After reading Guinevere by Alfred Lord Tennyson, I cant help but feel moved. Unlike in the other depictions of this story, there is a lot of thought and emotion tied into the reading. At first it seems very simple, Queen Guinevere and Lancelot are frequently "MEETING" with one another and then they are found out but unlike in Mallory's version this is where the similarities end. Instead of making Lancelot out to be this great hero and single handily take out a dozen knights. He is depicted as a beast "aroused Lancelot, who rushing outward lionlike leapt on him, and hurl'd him headlong" pg.271 line 103. For once Lancelot is shown to be the bad guy he really is. Also unlike in the previous version Queen Guinevere does not stay and wait her judgment rather she flees knowing full well the atrocities she has committed. She finds her self hiding out in a nunnery where she blatantly tells the nuns that she basically wants nothing to do with them. She tells them not to ask her what her names is or her purpose for coming. As she begins to wallow in her sorrows she takes please with a young maid living in the nunnery. However even this young girl offers her no comfort. Unwittingly this little girl tells Guinevere the story of her father, a once great knight of the round table, as well as how glorious everything was until the unfaithful Queen came and ruined everything. The Queen being the scornful women she is usually depicted to be lashes out at this young girl for telling her the truth which she was clearly unable accept. But it wasn't long before the queen began to show true signs of remorse and sorrow for the horrible things she has done. As she should. Then King Arthur comes in and basically gives her a verbal beat down. Which I honestly found amazing, because King Arthur finally shows some backbone. Within this tongue lashing we discover that Mordred is not King Arthur's son but instead he is the son of his sister. We also discover that King Arthur is not just fighting one war but TWO. One against Mordred and the Heathens, and the other against Lancelot and all his kin. This information makes Arthur seem all that more compelling to me. It showed me that even in the midst of total chaos King Arthur still goes out to find Guinevere, so he can basically say to her how horrible she is and how this is all her fault. But then he says to her "I forgive thee, as Eternal God Forgives: do thou for thine own soul the rest." After reading this I couldn't believe after all that talk of her wicked deeds he still forgives her, but then I realized of course he forgave her. He is King Arthur the most merciful man in all the land. Or so I though until I continued reading and King Arthur follows it up with "I loathe thee.", which show us the complexity of his emotional state. That in and of itself is a beautiful change of pace from the oblivious and simple man King Arthur usually is. After he leaves Guinevere after soaking in everything that was said to her loses it. She is hit with a big reality check, she finally stops pitting her self and instead directs it towards Arthur. After coming to terms with the fact that nothing she can do will ever make up for what she has done she decides to live out the rest of her life in this nunnery doing all the lowly tasks that need to be done, praying, and sharing in the sisters sorrow but not their joy. This to me is the first time I didn't hate Guinevere. She finally takes responsibility for what she has done and punishes her self for it.