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“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” Literary Analysis
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Symbolism and Moral Seriousness
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Symbolism and Moral Seriousness
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Considered as one of the greatest English medieval romances, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, is an Arthurian romance from approximately the fourteenth century. (Zott) Although the author of the piece is unknown, he is referred to as the Pearl author, because of his multiple pieces including Patience, Purity, Pearl, and “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” (Blanch) “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is considered a masterpiece from it’s time because of its elements drawn from folklore and legend, as well as Christian and Celtic symbolism. (Zott) “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” was heavily influenced by it’s time period in regards to the role of women, chivalry in society, and religion. In the fourteenth century Britain experienced a social …show more content…
In “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” King Arthur is hosting a feast to celebrate Christmas and New Years. While they are waiting to eat, the Green Knight came in and challenged King Arthur and all of his knights to a challenge. Everyone hesitated because of fear but Sir Gawain fearlessly accepted the challenge. During the Middle Ages, the knights followed a moral and social code of chivalry. The code was documented around the 1100’s in the Song of Roland, which is also a documentation of battles fought by Emperor Charlemagne. (“Knights Code of Chivalry”) The code of chivalry consists of faith, charity, justice, sagacity, prudence, temperance, resolution, temperance, truth, liberality, diligence, hope, valor, humility, honor, and honesty. Men of importance during the Middle Ages were expected to behave chivalrously in all situations, and this mindset of society affected Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain was motivated by ideals of chivalry to protect King Arthur when the Green Knight challenged him, because of his bravery and valor. Sir Gawain’s acceptance of the challenge also kept King Arthur from having to accept the challenge or denying it and being labeled a coward. Later on Sir Gawain travels to the Green castle to fulfill his challenge from the Green Knight and he stumbles into Bertilak’s castle. Bertilak welcomes him with open arms and lets him stay at the castle under one condition: Bertilak will hunt during the day and give Sir Gawain whatever he kills, in return he has to give Bertilak anything he receives while he is staying at the castle. While there, Bertilak’s wife tries to seduce Sir Gawain, but he constantly denies her. The bedroom scenes show Gawain’s restraint and persistence to his chivalry. Throughout the three day stay, Bertilak’s wife tries harder and harder to seduce him until he gave in and accepted the girdle. During this escapade,
Deception is one of mankind’s most versatile and powerful tools and is used nearly every day for both evil and good. Whether it be deceiving an army in battle or using exaggerations and myths to teach a child right from wrong, deceit allows one to advance his selfish or selfless intentions by providing them a source of influence on others. Such deception is evident throughout Sir Gawain and the Green Knight—the host’s wife’s dishonesty in particular—as it helps to spur the plot of the poem. Lady Bertilak’s purposeful deception of Gawain has questionable motives that highlight the theme of human imperfection and susceptibility to temptation.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a stranger rides into King Arthur's court with a challenge. This stranger, green in color from head to toe, proposes to play a game with a member of King Arthur's court. This game will be played by each participant taking a blow from a weapon at the hands of the opponent. The person that dies from the hit is obviously the loser. On top of this, the Green Knight offers to let his opponent take the first swing. This sets up the action in the passage beginning with line 366 and ending with line 443.
A recurrent theme in almost all Old English writings involves the number three. Beowulf fought the dragon in three rounds. In Morte Darthur, King Arthur sent Sir Bedivere to throw Excalibur into the lake three times. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the number three has a triple importance. In this story there were three different events that each happened in three stages: The three hunts of the Lord, the three seductions by the Lady, and the three swings of the ax that the Green Knight took; all three relate to each other.
In the early fourteenth century, knighthood represented respect and success for brave young men, and chivalry’s codes were necessary for those young men to uphold. In the book Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the author constructs the young Sir Gawain by testing his character. These trials, given by the Green Knight, challenge Sir Gawain 's loyalty and bravery to people’s astonishment Sir Gawain 's achievement is muddled. During the test he breaks his promise and takes away the green girdle that he supposes to exchange with Bertilak just likes his bargain.
...stops him from sleeping with Bertilak’s wife, only until his finds a way to avoid death does he goes against them. What Gawain learns from the green knight’s challenge is that instinctively he is just a human who is concerned with his own life over anything else. Chivalry does provide a valuable set of rules and ideals toward which one to strive for, but a person must remain aware of their own mortality and weaknesses. Sir Gawain’s flinching at the green knight’s swinging ax, his time in the woods using animal nature requiring him to seek shelter to survive and his finally accepting the wife’s gift of the girdle teaches him that though he may be the most chivalrous knight in the land, he is nevertheless human and capable of error.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – A Test of Chivalry Essay with Outline: Loyalty, courage, honor, purity, and courtesy are all attributes of a knight that displays chivalry. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is truly a story of the test of these attributes. In order to have a true test of these attributes, there must first be a knight worthy of being tested, meaning that the knight must possess chivalric attributes to begin with. Sir Gawain is admittedly not the best knight around. He says "I am the weakest, well I know, and of wit feeblest; / and the loss of my life [will] be the least of any" (Sir Gawain, l. 354-355).
Sir Gawain is presented as a noble knight who is the epitome of chivalry; he is loyal, honest and above all, courteous. He is the perfect knight; he is so recognised by the various characters in the story and, for all his modesty, implicitly in his view of himself. To the others his greatest qualities are his knightly courtesy and his success in battle. To Gawain these are important, but he seems to set an even higher value on his courage and integrity, the two central pillars of his manhood.
Christian Values in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Thesis Statement: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight shows the struggle between a good Christian man against the temptations of this world. I. Taking a Stand A. Worthiness B. Sir Gawain stands C. Trial overcome II.
“Culture does not make people. People make culture” said Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian writer and educator, in a presentation on feminism in a TedTalk. The culture in which Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written was misogynistic and it shows in the writing of the poem. Medieval cultural misogyny manifests itself in multiple ways in SGGK. This paper will examine the negative relationships between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and gender by discussing: the representation of female characters, gendered violence, and Christianity in the Middle Ages.
An Arthurian romance that has elements of a bildungsroman is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The story is about the knight Gawain going on a quest in which he grows and becomes more aware of himself in relation to his character as well as others. In the beginning of the poem, Gawain is described as representing the best of the Round Table, signified by the pentangle on his shield. Each point symbolizes a different ideal that Gawain upholds as the best of the Knights of the Round Table; one point reminds him of his five senses, one point reminds him of his dexterous fingers, one point represents the five wounds of Christ, one point represents the five joys of Mary, and one point reminds him of the five virtues that he possesses including fellowship,
Of all the themes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the one which stood out the most to me was that of deception. With the Green Knight, the “evil” and Sir Gawain, the “good”, we see both forces partake in deceptive practices to achieve the desired outcome they sought. Throughout the poem, Sir Gawain’s moral compass was constantly being tested with deception being used to gage his level of loyalty, morality, and chivalry. The “game” that the Green Knight was hell bent on playing was not an honest one. He utilized a host of deceptions to gain the results that he sought after—there was little to no room for error with him. First, he presented a challenge in which he alone knew that he would not perish. When he asked for a volunteer to strike him with the ax, the Green Knight
The tales of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Lanval offer their readers insight into a common knightly quandary. Gawain and Lanval are both faced with challenges that threaten their ability to protect, uphold, and affirm their very knightliness. The two knights repeatedly see several knightly traits--- each invaluable to the essence of a knight--- brought into conflict. While the knights are glorified in their respective texts, they are faced with impossible dilemmas; in each story, both reader and knight are confronted with the reality that knightly perfection is unattainable: concessions must be made--- bits and pieces of their honor must be sacrificed.
The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight revolves around the knights and their chivalry as well as their romance through courtly love. The era in which this story takes place is male-dominated, where the men are supposed to be brave and honorable. On the other hand, the knight is also to court a lady and to follow her commands. Sir Gawain comes to conflict when he finds himself needing to balance the two by being honorable to chivalry as well as respectful to courtly love.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain shows qualities of a chivalrous knight. He demonstrates that by showing generosity, courtesy, and loyalty during his travels. A mysterious knight shows up at the king’s castle and calls himself the Green Knight. The Green Knight then challenges one to play a game which he challenges the king to strike him with his axe if he will take a return hit in a year and a day. Sir Gawain steps forward to accept the challenge for his uncle King Arthur when nobody else in the castle would. He took the King’s role in the game to protect him from the Green Knight. He must learn to accept his responsibility as a knight, in accepting his fate.He demonstrates goodness at the hand of the Green Knight. He shows courage by accepting what is to come upon him during his voyage. His journey to find the Green Knight is filled with temptations.In the conversation with him and the “Lady”, Sir Gawain showed a Chivalrous code by keeping his loyalty to the king by not kissing his wife. The lady states “if I should exchange at my cho...
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a poem which tells the tale of a knight who undergoes trials-testing the attributes of knighthood-in order to prove the strength and courage of himself, while representing the Knights of the Round Table. One of King Arthurs most noblest and bravest of knights, Sir Gawain, is taken on an adventure when he steps up to behead a mysterious green visitor on Christmas Day-with the green mans’ permission of course. Many would state that this tale of valor would be within the romance genre. To the modern person this would be a strange category to place the poem in due to the question of ‘where is the actual romance, where is the love and woe?’ However, unlike most romances nowadays, within medieval literature there are many defining features and characteristics of a romance-them rarely ever really involving love itself. Within medieval literature the elements of a romance are usually enshrouded in magic, the fantastic and an adventure. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight follows Sir Gawain over the course of one year, from one New Years to the next, as was the deal he and Bertilak, the green knight, struck.