Chivalry In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written by an anonymous author in approximately 1390, is one of the most well-known poems from the Arthurian cycle. The questions of honor and chivalry are among the main themes that this poem thoroughly explores. Near the end of the poem, the protagonist, the knight of the Round Table called Gawain, violates his chivalric obligations when, in order to save his life, he breaks his oath given to a hospitable lord of a castle, so, after being justly punished by the Green Knight, Gawain appropriately – though in an extreme manner – starts feeling remorse and self-disgust.
Though generally a very decent person, the protagonist violates a knight’s code of behavior when he breaks an oath to save his life while being

This is the third blow the Green Knight delivers, with the first two being feinted and leaving the protagonist unscathed. As the lord puts it, “Truth for the truth restore, / then man need dread no wraith. / On the third you failed for sure, / and so took that blow, in faith” (Sir Gawain 4.94). However, the Green Knight’s punishment is so mild because he finds a justification for Gawain’s misconduct, which happened “for love of your life – so I blame you the less” (Sir Gawain 4.95). Still, at that moment, the protagonist starts feeling severe remorse and self-disgust: “For fear of your knock cowardice me taught / to accord with covetousness, forsake my kind, / the largesse and loyalty that belongs to knights” (Sir Gawain 4.95). Gawain decides to accept and wear the lord’s belt all the time “as a sign of . . . [his] sin” (Sir Gawain 4.98). Although the protagonist’s remorse does seem somewhat extreme, taking into account that even his victim, the Green Knight, forgave him, it is easy to understand Gawain’s reasoning. He essentially broke his oath to save his life. However, for a knight, his honor must be more valuable than his life; and a reliability of one’s word is an essential part of one’s honor. Thus breaking an oath, even to survive, is a severe violation of chivalric norms of behavior. So, in a way, in this particular instance, Gawain failed as a knight and his realization of it tortures