King Arthur

Arthur’s Reasons Concerning War

Since the beginning of time, the chaotic and barbaric fighting called war has been and will happen until the end of the world, that is, unless mankind smartens up. As T.H. White puts it on pages 631-632,“They were always saying that the present one (war) was to be the last, and afterwards there was to be a heaven. They were always to rebuild such a new world as never was seen. When the time came, however, they were too stupid.” At the beginning of Arthur’s reign he dealt with psychotic men such as King Lot that waged wars for pure sport. Since they had enough money to do so, they would buy expensive armor and weaponry and would kill for game. In his old age, just before succumbing to death, Arthur ponders deeply about the causes of war. It takes him his entire lifetime to figure out the answer to stop the madness. And just when he figures this out, it is way too late to take action upon his conclusion. Although war is waged for many reasons on the surface, Arthur at long last surmises that it all stems from one, true foundation. After perusing reasons such as people that “have” or “have not,” fear of dishonest people, and ancestral feuds, Arthur finally deduces that the true reason for war is land boundaries.

The most sufficient explanation for the idea of war based on the “haves” and the “have-nots” is that of Arthur versus Mordred. On page 632, it was simply stated, “I have, and Mordred has not.” Mordred grew up in shame. He is an illegitimate child with a horrible woman for a mother. Consequently, Modred was jealous of Arthur’s happiness and ability to be justified. Mordred’s jealousy of Arthur causes him to begin a war against Arthur and if this were the true reason for war, similar statements can be said for all wars. This type of war is instigated by possessiveness and greed. Arthur disproves this idea because the solution to ending war would be for everyone to either have or not to have. This idea in present-day terms would be called communism. Furthermore, as the public knows, true communism cannot be attained.

Suspicion of neighboring leaders not telling the truth is yet another one of Arthur’s ideas of why war is set off. It is a fault of the human body to not always tell the truth.