Lancelot and Loyalty
... pride”(6), as everyone in the household perceived Kay’s acts to be. Kay did this completely against King Arthur’s will because if he won the battle he would be a hero. Kay’s actions were completely self-centered, completely dishonorable, and completely disloyal. Sir Lancelot’s actions were loyal to Arthur. Lancelot did truly want to save Queen Guinevere and return her safely to King Arthur. He fought stronger and more fiercely than ever to try to find her. He even allowed himself to be paraded around in a cart—hence the name Knight of the Cart,”—completely destroying the way he was viewed socially. Lancelot would have done anything to complete his quest and return Guinevere safely back to Arthur. Unlike Kay, Lancelot’s actions were totally loyal and not at all selfish. Sir Lancelot, although his actions were both loyal and honorable, had disloyal, dishonorable motives. His reasons for being so loyal to Arthur when it came to rescuing Guinevere were flawed: Lancelot was desperately in love with Guinevere. They were having an affair behind Arthur’s back, had been for some time, and would continue for many years. Lancelot would have gone after Guinevere just as vehemently even if Arthur had forbidden it. Having an affair with the wife of your queen, when the king doesn’t know, and pretending that nothing out of the ordinary is going on is lying. Lying to someone who trusts you completely is disloyal. Queen Guinevere, also, is disloyal for the same reason. She was married to King Arthur. Having an affair with your husband in the dark about it shatters all sanctity of marriage. Being the wife of King Arthur, and being a queen, the only duty Guinevere really had at all was to be true to her husband. It was not something that should be all that hard to do. She performed the only act of disloyalty she was capable of performing in regard to Arthur. Lancelot’s intense love for Guinevere, however disloyal or dishonorable towards Arthur, can almost justify his quest to save her as being loyal. He refused to sleep with a woman who had requested him to because he was in love with Guinevere. He stopped at nothing to get to her. In romances like this one, marriages are considered irrelevant when it comes to being loyal to the one you love whether it is the person you are married to or not. One of the knights in Lancelot was truly loyal ...