The Story of the Grail

2. Analyze the episode between Perceval and his mother. What is her reaction? What information does she try to impart to her son? Why do you think he reacts the way he does? Discuss his departure – how should he have behaved?

The episode between Perceval and his mother occurs after Perceval saw the knights riding through the forest. His mother tells him that she believes he has seen “the angels people complain of, and who kill all they meet” (344). Perceval does believe this at first because he saw the most “beautiful creatures” riding through that desolate forest and she was the one who told him that Angels and God were the most beautiful creatures. He told her that they called themselves knights to which made her instantly faint.
His mother tried to protect him from the world of chivalry his entire life. She tried to tell her son that he “would have been a knight, darling son, had it pleased the Lord God that your father and your other relatives trained you.” His mother descended from a family of the finest knights, but even the finest fall and she did not want the same happening to her son. Perceval’s father, who so highly honored, was wounded between the legs during battle and his body crippled. Shortly after his two brothers were dubbed knights they were killed in armed combat on their way home. His mother lived a bitter life after these tragedies. She told Perceval “you were all my comfort and all my good because I was bereft of my entire family” (345). Perceval barely digested anything his mother had told him and sought out to seek the king who makes knights.
It seems Perceval reacts the way he does because he wanted to carry on the family legacy. He too wanted to be honored as a brave knight. He wanted to prove to himself that he can make the journey alone and alive. If he survived the journey he could return to his mother as an honorable knight and hopefully repress her of all those negative and bad memories of how the lives of the three most important men in her life were taken. His mother knew the journey was possible with God by his side, which He seemed to be. When Perceval set off he took three javelins with him, which the number three often represents the holy Trinity in Literature, so it is safe to say God was with him.
Perceval should have stayed behind to save his mother from additional worry and heartache. Instead, he set off on his journey even after seeing his mother collapsed behind him. Perceval did want to become a respected knight and follow in his brave father and brother’s footsteps, but first priority was his mother and it was not very honorable to leave her alone and sick like that.