Comparing Gawain, L Mort D Arthur And The Wedding Of King

Reflective Essay

Everyone will fail or be failed at some point in their lives. Acceptance of failure is a very important realization. When one fails, they must use the experience for growth, expansion and forgiveness. Like Gawain, Bedivere and Pellinore, knights of the Round Table in Gawain and the Green Knight, L Mort d' Arthur and The Wedding of King Arthur, and Max and Kevin, outcasts in the movie the Mighty, I have had to deal with failure. It is no question that we will all fail at some point; however it is not the failure that defines us, but how we deal with it.

I have always set high goals for myself, never settling for failure. Last year, in my first year of high school, I wanted to maintain a balanced life between studies, social life and health. I challenged myself by taking the hardest classes I possibly could. I was constantly staying up until the break of dawn, and then peeling my eyes open each morning just in time to get to school. On weekends, I would spend the whole day hibernating in bed. My eyes felt sunken into my head, constantly drooping with dark raccoon circles. I was falling behind on assignments, and my brain was fried. While taking a biology

test, I struggled to recall simple things, and it took me much longer than normal to carry out simple math. I anxiously attempted to complete the test, flustered. After bombing this test, it revealed to me my unhealthy lifestyle. Unhappy with my biology grade, I seized the opportunity to make a change. Motivated, I began to eat healthier, micromanage my schedule and rest more. This dramatically changed my outlook, physical health and grades, teaching me a valuable lesson.
Because I used my fault to my advantage, I am glad I flunked that test. It allowed me to improve myself. I do not believe “everything happens for a reason,” but I do think you can give meaning to any event in your life. Thanks to my failure, I was able to succeed. You must take the bad and manifest the good out of it yourself.
Manifesting knowledge from failure is presented in many Arthurian tales. For example, in Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain and Sir Bercilak, a king who allows Gawain to stay at his castle, play a game. Gawain realizes his honesty was put to the test in King Bercilak’s game. The rules were that Gawain receives what the king hunts each day, and Gawain gives the king what he receives in return. The king’s wife gives Gawain a belt with invincibility powers, and he hides it from Sir Bercilak. He confesses his failure and dishonesty, and all of Camelot uses it as a lesson. Sir Bercilak gives him the green belt to keep, and Gawin is motivated to improve immediately, which is shown when he says, “I’ll keep it gladly ...as a sign of my sin...and if ever pride for my feats of arms stirs me, this belt will humble my heart.” (Gawain 122). Right away, he recognizes his error and wants to learn from it. Gawain, and later all of Camelot, wears a green belt to remind them to ward away from temptations. If they do fail, it symbolizes that it is okay, as long as they acknowledge their mistake.
Another example of accepting failure, or more so disappointment, is shown in the movie The Mighty. After Kevin and Max return a woman's stolen purse, Max runs into the lady’s boyfriend, who knows Max's dad. Her boyfriend brings up his nickname "Killer Kane." This enrages Max, causing both himself and Kevin to storm out of the room. Kevin, who has no previous knowledge of Max's father, doesn't ask many questions. Max says, "From that day on, Freak never asked me about my father, and I never asked him about his, because that's not who we were." (the Mighty). Freak and Max both have fathers who left them as a child. Max saw his father murder his mother in a rage, but he went back to bed, convincing himself it was a dream. Freak's father fled their family when he found out about Freak's physical disability. They both know their tattered childhoods are not their faults, and not who they are. Thus, they know it is not worth digging up the past to dwell on.
L’ Mort d' Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory serves as a negative example of dwelling on failure.

While King Arthur is dying, he asks one of his trusted knights of the Round Table, Bedivere, to throw his sword, Excalibur, into the nearby river and tell him what he sees after. Bedivere fails to throw the sword into the lake twice. On the third, try a hand emerges from the river, grabs the sword and disappears. Because of the delay, Bedivere believes he could have saved Arthur. In guilt, he spends the rest of his life at a chapel. Bedivere tells a hermit, “...by my will, but all the days of my life here to pray for my lord Arthur.” (Malory 175). Bedivere spends the rest of his life dwelling on his single mistake. Rather than taking action to preserve Camelot, he wallows in regret and what could have

been.
Regret is a common effect of failure, like in The Wedding of King Arthur. While on a quest, knight Sir Pellinore passes a lady crying, with a wounded knight. She begs for help, but he is too focused on his quest to have mercy on the weak. Thus, the lady places a curse on Pellinore. After returning to Camelot, Sir Pellinore says, “...I was so intent on my quest that I would not wait, and that will be a weight on my conscious all the days of my life.” (Steinbeck 95). Merlin reveals to Pellinore, that this lady was his daughter, Alayne, and the knight was her fiancé, Sir Myles. Alayne killed herself in despair, after Pellinore ignored her cries. Because of his failure, he is destined to be left to die by the man he trusts most. However, King Arthur and the knights of Camelot use his mistakes to make the laws of the Round Table, to avoid any mistakes like this in the future. In this situation, along with Pellinore’s guilt, he must face future consequences because of his injustice, but the Round Table will use it to prevent failure, like so, in the future.
Although these experiences are very different, they are all alike in which someone must deal with failure, whether it is their own or someone else's. In my experience, I use my failure, for my personal gain. Though, I was able to notice it and correct myself, before there were any serious tolls. The Arthurian stories and the Mighty contain much more extreme failures, that impacted others as well. Because of Gawain's, Camelot uses his failure for the benefit of the people, similar to my action to improve, but on a greater scale. With Kevin and Max's father's failure and Kevin and Max's disappointment, they acknowledge it was not their fault, and brush it aside, without using it for growth. Unfortunately, Bedivere does not use his mistake to be advantageous, and he spends the rest of his life discouraged. Sir Pellinore must face the consequences of his fault, but like in Gawain and the Green Knight, the Round Table uses his mistake for future knowledge. Everyone handles negative experiences differently, but in my opinion, the best strategy is to use them as a catalyst for personal or community gain.