To me, the story of Lancelot may be the perfect romance. I have restrained myself from making this claim about others we have read because I had a feeling that there would be one that I deemed more perfect, and I proved myself right.Daphnis and Chloe was too sweet and youthful for me, and the other stories have just not had the romantic edge for me. This is where Sir Lancelot fills the void, and maybe I am just falling into what Zimmer describes as Lancelot’s character and persona, but even if it is thats ok with me.
“Sir Lancelot is an incarnation of the ideal for
manhood that exists, not in the world of masculine social
action, but in the hopes and fancies of the
feminine imagination” -pg 133.
Well if ever there were a point to rethink the finger pointing at Disney for ruining little girls by instilling a false image of a prince charming or valiant knight in shining armor coming to her rescue and chivalrously sweeping her off her feet, it may be apt to point a little further in the past to the time of King Arthur and the round table and the debonair Sir Lancelot.
The story of Lancelot has the four characteristics that we have deemed mandatory for a romance , quest, revelation, quest, death,and a happy ending. The other elements of his story are what make me enjoy it so much as a romance, the duality with which Lancelot is forced to live his life and the diversion from the usual knightly love tale. He lives as a human but raised in the faery realm and wrought with prophecies he cant control. He is apart of Arthur’s court and that provides a lot of rigidity with how to live life honorably and such.
His life as a perpetual bachelor because of his unfullfillable love for Queen Guinevere serves as another reason why this is my favorite romance. He is tricked by Elaine and banished by the hurt Guinevere and is then brought back into the bounty of Elaine and the son she bore him only to flee from there back to his real true love, Guinevere.
Whether his love for Queen Guinevere was enchanted, bewitched, lustful, or unattainable it was love that both pushed them apart and pulled them back together, to me that is romance.
Lancelot again captured my attention when I was reading Tennyson’s poem The Lady of Shalott for another class. Basically the Lady of Shalott is cursed and stuck in a tower forced to gaze out at Camelot, but she cannot look at it direct. Only through a mirror can she view the outside world. She sits up in her prison weaving a tapestry and lives monotonously...until Sir Lancelot rides into the frame of her mirror. The Lady of Shalott is so taken by him that she resolves to gaze upon him and build a boat that will carry her to him. Well, tragically, she never makes it to the ground, the curse kills her and she never gets to act on her love. To me this speaks to the enchanting and extremely handsome appearance of Lancelot. He is able to charm damsels by just his looks and is able to make them act beyond the bounds of their prescribed character.
Lancelot is a character enigma, but I feel like his irresistibleness and charm and knighthood make him both perplexing and strait forward enough to capture and perpetuate his allure, at least to the feminine psyche.
