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Queen Guenever. In the novel The Once and Future King, by TH White, the
character, Queen Guenever, is depicted as a confused and ...
... In his eyes, she was still his Jenny. Guenever had lost her rattled look. For more
than a year the Queen was petulant, cruel, contradictory and miserable. ...
... The next section entitled The Queen of Air and Darkness tells of Arthur’s war ... love
for Arthur and allows him to fall in love with Arthur’s wife Guenever. ...
Submitted by i4mdinomite on April 8, 2008
Category: Book Reports
Words: 1053 | Pages: 5
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In the novel The Once and Future King, by T.H. White, the character, Queen Guenever, is depicted as a confused and lost woman in an arranged marriage. She had an internal struggle with a shameful secret, an affair with the ugly knight, Lancelot. In the time of King Arthur, women were limited to what they could do, and what decisions they were able to make. She ultimately made some wrong choices in her life, which led to the disapproval from those around her. She was in her marriage by force and had no malicious intensions, but did what she felt she needed.
Guenever’s dialogue with Lancelot shows signs of guilt, but an overall distinct feeling of love. On page 549, she states that “You (Lancelot) will be killed, and I shall be burned, and our love has come to a bitter end.” The love she has for Lancelot is obviously strong, enough for her to accept her own demise. This sad articulation of her love for him is quite powerful. She understands her actions, and also shows signs of paranoia. She claims, on page 567, that “Tristram used to sleep with King Mark’s wife, and the king murdered him for it.” Guenever is thoughtful of what’s to come, for both her AND her partner. It is obvious that she knew she could not always “have her cake and eat it too.” As a woman, suffering through the psychological battle of “what is right”, Guenever had an awareness of her love and it’s outcome.
A few characters in The Once and Future King knew about Guenever’s secret and wanted to exploit her and take care of personal issues, while others were completely oblivious to the affair. King Arthur, for example, “hated knowing the future and managed to dismiss it from his mind”, as told on page 335. He knew, from Merlyn’s warning, about the affair and was too nice to believe in it. Weakness and ignorance flooded his mind, as it was right in front of his face. Mordred and Agravaine, on the other hand, hated Lancelot and Arthur, and...
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