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analysis of sir gawain and the green knight
analysis of sir gawain and the green knight
description of Sir Gawain
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:
Sir Gawain Faces Temptation
Sir Gawain was known as a noble and honest man who was willing to stare death in the face to protect King Arthur. However, the courtly Sir Gawain is submitted to the unexpected—not to the test he expects, but to one he does not expect (qtd. in Spearing). The underlying theme throughout the entire poem is temptation, which, is Sir Gawain’s greatest challenge because he is not aware of it.
He faltered not nor feared
But quickly went his way,
His road was rough and weird,
Or so the stories say. (qtd. Stone 47)
Sir Gawain stands up just as the Green Knight challenges King Arthur. Gawain saves his uncle from the humiliation the Green Knight imposes on the King from his badgering; for this Gawain is very brave. He has no fear in approaching the Green Knight and accepting the game. Sir Gawain was a man who was held in high esteem before the people at Camelot. Thus, he was given the title Sir Gawain, which sealed his noble existence. A knight is a man who, for some achievement, is given honorary rank and thus entitling him to use Sir before his given name (qtd. in Webster’s pg. 747).
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King Arthur was a very honorable man, one with boyish spirits and youthful persona. The King also displays his humble nature when at the table, he refused to begin eating before any of his guests. However, when the Green Knight confronts him he does not cower before him.
He raged as roaring gale;
His followers felt the same.
The King, not one to quail,
To that cavalier then came.
The Green Knight was described as a handsome, muscular man. Because every article of clothing the Green Knight wore was green, including his skin and hair, he is reminiscent of a fertility god. This idea of a fertility god plays a role when introducing the theme of temptation on the behalf of the Lord’s wife...
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... of his fault must itself be viewed with amusement, as part of his human fallibility.” (Borroff, Introduction)
He expects (and we expect with him when we first read the poem) that the real test he has to nerve himself for is meeting the Green Knight at the Green Chapel and receiving a presumably mortal blow from his axe. But when, after a tremendous effort of will, he does bring himself to face the Green Knight and accept the blow, it turns out that this is not the test itself. This test is only the symbol of a previous test which was carried out by the Green Knight’s wife, and which Gawain has already failed, marked by the girdle he accepted as a gift.
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Works Cited
Abrahms, M.H. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1993.
Borroff, Marie. Sir Gawain and The Green Knight: A New Verse Translation. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1967.
Spearing, A.C.. “Patience and the Gawain-Poet.” Twentieth Century Interpretations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Ed. F. Denton. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968.
Stone, Brian. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. New York: Penguin Group. 1959.
A close reading of this text will have you pointing your analytical finger in many directions. The discussion of masculinity, chivalry, and knighthood are some very common themes of this story, but issues with feminism certainly appear as well. For example, how the Green Knight uses his wife in his scheme is very questionable. Of course, any examination of this text would be done with modern bias, but nonetheless it is interesting to analyze these sorts of topics especially when a trend can be found in modern literature.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a fourteenth-century tale written by an anonymous poet, chronicles how Sir Gawain of King Arthur’s Round Table finds his virtue compromised. A noble and truthful knight, Gawain accepts the Green Knight’s challenge at Arthur’s New Years feast. On his way to the Green Chapel, Gawain takes shelter from the cold winter at Lord Bercilak’s castle. The lord makes an agreement with Gawain to exchange what they have one at the end of the day. During the three days that the lord is out hunting, his wife attempts to seduce Gawain. At the end of the story, it is revealed that Morgan le Faye has orchestrated the entire situation to disgrace the Knights of the Round Table by revealing that one of their best, Sir Gawain, is not perfect.
When the Green Knight arrives at Camelot, he challenges Arthur’s court, mocking the knights for being afraid of mere words, and suggesting that words and appearances hold too much power with them. Although the Green Knight basically tricks Gawain, by not telling him about his supernatural capabilities before asking him to agree to his terms, Gawain refuses to withdraw of their agreement. He stands by his commitments, even though it means putting his own life in jeopardy. The poem habitually restates Sir Gawain’s deep fears and apprehensions, but Gawain desires to maintain his own individual integrity at all costs which allows him to master his fears in his quest to seek the Green Chapel. After Gawain arrives at Bertilak’s castle, it is quite obvious that h...
The narrative artistry of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight can be attributed to the fundamental elements of chivalric life and the exploration of classic mythological elements that allows the narrative to bridge the gap between Christianity and Paganism, and allow its readers to find their own spiritual interpretation with in the text.
Mills, M. “Christian Significance and Romance Tradition in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Critical Studies of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Eds. Donald R. Howard and Christian Zacher. Notre Dame: UP of Notre Dame, 1968: 85-105.
Tests and decisions are as numerous in any man’s life as are the beats of his heart. The consequences he incurs follow him forever; he is judged by them and they affect his entire existence. Gawain’s statement is not merely profound sentiment, useful even today as a measure of a man’s mettle. It is also, coming as early as it does in Part II of the poem, a harbinger of how Gawain’s tale may end. It tells a reader that Gawain means to do his level best in his grand endeavor and if in but one small way he should fail, do not persecute him until considering how a different man may have fared.
To establish the knight as worthy, the author first shows Gawain’s loyalty to his king. The Green Knight challenges anyone in the hall to the beheading game and no one takes him up on it. Arthur, angered by the Green Knight’s taunting, is about to accept the challenge himself when Gawain steps in saying "would you grant me this grace" (Sir Gawain, l. 343), and takes the ax from Arthur. This is a very convenient way for the author to introduce Gawain and also to show Gawain’s loyalty to Arthur, but it seems almost too convenient. There i...
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.
Anonymous. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Norton Anthology of English Literature Sixth Edition. Volume 1. Ed. M.H.Abrams. New York: W.W.Norton and Company, Inc., 1993.
From the power of persuasion to the value of honor and beyond, one can witness many facets of human nature played out among the pages of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”. No theme of which can be seen more impeccably than the showcase of virtue verses sin. As Gawain is launched into tests of courtesy it is clear that much more is being examined than just his execution of courteous behavior, it is the nature of those around him that is also being taken into account. It is interesting how an author uses the combination of a negatively imbued foe and a positively inspired hero to highlight the traits most desirable for the mere mortals reading such a tale. In “Sir Gawain” the author uses some of the seven deadly sins to poetically draw their reader numerous and highly elaborate verbal pictures. For instance, in the opening passages of “Sir Gawain” the reader is told of rich and sumptuous clothing, decadent banquets hosted by Arthur and the lavish finery in his court. The reader might find that Arthur’s court is gluttonous in these displays of wealth while reading this section. Opulence, however, is laced thoroughly as reoccurring theme through many of the court and hall scenes in this particular romance. Another specific instance of the seven deadly being used is when the reader is shown that courtesy is a “big deal” for Arthur and his court. On display here is pride, chief of the seven deadly sins, which obviously reigns supreme when it comes to the reputation of courtesy in Arthur’s court. It comes into question here if these traits are entirely good or if they have a darker, more sinful nature attached to them. Thus as Gawain was tested for his diligence to courteous behavior, here and thence five of the seven deadly sins that a...
Though often extensive detail may be condemned as mere flowery language, in understanding Sir Gawain and the Green Knight one must make special emphasis on it. In color and imagery itself, the unknown author paints the very fibers of this work, allowing Sir Gawain to discern the nuances of ritualistic chivalry and truth. His quest after the Green Knight is as simple as ones quest toward himself. Through acute awareness of the physical world he encounters Gawain comes to an understanding of the world beyond chivalry, a connection to G-d, the source of truth. He learns, chivalry, like a machine, will always function properly, but in order to derive meaning from its product he must allow nature to affect him.
“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Element of Literature, Sixth Course. Austin: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston, 1997. 161-172. Print.
In Gordon M. Shedd’s “Knight in Tarnished Armour: The Meaning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, he argues that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is truly about the strength and weaknesses of human nature. One particularly interesting part of his argument asserts that Gawain’s humanity broke medieval romance tradition.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume A. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2006. 162-213.
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.