied to morals that are present in the modern society’s regulations as well. Essentially, it means that literature highlights the prominent tendencies in the social and moral dynamics and to carry it through the centuries for people to reflect on it further and to recognize the biases related to history, time and place.

Works Cited

Corbett, Rosemary R. “3. Sacrifice, Service, and Civil Religion Now.” Civil Religion Today. New York University Press, 2021. 50-76.

Malory, Thomas. Le Morte d’Arthur: King Arthur & the Knights of the Round Table. Race Point Publishing, 2017.

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IvyPanda. "Queen Guinevere in Malory’s “Le Morte d’Arthur”." April 22, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/queen-guinevere-in-malorys-le-morte-darthur/.

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