Cruelty of the Human Species in T.H. White's The Book of Merlyn (PDF)

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2011 im Fachbereich Anglistik - Literatur, Note: 2,7, Universität Duisburg-Essen (Geisteswissenschaften), Veranstaltung: Proseminar: "Man and Animal in Contemporary Fiction", Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: "Even the Greek definition anthropos, He Who Looks Up, is inaccurate. Man seldom looks above his own height [...]" (White 53). This acknowledgement by Merlyn gives a good impression of the whole tenor of the novel The Book of Merlyn. This work is part of the pentalogy The Once and Future King, which retells the Arthurian legend. In this book King Arthur, not a young boy anymore and facing a battle with his enemy Mordred, finds himself standing in front of a council consisting of various types of wise animals who deal with a difficult question: In what way does human kind distinguish itself from other species and how do they fit into the world?
It is common knowledge that neither modesty nor peaceableness is one of human kind's speciality. No species eliminates land, other creatures and even members of their own race in such great extent like mankind did and is still doing. These and other issues are in the centre of attention in this novel. Furthermore the characters discuss a lot about political and social systems and in how far some of these are or are not just a characteristic of human societies. However, the reader of the pentalogy by T.H. White could wonder why these matters are so important for the Arthurian legend or the course of this version of the story in specific.
Especially the fact that many subjects of discussion refer to many historical events and figures who existed in the modern age and some of them even at White's time is very confusing and does not fit into the pattern of the pentalogy. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that these issues have a special meaning within the whole work and support the plot in many ways. The modern aspects of this book turn the whole historical fantasy saga into a socio-political and philosophical reading. And this makes the story more multifaceted. So, beneath the fact that Arthur represents a thoroughly heroic figure, who stands in contrast to the evil ones and does heroic deeds, the reader is also confronted with a more complex picture of the human race and with the inconvenient truth about its apparent leading position in the world.