Archetypal Characters in Sir Gawain and Madame Ragnelle

Sir Gawain and Madame Ragnelle is a short story containing different archetypal characters. From the start of the story it already gave an overview of the main problem. Unfortunately, there will be another problem that will arise upon knowing that King Arthur and Sir Gawain were tricked by a Lady Modren, who made up a story about his husband and let King Arthur and Sir Gawain fall for a trap. Later on, they will go on a quest searching for the answer to the riddle given by the Black Knight. Sir Gawain and Madame Ragnelle is filled with different requisites that can be used for further analysis of the story. Sir Gawain and Madame Ragnelle manifests a love story developed through time involving the difference between good and evil that would join two archetypal characters, a hero and a damsel, and later on lived together in great happiness and joy.

The context of the story will be examined into two parts; one is the identification of the different archetypes followed by the analysis of the different binary oppositions. However, it is still necessary to understand the story using new criticism to be able to understand what roles each archetype is portraying, which is evident in the theme. Structuralism will deal more on the different disciplines that will help in understanding the language of the story.

As stated in the story, Sir Gawain is actually a knight and in fact he is considered to be the “most loyal” and “beloved of all knights”. Though his role was directly stated, he manifests the archetypal hero in the story. He is of good noble stature and he has this initiative to protect and help his uncle, King Arthur. When Lady Modren tricked and brought the two men to her husband, the Black Knight (Lady Modren’s husband) gave Kin...

... middle of paper ...

...let Lady Ragnelle regain her former self. The story similarly ended in a typical way fairytales end—“and they lived happily ever after”. As stated in the text they “lived together in great happiness” thought their first encounter was not that great they were able to compromise and in the end love each other as Gawain’s heart swelled in love.

Throughout this paper, it was able to analyze how a love story developed through time between a hero and a damsel with the presence of good and evil having the ending of living together in great happiness and joy. This paper was able to scrutinize the archetypal villains, hero, and damsel in relation to the opposing concepts such as “good versus evil” and “sorcery versus reality”. It started out as a quest for an answer and later on it turned out to be a discovery for love upon seeing the real beauty within.