Contrast and Confusion

As I read about the tales of King Arthur, his knights, his Queen and so on I was left with a bit of confusion. First what is with the contrast between Arthur and the Queen? This is leaving out the strange love triangle between her and Launcelot for now. Arthur was supposed to be this incredibly virtuous King. He makes all the just and fair decisions. He has his noble round table. He earned loyalty from so many knights, yet his Queen is quite nasty and vindictive at times. I am genuinely confused by the sharp contrast in their characters. She repeatedly banished Launcelot and was quick to react to other knight. Yet Arthur is supposed to be the character that is the exact opposite of these traits. In general I am just left confused by how these two characters have come in to these personalities. The text lets us know that Arthur fell in love with her at first sight, but I am just curious as to why Malory would cast her in such a light. Additionally I was somewhat shocked by Arthur's reliance on Merlin in the beginning of the text. In the previous reading of the text, Merlin did not have near the role that he does in this version. Here it appears that Arthur is dependent on him for judgment and that he is really the catalyst for his success. From previous readings I don't remember that dependency and honestly that reading of the characters has changed my viewpoint on Arthur. From his indecisiveness about what to do between his Queen and best knight to his dependency on Merlin its like come on dude step up and be a King.

Finally what the heck does fighting have to do with proving the truthfulness of anything? Oh I may have slept with your wife, but if one of your knights can't out fight me that means I didn't do it? Rationalism people, it goes a long way.