The Knight in Rusty Armor

These first two chapters provide exposition that establishes the character of the knight and the central internal and external conflict he faces, which in turn will launch the rising action of the plot. Chapter 1 paints a picture of a knight who is overly concerned with appearances and external perceptions of his character, to the point where his continuous manufacturing of circumstances to “prove” his worth begins to harm the people around him. For instance, he has “the annoying habit of rescuing damsels even if they did not want to be rescued” (1). The knight thinks that stereotypical trappings of knightly valor signify desirable internal qualities: He subconsciously reasons that if he does things that make people think he is “good, kind, and loving” (1), then he really will be good, kind, and loving. This desire blinds him to the will of other people, such as “damsels” who do not consent to being saved by him. Only later does the knight realize he has created a false equivalence in imagining that seeming “good, kind, and loving” means that he really is those things. This belief that external validation equals inner qualities is tied to the theme of The Struggle With Personal Fears and Doubts: The knight is searching for ways to prove his worth that don’t involve confronting his fears or making himself vulnerable. Though he doesn’t realize how fear has trapped him in his armor yet, the way the knight treats the people around him in the early chapters foreshadows this realization.

The knight’s belief in external validation is symbolized by his armor, a stereotypical trapping of his trade that embodies everything that he thinks a knight is and should be perceived as. The knight was “famous for his armor” (1), and he believes that the armor “showed everyone who he was” (3): He believes that his legacy is bound up in people’s perception of this external signifier of knightliness, rather than his inherent, internal, self-realized goodness. Because he believes that the armor signals his internal character, he depends on it and soon refuses to remove it. However, he doesn’t realize how his refusal to remove it is actually hurting himself and others. When he tries to insist to Juliet that he loves her, he hugs her “clumsily in his cold, stiff armor and nearly break[s] her ribs” (3). Later when talking to the king’s jester Gladbag, he “reached out and shook Gladbag’s hand in gratitude, nearly cruising the jester’s finger with his gauntlet” (9). In both moments, the knight is trying to be kind, illustrating a pattern of behavior: His harm is always inadvertent, caused accidentally by his armor despite his good intentions. These important details show how it is possible to cause harm to one’s loved ones due to the “armor” we put up, even if we have no conscious intent to be harmful.

Even though the harm the knight is causing is accidental, that does not mean that others are misinterpreting the knight’s actions and behavior. He is still causing real harm due to the symbolic and literal “armor” he encases himself in, and it is his responsibility to adjust his behavior so that he no longer introduces harm into the world. When he meets Merlin and is confronted with how his armor has made him “lost” in both his life and relationships with others, the knight becomes offended and says, “I didn’t come all this way to be insulted” (12). He thinks that Merlin’s comments are unfair because he doesn’t recognize his own culpability in the harm his armor causes. Merlin drives home the point that holding the knight accountable isn’t personal or fallacious when he proposes that the knight has “always taken the truth to be an insult” (12). The “truth” of the knight’s inadvertent harm is not an “insult,” and it is the knight’s duty to take responsibility for his own actions. At this point in the novella, he is incapable of understanding The Importance of Introspection for Self-Improvement, as he is too concerned with external approval and validation. He is defensive and brushes off Merlin’s efforts to inspire some self-awareness in him.