Happily Ever After?

The theme of moral decay is emphasized in the Passing of Arthur. Arthur’s last mission request is for Sir Bedivere to cast the sword, Excalibur, into the lake.  However Bedivere tries to hide the sword, disobeying the kings command and lied about it twice. As a loyal knight from Arthur’s court, the reader would expect him to obey the king’s last wishes. But as Arthur is slowly dying, so are the moral values he invested. The dark symbolism of nature in this poem supports the feeling of evil, failure, and desolation, in the middle of winter with no other surviving knights of the round table. Before the king sailed away, Bedivere asks Arthur what is to become of him now that the Round Table is destroyed and justice has vanished from the world. Arthur answers by saying that with him gone, it leaves room for the new to be placed, and to sends prayers for his soul. It seems that all the virtues and high morals of the kingdom have vanished, but the rising of a new sun gives hope for a similar future.