Lancelot Knight Of The Cart: An Analysis

Written by order of Lady of Champagne, Chrétien de Troyes Lancelot Knight of the Cart is a story of a knight named Lancelot’s undying love for King Arthur’s wife, Queen Guinevere. In his introduction to the romantic medieval text, Chretien is sure to explain that the ideas within the text are mostly those of his Lady Champagne. Although there had been some speculation of a forbidden love between Lady Champagne and her scribe, there were never any charges against the two that lead to their dishonor. Other noble figures and members of Medieval English society however weren’t as fortunate and had to endure accusations and public humiliation. There was no separation between church and state in medieval England. Adultery was not only a sin against the church it was also an illegal crime that could not only grant a spouse an issue of divorce but the offender and their sexual partner would be subjected to criminal prosecution and public humiliation. The story of Guinevere and Lancelot reveal much about the society in which Chretien was writing within. Queen Guinevere’s status as a sovereign and wife of the king, would

This coincides with Lancelot jumping into the cart of the dwarf to chase after his lady Guinevere and her captor. Denying reason over love, Lancelot humiliates himself and has his honor questioned by anyone and everyone who knows someone who knows someone who saw him in the cart. Although readers may view Lancelot’s various impulsive actions as romantic they must not fail to consider them to be both adulterous and criminal. As his cart ride ends the narrator alludes to these implications when stating that the “cart was for all criminals alike, for all traitors and murders…for all those who had stolen another’s possessions” (117). Lancelot regardless of his aim to retrieve Guinevere, a stolen woman in medieval times, would be regarded and charged just the same as Méléagant, her