Geoffrey of Monmouths Life of Merlin Essay -- Geoffrey Monmouth Life

Geoffrey of Monmouths Life of MerlinGeoffrey of Monmouths Life of Merlin is a text that makes its readers struggle with finding criteria for unhingedness. What does it even mean to be mad? Madness seems to define a person barely when he or she does something to stray from the normality of any given group of plenty. Breaking societal norms often leaves people open to criticism and suspicion. In order to be sane and mentally healthy, one has to abide by all plain and implicit rules of society. Life of Merlin is about a man that abandons feudal society, and all of its rules, in hopes of finding a better rest home to live. A better place to live, for him, is one that is purely good. Violent and deceitful people are ultimately the factors that drive him away, causing him to be termed as mad. I argue that Merlin is a character with extreme extra terrestrial perception. Many would think extra laic perception to be a privilege, but this essay serves to contradict the positiv e effects that extra worldly perception can have. I will show why he is perceptive, rather than mad, as well as explain why this theatrical role of perception can be detrimental to ones life. When a person has too much perception he can often live in a world of fear and discontent, one that is alone curable by the restructuring of an entire society. To begin, Merlins reasons for leaving feudal society are too logical to call him mad. One place where logic can be heard is where Merlin says, Surely a malignant fate cannot have been so vindictive as to allow from me all these my companions, men such that legion(predicate) a king and many a distant kingdom have stood in fear of them work now (55). What Merlin is addressing is the fact that someone is to blame fo... ...s left with subsequently reading the text. While Merlin seems to have a good come in towards creating a more irenic society, it does not seem that it will quiz to be completely peaceful. Of course an ything is better to him than living in the city, and it only seems to get better when he is encountered with people much like himself. A text like Life of Merlin makes me question whether a peaceful society is within grasp. Even in current times, countries are at war and people lie to and cheat one another. Have we start more violent and deceptive with time? In order to work a peaceful environment, the idea of competition might have to be removed. Competition, one thing that is instinctive in all creatures, is a control force of all human action. Merlin seems to strive towards the ideal, but it clay questionable as to whether or not his ideal is within grasp.