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Literary analysis of sir gawain and the green knight
Sir gawain and the green knight complete analysis
Sir gawain and the green knight complete analysis
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In lines 151-202 of Armitage’s translation of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, Armitage gives the reader a detailed account of the Green Knight’s elaborate appearance. This consists of a list of descriptions based on the knight’s ornate, entirely green attire as well as his green horse, hair and beard, a literary style that is typical of the poem, a medieval romance which frequently intricately narrates certain chosen aspects of the tale. However, there are other ways in which the passage evidently aligns with the poem’s wider stylistic aspects and thematic concerns.
At first glance, it is evident that Armitage has mainly written these lines in accordance to the non-rhyming, non-metrical style of free verse; the lines also clearly demonstrate
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Green is commonly associated with vegetation and its cycles of growth, portraying the Green Knight as being a fertility god, emphasising his connection with nature and the earth. The theme of man/ creatures being with the natural world is characteristic of the tale as we observe how Gawain’s mood corresponds with the natural passing of the seasons, for example, from merriness in pleasant weather during spring to bleakness in winter. However, unusually here, several critics have argued that “ the Green Knight is in fact the devil, come to tempt the virtuous Gawain.”(2).Green was often the colour worn by the devil in medieval literature.It is not coincidental that the challenge that Gawain faces leads to a possibly fatal result and that Gawain’s sense of chivalry is tarnished due to him being untruthful to the Green Knight by wearing a “green silk girdle trimmed with gold” (1833) as a form of protection from …show more content…
Lines 196-198, “No waking man had witnessed such a warrior or weird war-horse, otherworldly, yet flesh and bone” portrays the Green Knight as being mysterious and supernatural, but Armitage’s perpetual minutely detailed picture makes him seem to be “immediate, solid and very
The Green Knight then arrives at Arthur’s court to pose a challenge for someone to cut off his head and to have the favor returned a year later. He and his horse are both entirely green and are clad in rich attire. The horse’s saddle is described as follows, in lines 164-167: “ About himself and his saddle, set upon silk,/ That to tell of the trifles would tax my wits,/ The butterflies and birds embroidered thereon/ In green of gayest, with many gold thread.” The Green Knight’s appearance makes his supernatural qualities apparent from the start, even before he is able to survive decapitation. Though his ornate clothing establishes him as a respectable knight, the fact that he is entirely green is not normal. Green is often associated with creepy, monstrous things, so therefore the knight is given a supernatural quality by that color.
The poet spends most of the next three stanzas describing the Green Knight in detail; first, we learn of his clothing, trimmed in fur and embroidery, all green and gold. Then we learn that the horse he rides, the saddle, and the stirrups are all green. The man's long hair matches that of the horse, and he has a great, thick beard, also green.
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.
Norton. "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." The Norton Anthology English Literature. New York : W.M. Norton and Company, 2006. 162-213.
Web. 30 Sept. 2009. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume A. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt.
We have seen it done many times by Hollywood, one man on a journey to fulfill his destiny as the hero. The interesting thing is these stories were being told long before Hollywood even existed. Two of the greatest tales that have been passed down for centuries, while being told in many different ways were Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a boy who through his journey must find courage and hart in order to face his biggest fear. The other tale being Beowulf, a story of a proven hero who must once again prove to his people why he has earned his ranks. Along the journey these two tales and the characters in them have their similarities and their differences, but in the end the messages that they tell are greater than anything else. Destiny, Fear and Temptation are the essential elements of the two tales, due to the fact that during the time in which they were written
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.
Goldhurst, William. The Green and the Gold: The Major Theme of Gawain and the Green Knight. November 1958.
The Green Knight hides his real motives and conditions under all of his greenness as Satan does with changing into animals [Serpent]. Bertilak, the Green Knight, uses his wife as the temptation for Gawain and Gawain must respect her needs because he is in her abode—even though Lady Bertilak is vigorous with her lust towards Gawain and even though a man would mostly like go for Lady Bertilak’s temptations. Gawain tries not to “take that kind of honor” (1243) for his own, but ultimately exchanging kisses with her and Lady Bertilak gives Gawain the green girdle, the chastity belt, as a gift from her. The gift that Lady Bertilak gives Gawain comprises a significant act the knight’s code of chivalry (“Code of Chivalry” code 15). Gawain easily seduces to Lady Bertilak natural temptresses. The green girdle has magic that “any man bound with this belt, this green lace locked around him, can never be killed” (1853). There is no doubt that Gawain wears the girdle in hopes that when he goes to the green chapel to receive his blow against the green knight he will not die: but honestly he was afraid of death, which does not uphold the stand of how a knight of Arthur’s court should act. Gawain is constantly going against the knight’s code, but he can not help that. Gawain has never been out of the border of Camelot where the enticement is sky high. Nevertheless, Bertilak reveals to Gawain that he is the Green Knight and that he knows
Excellence has always been a virtue revered by society. Writers throughout the ages have tried to capture the essence of excellence in their works, often in the form of a title character, who is the embodiment of perfection, encapsulating all the ideal traits necessary for one to be considered an excellent member of society. However, the standards for excellence are not universally agreed upon. On the contrary, one man's idea of excellence may very well be another's idea of mediocrity. Yet, human nature is constant enough that by analyzing different literary "heroes", one can discover the standards of excellence that are common to different peoples.
8[8] Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Trans. Marie Borroff. Norton Anthology of British Literature Vol. 1, New York: WW Norton, 1993.
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.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Edition, Volume One. General Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: Norton, 1993.
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.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Trans. Brian Stone. The Middle Ages, Volume 1A. Eds. Christopher Baswell and Anne Howland Schotter. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Fourth ed. Gen.eds David Damrosch, and Kevin J. H. Dettmar. New York: Pearson-Longman, 2010. 222-77. Print.