Comparing Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Song of Roland

880 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Analysis of sir Gawain and the Green Knight as a romance poem

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Song of Roland In mythological Europe, knightly heroes abounded whereever one could choose to roam. There are hundreds of tales of knights who embodied the concept of chivalry, slew huge dragons, slew legions of foes in single combat, and still made it home in time for dinner. Of all these tales, ballads and poems, a few have risen to the fore front of the genre as an example for the rest of the stories to follow. I will be comparing the positive and negative personality traits of two heroes from the famous poems "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and "The Song of Roland." On the lighter side, both Gawain and Roland had more positive attributes than they did negative. Both men were honorable, almost to a fault. For example in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" Gawain agreed to be on time for his own execution: "Nor I know you not, knight, your name nor your court. But tell me truly thereof, and teach me your name, and I shall fare forth to find you, so far as I may, and this I say in good certain, and swear upon oath." (G&GK, pt.1, ln. 400-403) Gawain's agreement might have been honorable, but it doesn't strike me ... ... middle of paper ... ...ght when it came to politics, apparently. All of these attributes might be considered undesirable in a knight. Though the characteristics of honor, fearlessness, and poor people skills might seem to be perfect for a knight, a perfect hero just doesn't seem realistic to a listener or a reader with out some sort of a vice or flaw. It makes them seem closer and more human to who the reader. This is important to a good story, simply because if a hero is totally unbelievable the ballad becomes more of a tall tale or a story to be laughed at. And while it might be fun to laugh at a "B" ballad every once in awhile, it just doesn't compare to a good action plot line. As a result, Gawain and Roland each flaws. Roland's just happens to be terminal.

Show More
Related

  • The Enron Implosion and the Loss of Respect for the Accounting Profession

    5463 Words  | 11 Pages

    On the surface, the motives behind decisions and events leading to Enron’s downfall appear simple enough: individual and collective greed born in an atmosphere of market euphoria and corporate arrogance. Hardly anyone—the company, its employees, analysts or individual investors—wanted to believe the company was too good to be true. So, for a while, hardly anyone did. Many kept on buying the stock, the corporate mantra and the dream. In the meantime, the company made many high-risk deals, some of which were outside the company’s typical asset risk control process. Many went sour in the early months of 2001 as Enron’s stock price and debt rating imploded because of loss of investor and creditor trust. Methods the company used to disclose its complicated financial dealings were all wrong and downright deceptive. The company’s lack of accuracy in reporting its financial affairs, followed by financial restatements disclosing billions of dollars of omitted liabilities and losses, contributed to its downfall. The whole affair happened under the watchful eye of Arthur Andersen LLP, which kept a whole floor of auditors assigned at Enron year-round.

    Read More

  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this passage taken from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Lines 1623-1718, the reader sees how Sir Gawain is the hero of the poem, through the tests of the host. Sir Gawain is speaking to the host of the castle where he is staying for a few days before journeying on to the Green Chapel. The host has just returned from hunting and killing some boar. While the host is out hunting for the boar, we learn that Sir Gawain is developing a love interest in a special lady friend, the wife of the host, who makes several attempts to seduce him. Before this hunt, Gawain and the host make a promise to each other that they will exchange whatever they may win that day for the other's winnings. The host gives Sir Gawain the boar in exchange for two kisses. Then the host says to Sir Gawain "Now we are even" (Norton, 236, line 1641.) There is a vivid description of the meal that follows, as well as the singing of Christmas songs. Then Gawain tells the host that he should be on his way to the Green Chapel to face the Green Knight. The host comments on the fact that he has tested Gawain twice and is quite impressed with his performance. The host then tells Gawain about the third test. In the test, the winner will take all, and the loser takes nothing. Gawain thinks this is all just a game and doesn't realize that it is actually a test. Sir Gawain later decides that he will stay, after learning from the host that the Green Chapel is not too far away from the castle. He has some more drinks with the host. After this, he goes to bed and gets the best night's rest, and is up early the next morning. That morning, the host hunts for some fox as Gawain lies in bed. The passage ends with a description of how the host an...

    Read More

  • Sir Gawain and The Green Knight

    1338 Words  | 3 Pages

    In literature, insights into characters, places, and events are often communicated to the reader through the use of imagery within the text. Thus is the case with "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". The Pearl Poet's use of imagery runs rampant within the work culminating to set forth the theme of mysticism and/or the supernatural. In this Medieval romance, the types of imagery used are that of the season or climate, the colors and textures of fabrics and jewelry, and that of the introduction of the Green Knight himself.

    Read More

  • The Story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

    1243 Words  | 3 Pages

    In day-to-day life, people face a vast array of decisions. Some of these decisions are transient, such as what clothes to wear. Other decisions we make may have lasting impacts not only to the person making the decision, but others that surround that person. An example would be drinking and driving. Moral code often dictates what you should do in situations, but it is up to each individual to live up to that moral code and choose to make virtuous decisions. As I face the challenge of leading a virtuous life, I am drawn back to the time of Sir Arthur and the Round Table. More specifically, I am intrigued by Sir Gawain. In the story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, I admire how Sir Gawain attempts to be virtuous, yet also empathize when he falls short of maintaining these virtues. Although Sir Gawain fails to maintain his virtues throughout the story, his continuous attempts to return to virtuous decisions makes him a virtuous person.

    Read More

  • The Brand Personality of Target Corporation

    1039 Words  | 3 Pages

    In every given business, the name itself portrays different meanings. This serves as the reference point and sometimes the basis of customers on what to expect within the company. Since personality affects product image (Langmeyer & Shank, 1994), the presence of brand helps in the realization of this concept. Traditionally, brand is a symbolic manifestation of all the information connected with a company, product, or service (Nilson, 2003; Olin, 2003). A brand is typically composed of a name, logo, and other visual elements such as images, colors, and icons (Gillooley & Varley, 2001; Laforet & Saunders, 1994)). It is believed that a brand puts an impression to the consumer on what to expect to the product or service being offered (Mere, 1995). In other application, brand may be referred as trademark, which is legally appropriate term. The brand is the most powerful weapon in the market (LePla & Parker, 1999). Brands possess personality in which people associate their experience. Oftentimes, they are related to the core values the company executes.

    Read More

  • Enron's Fall: An Examination of Corporate Ethics

    877 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Enron Corporation was founded in 1985 out of Houston Texas and was one of the world 's major electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies that employed over 20,000 employees. This paper will address some of the ethical issues that plagued Enron and eventually led to its fall.

    Read More

  • Symbolism in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

    1450 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a medieval poem by an unknown author, written in Middle English in the 14th century. This poem is uncanny to most poems about heroism and knightly quests as it doesn’t follow the complete circle seen in other heroism tales. This poem is different to all the rest as it shows human weaknesses as well as strengths which disturbs the myth of the perfect knight, or the faultless hero. The author uses symbolism as a literary device in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to give the plot a deeper and more significant meaning. Symbolism is used to emphasise the difference of this heroism story against others and therefore symbolism is of great importance in this poem. The importance of the following symbols will be discussed in this paper; the pentangle, the colour green, the Green Knight, the exchange of winnings game, the axe and the scar. This paper argues the significance of the use of symbolism as a literary device in the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

    Read More

  • Enron

    1167 Words  | 3 Pages

    Enron was in trouble because of something that almost every major corporation during this time was guilty of. They inflated their profits. Things weren't looking good for them at the end of the 2001-year, so they made a common move and they restated their profits for the past four years. If this had worked to their like they could have gotten away with hiding millions of dollars in debt. That completely admitted that they had inflated their profits by hiding debt in confusing partner agreements. Enron could not deal with their debt so they did the only thing that was left to do, they filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. This went down as one of the largest companies to file for bankruptcy in the history of the United States. In just three months their share price dropped from $95 to below $1.

    Read More

  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

    1231 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written in the late fourteenth century. To this day, no one knows the name of the author of the poem. The poem was written in a dialect that is very hard to understand. Alliteration and rhyme are combined to create unique stanzas, called "Bob and Wheel." The term "Bob and Wheel" means that a poetic stanza has long alliterative lines; then, there is a two syllable line followed by a quatrain. The poem has several plots. One plot or theme is temptation. "The poem is a medieval comedy of manners told from a distinctly Christian viewpoint." In the lines from 366 to 443, the poem shows how Sir Gawain is chivalrous and brave. In this passage, there is action and symbolism that cause the characters' reactions.

    Read More

  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

    1147 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written by an anonymous fourteenth-century poet in Northern dialect, combines two plots: "the beheading contest, in which two parties agree to an exchange of the blows with a sword or ax, and the temptation, an attempted seduction of the hero by a lady" (Norton p.200). The Green Knight, depicted as a green giant with supernatural powers, disrespectfully rides into King Arthur's court and challenges the king to a Christmas game -- a beheading contest. Sir Gawain, a young, brave and loyal knight of the Round Table, acting according to the chivalric code, takes over the challenge his lord has accepted. The contest states that Sir Gawain is to chop off the Green Knight's head, and in one year and a day, the antagonist is to do the same to the hero. The whole poem is constructed in a way that leads the reader through the challenges that Sir Gawain faces -- the tests for honesty, courtesy, truthfulness. Throughout, we see his inner strength to resist the temptations.

    Read More

  • Enron Accounting Essay

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    Enron was a company founded in the year 1985 based in Houston, USA. It was one of the world's largest energy trading and Distribution Company having an income of nearly hundred billion dollars during 2000 and was also regarded as America’s most Innovative companies for 6 consecutive years by the fortune magazine. In the last quarter of 2001, it was exposed that it’s declared financial condition was maintained significantly by systematized and skillfully premeditated accounting fraud, known thereafter as the Enron scandal. They hid major debts and did not book them in the balance sheet. The inflated figures in their balance sheet shot up their stock price to unprecedented levels, taking advantage of the situation executives with insider information traded in millions of dollars of Enron stocks. The senior executives and insiders were aware of the offshore accounts that were covering up losses for the Organization; the investors were kept in the dark. This sent across a domino effect which resulted in shareholders losing seventy four billion dollars, loss of hundreds of jobs and thousands of investors and employees losing their retirement accounts.

    Read More

  • Enron: Who was at fault?

    1665 Words  | 4 Pages

    Most of the world has heard of Enron, the American, mega-energy company that “cooked” their books (Gupta, Weirich & Turner, 2013) and cost their investors billions of dollars in lost earnings and retirement funds. While much of the controversy surrounding the Enron scandal focused on the losses of investors, unethical practices of executives and questionable accounting tactics, there were many others within close proximity to the turmoil. It begs the question- who was really at fault and what has been done to prevent it from happening again?

    Read More

  • The Collapse Of Enron

    1789 Words  | 4 Pages

    Enron Corp. is a company that reached dramatic heights, only to face a dizzying collapse. The story ends with the bankruptcy of one of America 's largest corporations. Enron 's collapse affected the lives of thousands of employees and shook Wall Street to its core. At Enron 's peak, its shares were worth $90.75, but they plummeted to $0.67 in January 2002 following bankruptcy. To this day, many wonder how such a powerful business disintegrated almost overnight and how it managed to fool the regulators with fake, off-the-books corporations for so long.

    Read More

  • The Enron Corporation Case Study

    1339 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Enron Corporation was an American energy company that provided natural gas, electricity, and communications to its customers both wholesale and retail globally and in the northwestern United States (Ferrell, et al, 2013). Top executives, prestigious law firms, trusted accounting firms, the largest banks in the finance industry, the board of directors, and other high powered people, all played a part in the biggest most popular scandal that shook the faith of the American people in big business and the stock market with the demise of one of the top Fortune 500 companies that made billions of dollars through illegal and unethical gains (Ferrell, et al, 2013). Many shareholders, employees, and investors lost their entire life savings, investments,

    Read More

  • The Enron Corporation Scandal

    1822 Words  | 4 Pages

    Enron Corporation was an American company that specialized in energy commodities and services well known for its impressive rise and scandalous decline. The company was based in Houston, Texas and was formed in July 1985 as a result of Houston Natural Gas merging with InterNorth, an Omaha based company. Kenneth L. Lay, who previously worked as the CEO of Houston Natural Gas, became the chairmen and chief executive of the newly formed Enron in 1986 (Jelveh and Russell, The Rise and Fall of Enron). Enron initially began as an interstate and intrastate natural gas piping company containing 37,500 miles of pipe. The earliest signs of trouble surfaced in January 1987, when the company became aware of...

    Read More

More about Comparing Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Song of Roland

Open Document