Analytical paper on the tragic figure of Lancelot in T.H White's "Once And Future King"

        Sir Lancelot's intense desire to perform heroic deeds was brought on by his lack of confidence and insecurity. His childhood was spent in seclusion, training for a job desired only to escape the hellish life that his hideous face would otherwise hold in store for him. Lancelot's adulthood was spent trying to overcompensate for this ugliness by performing Herculean feats and good deeds. And the twilight years of his life were spent in remorse for …

…the others, then he would have seen that he was not the Ill-Made Knight, but truly the Well-Made Knight. Alas, though, his vision was only skin deep. For if he could have known how much his need to succeed had helped other people, if he had known how much better he really was than everyone else, then he would have finally come to the conclusion that his homeliness was not a curse, but a blessing.