Characters in The Once And Future King Essay

While reading The Once and Future King, I came across many interesting and crazy characters. Reading about an era so different from ours is exciting, especially when its only fiction. Although each character had their unique values, I found the magician, Merlyn, to be the most interesting. The fact that he was a magician, alone, made him all the more interesting, but it was the way he was able to teach the Wart was most fascinating to me.

With just a simple spell, he took himself through very dangerous adventures and turned himself into many different animals such as a perch, a merlin, an ant, an owl, and a goose. Being these animals, he learned how to live like them, and faced many obstacles that those certain animals had to face daily. He taught the Wart how to swim like a perch, sent him to the mews where all the other birds stayed over night, and taught him how ants communicated and worked together. Merlyn was extremely smart for having to guide the Wart through the many dangers that he faced. If he wasnt turning the Wart into a strange animal, he was magically transporting him to a strange location where an exciting event was taking place. For instance, the Wart wanted to be turned into a knight, but Merlyn wouldnt allow it, so he took the Wart to a forest to watch a jousting match between King Pellinore and Sir Grummor Grummursum, which taught him how knights really fought and acted.

While the magician tutored the Wart, he was actually preparing him for the future where the Wart would eventually become King Arthur. In order for the Wart to become King Arthur, Merlyn had taught him everything he knew basically that he could. Merlyn used his wisdom and great knowledge to lead him to this successful life. Through the adventures and the transformations, he allowed the Wart to see the world through many eyes, which related to the obstacles he had to face as a king. Merlyn was almost constantly at King Arthurs side during his career, and he wasnt only a guide, but a best friend. Although there were so many interesting characters, none of them even came close to how interesting Merlyn was. I think I speak for many people when I say it would probably be the most fascinating experience to have a teacher like Merlyn. It would definitely make learning more fascinating instead of it being so boring.

With the knowledge of each character came the shocks and surprises. Like the variety of interesting characters, of course there were many jaw dropping incidents that took place which were completely unexpected. As a king, King Arthur had to make decisions on his own. He dealt with fights, wars, and love. He even had to learn how to use his own powers. Even though King Arthur was the main character, I found many incidents that did not even involve him to be rather shocking.

Of course there were many wars being fought physically, but mentally as well. Hearts were broken and confusion occurred during the love affairs. People were being killed during the many battles that took place. And hard decisions were being made that were sometimes even life threatening. Although these would be the perfect incidents to talk about, I found some of the most shocking ones to not even be a disastrous conflict.

One of the most shocking incidents I came across was when Morgause boiled her own cat in a pot just to make a spell that let her turn invisible. Although this was not even a major conflict in the story, I found it to be disturbing because I myself am a cat lover. I particularly chose to talk about this incident because instead of talking about a major scene, I wanted to focus on something most people would just read right over and probably forget once theyve finished the book.

Throughout the entire story, there were different characters that played around with magic and cast odd spells, but this particular one caught my attention the most. Morgause was actually introduced into the story this way, which automatically made it a horrible first impression on her. I found it strange that boiling a cat would have anything to do with turning someone invisible. It especially disturbed me to learn that the cat was alive while this was being done. Another thing that should be pointed out is the fact that she didnt even need to be invisible. She was mainly boiling her cat out of boredom. The spell didnt even work, which was heartbreaking because she basically killed her innocent cat for no reason at all.

I found The Once and Future King to not only be a suspenseful and tragic story, but a life lesson as well. It taught me that there are many decisions I have to make in life, but if I just look back to what Ive learned while growing up, I could use that wisdom to easily help me make those right decisions; even if some are wrong because I would just learn from it. Reading this book was quite interesting to read and an exciting experience and Id definitely encourage other people to read it as well.