In Volume 1, Book 4, Chapter 22, Pelleas serves as a foil for Gawaine. Gawaine betrays Pelleas by sleeping with his lover, Ettard; whereas Gawaine recently erred by failing to grant mercy to a knight who betrayed him, Pelleas displays merciful restraint:
‘Though this knight be never so false, I will never slay him sleeping, for I will never destroy the high order of knighthood;’ and therewith he departed again.
And or he had ridden half a mile he returned again, and thought then to slay them both, making the greatest sorrow that ever man made. [H]e [...] pulled out his sword naked in his hand, and went to them thereas they lay, and yet he thought it were shame to slay them sleeping, and laid the naked sword overthwart both their throats, and so took his horse and rode his way.
Pelleas is very angry. Gawaine had told him that he was going to help convince Ettard to marry him, but Gawaine instead told her that Pelleas was dead. This cleared the way for Gawaine to have sex with her, and catching them asleep together has sparked Pelleas's desire for revenge. This passage shows Pelleas deliberating over how to handle the situation. He resolves not to kill Gawaine while he is sleeping because to do so would break the chivalric code, which calls for honor and mercy on the part of the knight who has the upper hand. Still, he can't get himself to simply walk away. He compromises by leaving his sword lying across Gawaine and Ettard's throats so that they will wake up and know he has caught them.
Pelleas's ability to handle his own anger through careful deliberation, and to use the chivalric code to figure out the correct response to Gawaine's betrayal, contrasts with Gawaine's impulsivity. In Book 3, his uncontrollable desire for revenge led him to accidentally behead a rival knight's lover -- a grave sin against the chivalric code. As Gaheris told Gawaine immediately after this mistake, he will bear its mark forever. Gawaine is supposed to atone for his error by spending his career as a knight defending women. But he never fully gets over his hot temper. At the end of the book, his desire for revenge against Launcelot contributes to the civil war that breaks up the knights of the Round Table. By contrast, Pelleas's measured temper gets him a happy ending: things don't work out for him with Ettard, but he falls in love with Nimue and lives happily ever after with her instead. The pairing of these two characters suggests that mercy and a cool head are part of the chivalric code not for any arbitrary reason, but rather because these qualities produce happier outcomes.
Tristram and Launcelot are very similar to one another, but they function as foils in that they have opposite relationships to their kings and romantic rivals. In Volume 2, Book 10, Chapter 50, it becomes clear that King Mark is vengeful toward Tristram in a way Arthur has never been toward Launcelot:
So at these jousts came in Sir Tristram. And at that time Sir Launcelot was not there, but when they saw a knight disguised do such deeds of arms, they weened it had been Sir Launcelot. And in especial King Mark said it was Sir Launcelot plainly.
At this tournament, several people are hoping to kill Launcelot. King Mark hates Tristram because Tristram is in love with his wife, La Beale Isoud. By passing Tristram off as Launcelot in this tournament, Mark is hoping to have him killed. Tristram and Launcelot are similar enough in their impressive fighting styles that everyone at the tournament really does believe that the knight in disguise is Launcelot. To the reader, this similarity encourages further comparison of the two. Tristram's crime against King Mark (being in love with Mark's wife) may be cause for Mark to want revenge, but Launcelot has committed this very same crime against Arthur. Arthur, though, has always turned a blind eye to Launcelot and Guenever's affair. Because Arthur is a merciful and just king who adheres to chivalry, Launcelot avoids the same kind of vengeance that endangers Tristram.
This double standard complicates Launcelot's anger at Tristram for marrying Isoud la Blanche Mains in Volume 1, Book 8, Chapter 36:
Then said Sir Launcelot, ‘Fie upon him, untrue knight to his lady that so noble a knight as Sir Tristram is should be found to his first lady false, La Beale Isoud, Queen of Cornwall; but say ye him this,’ said Sir Launcelot, ‘that of all knights in the world I loved him most, and had most joy of him, and all was for his noble deeds; and let him wit the love between him and me is done for ever, and that I give him warning from this day forth as his mortal enemy.’
Launcelot is angry at Tristram for being unfaithful to the woman he loves, La Beale Isoud. She sent Tristram to stay with Isoud la Blanche Mains so that he would be safe from King Mark's wrath, and Launcelot cannot believe that Tristram has forgotten about his "true" love to marry this new Isoud. Launcelot could never see himself betraying Guenever in this way. It is true that Tristram seems to have difficulty with fidelity, but Launcelot is failing to see the difference between his own situation and Tristram's. Because Arthur is not a vengeful king, Launcelot is able to betray him in order to have a faithful affair with Guenever. King Mark, however, makes it extremely dangerous for Tristram to remain committed to La Beale Isoud. The contrast between Launcelot and Tristram's behavior reveals the way a tyrannical and vengeful king can make it more difficult for his subjects to behave honorably. Indeed, it is when Arthur finally confronts the affair between Launcelot and Guenever that his glorious realm begins to fall apart as the knights abandon the chivalric code.
Tristram and Launcelot are very similar to one another, but they function as foils in that they have opposite relationships to their kings and romantic rivals. In Volume 2, Book 10, Chapter 50, it becomes clear that King Mark is vengeful toward Tristram in a way Arthur has never been toward Launcelot:
So at these jousts came in Sir Tristram. And at that time Sir Launcelot was not there, but when they saw a knight disguised do such deeds of arms, they weened it had been Sir Launcelot. And in especial King Mark said it was Sir Launcelot plainly.
At this tournament, several people are hoping to kill Launcelot. King Mark hates Tristram because Tristram is in love with his wife, La Beale Isoud. By passing Tristram off as Launcelot in this tournament, Mark is hoping to have him killed. Tristram and Launcelot are similar enough in their impressive fighting styles that everyone at the tournament really does believe that the knight in disguise is Launcelot. To the reader, this similarity encourages further comparison of the two. Tristram's crime against King Mark (being in love with Mark's wife) may be cause for Mark to want revenge, but Launcelot has committed this very same crime against Arthur. Arthur, though, has always turned a blind eye to Launcelot and Guenever's affair. Because Arthur is a merciful and just king who adheres to chivalry, Launcelot avoids the same kind of vengeance that endangers Tristram.
This double standard complicates Launcelot's anger at Tristram for marrying Isoud la Blanche Mains in Volume 1, Book 8, Chapter 36:
Then said Sir Launcelot, ‘Fie upon him, untrue knight to his lady that so noble a knight as Sir Tristram is should be found to his first lady false, La Beale Isoud, Queen of Cornwall; but say ye him this,’ said Sir Launcelot, ‘that of all knights in the world I loved him most, and had most joy of him, and all was for his noble deeds; and let him wit the love between him and me is done for ever, and that I give him warning from this day forth as his mortal enemy.’
Launcelot is angry at Tristram for being unfaithful to the woman he loves, La Beale Isoud. She sent Tristram to stay with Isoud la Blanche Mains so that he would be safe from King Mark's wrath, and Launcelot cannot believe that Tristram has forgotten about his "true" love to marry this new Isoud. Launcelot could never see himself betraying Guenever in this way. It is true that Tristram seems to have difficulty with fidelity, but Launcelot is failing to see the difference between his own situation and Tristram's. Because Arthur is not a vengeful king, Launcelot is able to betray him in order to have a faithful affair with Guenever. King Mark, however, makes it extremely dangerous for Tristram to remain committed to La Beale Isoud. The contrast between Launcelot and Tristram's behavior reveals the way a tyrannical and vengeful king can make it more difficult for his subjects to behave honorably. Indeed, it is when Arthur finally confronts the affair between Launcelot and Guenever that his glorious realm begins to fall apart as the knights abandon the chivalric code.
Throughout most of the book, Galahad and Launcelot are foils. Launcelot tries to be a good Christian knight, but he often fails. For instance, in Volume 2, Book 15, Chapter 4, he misinterprets a situation and accidentally joins a fight alongside knights who have sinned instead of knights who are pure. He also carries on a lifelong affair with Guenever, the wife of the king to whom he is supposed to be faithful. Galahad never makes such mistakes. Launcelot's strength and good heart make him the best knight in the world for a time, until Galahad surpasses him. Galahad's purity and Launcelot's impurity mean that while Galahad is worthy to "achieve" the Sangreal and be carried to heaven by angels, Launcelot is worthy only to see the Sangreal but never touch it.
The way the book handles Launcelot and Galahad's respective deaths emphasizes the book's ambivalent relationship toward purity. Strangely, after a huge amount of lead-up suggesting that Launcelot's impurity makes him fundamentally less deserving of heaven than Galahad, Launcelot too is carried to heaven by angels. In Volume 2, Book 21, Chapter 12, a bishop describes seeing this idyllic death in a dream:
‘Ah Jesu mercy,’ said the Bishop, ‘why did ye awake me? I was never in all my life so merry and so well at ease.’
‘Wherefore?’ said Sir Bors.
‘Truly,’ said the Bishop, ‘here was Sir Launcelot with me with more angels than ever I saw men in one day. And I saw the angels heave up Sir Launcelot unto heaven, and the gates of heaven opened against him.’
In the end, there is very little distinguishing the spiritual rewards Galahad and Launcelot each receive after their time on earth. Achieving the Sangreal, for Galahad, means that his purity is rewarded with an early ascent to heaven. Launcelot must wait longer, but he receives the very same exit from earth as Galahad. The book seems to be suggesting that Launcelot, despite his many errors along the way, has done something that is as worthy of heaven as Galahad's purity. Launcelot has fought honorably in the civil war, protecting himself and Guenever and only killing when he must. In a way, Launcelot does a better job than anyone at following the chivalric code when the world begins to fall apart. His heavenly reward may be the narrator's endorsement of Launcelot's behavior as the new way of behaving honorably, after Arthur's death. The narrator occasionally laments that the world is a less glorious place than it used to be. For example, Book 18 ends with a reflection on how love is no longer as pure or steadfast as it was when Arthur was king. Whereas Galahad was the best example of chivalry when he was alive, Launcelot may be a more realistic model for Malory's readers. He lived to see troubled days, and he navigated them honorably.
