Mikaela Martinez Dettinger: The Myth of T.H. White's Lancelot

 T.H. White's The Ill-Made Knight is a more modern rendition of the classic story of King Arthur's golden knight, Lancelot. White makes many adjustments to the classical figure in his version of the legend including adding Lancelot's recognition of humanity in others. This is what I will focus on. In White's story, Lancelot is first very rude and mean to Guinevere when he learns that she and Arthur will be married. He admits later in the story that he was mean because he saw her only as an object coming between him and Arthur. He apologizes and states that he had to learn to think of her as a human in her own right with her own emotions. 

This made me think of Heidegger's idea of preconceptions and bracketing. Lancelot had his preconceptions of Guinevere. He thought of her as someone who wanted all of Arthur's time, attention, and affection so, he treated her poorly. He had to learn to bracket out those preconceptions. Heidegger argues that this learning to bracket often comes from a powerful event in someone's life. This lesson is seldom learned easily. This was the case for Lancelot, too. He saw Guinevere as human when he saw her cry and realized he had hurt her. It took recognition of pain to show him that she must be a human of her own right with her own emotion because she could feel pain. It is a sadistic way to learn this lesson, but it worked for Lancelot. He then began to know her better, and, well, it worked a bit too well as the story goes that they then had an affair behind Arthur's back. 

Seeing Heidegger's ideas in a novel that was contemporary to him made me wonder if T.H. White was familiar with Heidegger's writings. It also made me think of the idea that it takes causing pain in other to allow oneself to be open to seeing who they truly are. I think that this is maybe how humans learn kindness. Perhaps pain gives opportunity for kindness because people become more apparently human.