A Comparison Of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

Literature often reflects the time period it is written during. This can be seen by tracing books from the Anglo-Saxtons to the Middle Ages to the Renaissance time period.

During the Anglo-Saxtons time period, Beowulf was written. Beowulf is an old English epic poem, which mirrors the language spoken during the time period. Old English is very different from the English we speak today. The epic poem represents the common way that stories were written in 410 A.D. to 1066 A.D. The story is about a powerful warrior who is able to fight many monsters completely by himself. In addition, the story shows how welcoming people were to citizens from other areas. There was a feast to welcome the Geats: “Then a bench was cleared in that banquet hall so the Geats could have room to be together” (Heaney 35). This plot shows how warriors who went off in war were thought to be fighting monsters, but in reality they were just fighting other groups of people. After this time period, the warriors soon became knights and the epic poems became stories in the Middle Ages.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight were written during the Middle Ages.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an Arthurian Legend. An Arthurian Legend is a story that involves King Arthur. One theme of this book is honor, honoring your town and your king was very important to the people of this time. A knight named Sir Gawain stands up for the king when the king is embarrassed at a New Year’s Celebration. Sir Gawain is asked to honor two promises, but if he honors one he cannot honor the other. Both promises ended up being broken, but Sir Gawain still tries to honor them and is rewarded by the green Knight. The Green Knight tries to hit Gawain and barely hits him because he cannot hit an honest man: “I promised thee a blow and thou hast it” (Weston 46). After this time period, the knights were no longer around and a play was a common type of

entertainment.
Dr. Faustus was written during the Renaissance. The Renaissance was a time period where everything could be questioned, and the church was commonly questioned. The play, Dr. Faustus is a story about a man who makes a deal with the devil, and he does not repent until it is too late. Because Faustus repents too late, he does not go to heaven: “That from thy soul exclud’st the grace of Heaven” (Marlowe 52). During the Renaissance, people questioned the church and started to move away from the church to more secular objects.
Literature has changed as the time continues. At the beginning, Literature was most commonly an epic poem old English and as time goes on this changed into stories and plays. Throughout history, people and cultures have evolved and so has the literature.
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