Lancelot Essay

Sanzida Taslim
November 29, 2015

HON 1010C
Lancelot
Lancelot by Walker Percy is a story about a disturbed man named Lancelot, who has
formed a very twisted a philosophy due to events that had led him to apparently killing his
adulterous wife.
The introductory idea to his radical philosophy on women began when he expressed his
view on love to his friend in the mental ward that he is currently residing in after the house fire in
which his wife was killed. Lancelot believed love is a hoax that the elders played on everyone.
He explains how he experienced two different loves with both of his wives, one which was of
an innocent nature, while the other was of a sexual nature. He believed that love is the cause of
all the societal downfalls in history.
Furthermore, he also believes that America is becoming the new Sodom, an immoral place, and
this ruining of America is being caused by all women. He even says how his son turned into a
homosexual due to hating the modern women. His view on religion also shows his contempt on
women. He states that Gods secret design for man is that mans happiness lies for men in men
practicing violence upon women and that womans happiness lies in submitting to it. These
views and experiences on love, along with his views on women lead to his idea of the New
World that he will create, and the New Woman that will arise out of it. Lancelot remarks how he
is similar to the original Lancelot, however instead of having a quest to find the Holy Grail, his
quest is to find sin. The New Women will be explicit about their nature, or about their sinfulness.
They will clearly be virtuous women or immoral women. This ideology shows his current
philosophy on women of today; the good women are the virgin-like and innocent women,
while the bad women are the sexually free vixen. His first wife, Lucy Cobb was the image of the
good woman. The woman who resides next to his room in the mental ward is also the image of
the good woman, even though she was raped by three men. Interestingly, the brutality of her
experience, caused by men, brought her back to her innocence and her good standing. His second
wife, Margot, was the image of the bad, immoral women in society. From the beginning, the
only thing that the author had felt for her was lust, and that her downfall was a result of her sin.
Lancelots philosophy and actions seem to be greatly based on his childhood experiences. For
example, he compared his feelings of when he found out about Margots infidelity with feelings
he had as a child when he found that his father was a corrupt politician when he found money in
his fathers sock drawer.
Even though he found out through the video that both his daughter and his wife were immoral
women, he only decided that Margot deserved being killed. To him, the infidelity even managed
to get him out of the dullness out of his life. His philosophy on infidelity, that it is something that
needs to be punished with death seems to be based on his childhood experience. Lancelots
fixation on his wifes adultery was based on the fact that his own mother committed adultery and
how it seemed that everyone knew the fact in his childhood. We find this out during his
hallucination of his mother on his desk.
Lancelots philosophy is incredibly hypocritical and misogynistic, which highlight his
insanity throughout the book. While women have caused the downfall of society, he does not see
himself as a problem in any of the wrong things he has done. We can infer that he believes that
Margot was at fault for her own murder, that her having sex with someone else directly caused
her death. Also, he does not murder Merlin, the person who he originally believed actually
fathered Siobhan, the person who first had committed adultery with Margot. Also, before he
catches his wife in the act and murders her, he himself commits the act with Raine. He does not
view himself as immoral here, and probably believed that this was also Margots fault that he did
this.
Lancelot delusions himself as someone that mirrors the original Lancelot, but it is
interesting that he more mirrors the King in the original story, who wants to burn his queen alive
because of her adultery with the Knight. His philosophy on women and on the current state of
America seems to derive from his experiences with adultery, both from his mother and his wife.
His radical suggestion on how to change the current system proves the instability of his character
in the book, and raises questions on whether he even performed the deed of killing his wife, and
even on whether the person, Henry, or Percival (it is such a coincidence that his friend is
named after Lancelots partner in the original tale), is real. Walker Percy uses the book Lancelot
to discuss these philosophical ideas, and through his character, indirectly shows how they are
insane.

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Sanzida Taslim

November 29, 2015

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