I’m about to say something not enough people say with regularity: I love Sir Kay. Ever since he evolved (or devolved) into the brat of the Round Table, he’s served as a voice for readers who find the self-righteousness of the other knights tiresome. Kay grounds Malory’s tales by representing the real-world skepticism of chivalric ideals. He’s also a hilarious and handy plot device, as we’ve seen in the stories of Lancelot and Gareth. It fills me with wrothe when the aforementioned knights use him to promote their own reputations, partly because their disrespect for him is a blow to the common man; when they disregard him, they elevate themselves further into the realm of unattainable knightly perfection.
Now I’m going to contradict myself for a second, because I don’t believe it was Malory’s intention to make Lancelot’s interaction with Kay seem demeaning. I think when Lancelot rescues him from the three pursuing knights, it’s supposed to be a reflection of Lancelot’s selflessness. After all, their armor swap allows Kay to travel safely, and in theory, Lancelot’s donning of Kay’s armor and winning several jousts with it can knock Kay’s reputation up a notch. However, since nearly everyone realizes it’s not Kay who’s fighting, I’m left wondering what Lancelot’s motives are for disguising himself as Kay, of all people.
The only explanation I can come up with has to do with Arthurian knights’ almost maniacal desperation for adventure. Lancelot’s (and later, Gareth’s, when he fights with Kay’s shield) decision to temporarily fool people into thinking he’s the worst knight in Arthur’s court seems to be evidence of the slightly self-destructive quality of self-promotion. He, along with other knights who have dedicated themselves to chivalry, will never be satisfied with the amount of glory associated with his name, so he’s constantly searching for ways to make his achievements more difficult. It seems that Lancelot’s Kay-disguise is merely a challenge to himself – and an element of amusement to keep himself from getting bored with winning all the time.
This is also the only reason I can think of for the Arthurian trend of hiding one’s identity. This is what all the cool kids do in Gareth’s tale, and though its main function seems to be plot development, I think it’s also another sign of knights’ desire to make things more difficult for themselves in order to justify their accomplishments. Their life’s work is constructing reputations for themselves, so their names are powerful signifiers of their worth. So much so, in fact, that the knights who hide their names seem to be conflicted between their self-identity and their courtly identity, which they try to reconcile by disassociating themselves from the names they’ve built their reputations on, and testing their prowess without them. It’s as though their relentless search for adventure is a reflection of their relentless search for identity.
Or maybe they’re jealous of Kay’s wit and secretly want to be just like him.
I think the practice of hiding their identities has less to do with making their adventures more difficult, and more to do with tricking other people into fighting them.
ReplyDeleteThe only times when knights are shown intentionally avoiding random combat, is when they know it is against someone who will absolutely destroy them. So when Lancelot is pretending to be Kay, I see it as less him handicapping himself, and more of a way to handicap the other knights. He is just as aware that they have no chance against him as they are, and (somewhat immaturely) it bothers him that this means they won't fight him. Riding around as sir Kay is kind of like a professional poker player sitting in on a friendly game in a friends basement. It's not fair to the other players, and they would never agree to it if they knew who they were competing against.
I do like the idea that the other knights are jealous of Kay, though. It makes sense, since he has the very noteworthy placement as Arthur's seneschal, yet every other knight knows they are his superior in prowess and chivalry. It would certainly be annoying to see someone you regularly beat into the ground outranking you. Might make you want to keep beating him into the ground, actually.
Your crush on Kay makes me laugh Jenny. But you make some great points here. I think in particular you're right when you talk about the knights names being a hard earned signifier of their own work. I think in particular this is reflected in the final chapter of Morte DArthur when being unarmed, and therefor unnamed, leads to the death of Gawayne's brothers. Abandoning your name, for whatever period of time, seems to be thought of a generally a dangerous action. Lancelot's readiness to mask himself is perhaps another example of his careless action-driven attitude. It also wouldn't surprise me if, as you said, Lancelot is taking other Knights names in an effort to claim more glory for himself, FROM other knights. He's the Medieval equivalent of "all your bases r belong to me."
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