Excerpt from The Once and Future King

It was the unfair rape of their Cornish grandmother which was hurting Gareththe picture of dim and innocent people victimized by the resistless tyrannythe aged tyranny of the Gallwhich was felt like a personal injure by every crofter of the Islands. Gareth was a generous boy. He hated the conceit of military force against weakness. It made his heart swell, as if he were going to suffocate. Gawaine, on the other hand, was angry because it had been against his family. He did not think it was wrong for strength to fork up its way, but only that it was intensely wrong for anything to succeed against his make clan.He was neither clever nor sensitive, but he was loyalstubbornly sometimes, and so far annoyingly and stupidly so in later life. For him it was then as it was always to be Up Orkney, Right or Wrong. The third brother, Agravaine, was locomote because it was a matter which concerned his mother. He had curious feelings about her, which he kept to himself. As for Gaheris, he did and felt what the others did (White, 223).The theme of this passage is the trade of man to fight against tyranny. The Orkney brothers recall the story their grandfathers off and of the forced marriage of Ingraine (the lady of Cornwall and their grandmother) to Uther the former male monarch of Pendragon. These Orkney boys consider their grandparents to have been wronged by those connected to the Kings of England. Gawain goes on to say, And this, my heroes is the reason why we of Cornwall and Orkney must be against the Kings of England ever more, and most of all against the clan Mac Pendragon (White, 223).In their mind it is their responsibility to continue being opposed to those who provoke and harm others. The story they enunciate is of immense importance to the plot, as they make an initial connection surrounded by the Orkney clan and the house of King Arthur. It places the boys in the place of victims and the reader suspects from this incidental that despite their futur e places as knights in King Arthurs court, they whitethorn end up being opposed to all that (they believe) Arthur stands for.The use of this encounter to support the theme highlights the fact that trading may rise up in the form of revenge against tyrannical acts. The graphic nature of the simulacrum shocks the reader to attention, yet it also highlights the irony of the position to which King Arthur has risen. Although the king is a decent person, the throne on which he sits is tainted by the below the belt acts of past kings. The selected quote shows the level of challenge that awaits Arthur in gaining the organized religion of his subjects, despite the duty that he too has toward sort outing wrong.It hints that many of his subjects believe in the cruelty of kings and expect a high level of disregard from the pattern of their state. It also justifies Arthurs desire for might to be use for right rather than for the sake of power, and it highlights Arthurs own duty to fight f or justice. It shows how people have truly been affected by the unjust actions of kings in the past, and legitimizes the selection of the well-meaning Wart as the divinely elect King Arthur.