ers blatantly display their desires and the cause of them. In the Once and Future King, the verbal, emotional, and physical lessons taught by the teachers of Mordred, Lancelot, and Arthur lead to their ultimate desire of achieving greatness.

King Arthur develops a life-long dream of completing the task all leaders have failed to finish: putting a permanent end to all wars, through stories, wise-words, and transformations provided by Merlin. Since the beginning of Arthur's career as the king of England, Merlin uses stories to teach Arthur the terrible consequences of war. These stories changes the war-loving Arthur into a war-hating Arthur. After winning his very first battle as a king, Arthur says to Merlin, "I must say it is nice to be a king. It was a splendid battle....Of course it was splendid. Look at the way Lot of Orkney ran, after I had begun to use Excalibur" (White 217). But when Arthur is faced with a war right after Merlin tells him a story about the the kings in the past treating wars as a form of entertainment, "(war) did not seem to him to be sporting...he had begun to set a value on heads, shoulders and arms-their owner's value, even if the owner was a serf" (White 294). At first, Arthur thinks of wars!

(Arthur) remembered the belligerent ant...the badger...Lyo-lyok...He saw the problem before him as plain as a map. The fantastic thing about wars was that it was fought about nothing - literally nothing. Frontiers were imaginary lines...It was geography which was the cause - political geography...There would be a day - must be a day - when he would come back to Gramarye with a new Round Table...a table without boundaries (White 637).

The words, beliefs, and actions of the teachers of Lancelot, Mordred, and Arthur propel their endless wishes of accomplishing the nearly impossible. For Lancelot, the knowledge of 'might for right', God's wishes, and Uncle Dap's love paves the way for his desire of being the best knight. For Mordred, knowledge of politics, hatred, and Arthur's mistake makes him fixed on making Arthur suffer by taking away his wife and kingdom. For Arthur, knowledge of consequences of wars, importance of thinking, and different viewpoints on wars drives his effort to be the best king by ending all wars. Without the new knowledge from their teachers, their desires would have been very different. This would directly lead to a completely different life for each. Besides leading their lives, these new knowledge also take control of their own thoughts and actions for most of their lives. Since most of the characters ended in tragedy, T. H. White seems to be showing that dreams are not necessarily best when achieved and, in turn, knowledge can be a hazard. Hopefully in real life, dreams can be achieved much faster, enjoyed much longer, and lived with much less tragedies than those in White's book.

At the end of his life, Arthur finally comprehends the less

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Approximate Word count = 1797
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)