This combination of the desire to attain divine godliness and the impurities of human nature marks Lancelot as the most interesting of Arthur's knights. Even more important is the idea that his contradictions also epitomize chivalry as a whole: a desire for men to reach impossible levels of goodness while, at the same time, struggling with their own fallibility. Thus, in Arthurian myth, Lancelot's sin is sleeping with the Queen — a sin that may not be the most heinous one imaginable but certainly a squalid and "unholy" one. Lancelot's giving in to his flesh reveals the "fallen" state of man as well as his need for something like chivalry to restore him to his former glory. As White explains, "It is the bad people who need principles to restrain them," and "bad," in this context, means "everybody," because even a man like Arthur's greatest knight can wander off the path of righteousness. Only Lancelot, the greatest, yet most "ill-made" knight, embodies the best and worst of chivalry and human nature, making his story a valuable part of the Arthurian myth.
Lancelot's relationship with chivalry — and his love for Arthur, its inventor — is complex. He trains for three years in order to join Arthur's order "because he was in love with it." Chivalry, he is sure, will give him the spiritual "push" he needs to remain in the good graces of God. Lancelot also hopes that chivalry will allow him to redeem some of his inadequacies: The opening chapter presents "the French boy" looking into the polished surface of a kettle-hat, "trying to find out who he was" and "afraid of what he would find." His unarticulated but identifiable fear here is being rebuffed by Arthur: "He was in love with him" and wants to prove himself worthy to the English king. His dream of a "beautiful well" reveals young Lancelot's self-doubts: "as soon as he stopped his lips toward it, the water sank away. It went right down to the barrel of the well, sinking and sinking from him so that he could not get it. It made him feel desolate, to be abandoned by the water of the well."
