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How do Lancelot and Guinevere affect the Round Table in Idylls of the King?
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Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Portrait of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, lithograph published in The Modern Portrait Gallery, 1890.
In Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, the adulterous relationship between Lancelot and Guinevere serves as a primary catalyst for the disintegration of the Round Table.
Tennyson presents a somber vision of an idealistic community in decay, explicitly attributing the decline of Arthur’s fellowship to this betrayal. The affair creates a fundamental conflict between personal passion and the knights' duty to their king, fostering bitter dissension within the court. This moral compromise undermines the integrity of the fellowship, ultimately setting in motion the fatal chain of events that leads to the collapse of Arthur’s kingdom and the end of the knightly order.123