Comparing Sir Gawain And The Green Knight And The Rape

“Good artist borrow, great artist steal,” (Picasso) This statement rings true throughout all forms of art including literature. It reflects why we can find similarities in different pieces of literature, despite being written by different people, at different times, in different places. Throughout history authors have borrowed themes, ideas, genres, and even characters from each other, this is true of the three works the author has chosen to examine. By using genre criticism the similarities between these works become rather obvious. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The faerie Queene, and The Rape of the Lock, are all works written by different authors at very different times, yet they are all heroic satires, that look at human characteristics

and borrow from previous works.
Genre criticism looks at aspects of the story to first determine the genre, as well as look at works of the same genre and compare them. This form of criticism is perfect for these works in particular because in addition, to all being the same genre, they have several other similarities that can be looked at through a critical lens. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The faerie Queene, and The Rape of the Lock, all have the characteristics of the mock epic or satire genre. There are several aspects of a mock epic, however the most noticeable are drama, mockery of heroic poems, similar style to that of an epic, and in many cases exaggerated heroism. These qualities of a satirical epic appear in all three works and is one of the threads that binds them together.
In Sir Gawain and the Green night, the characteristics of drama, mockery, and the style of an epic are used to create this work.

The author creates a dramatic setting throughout the story by keeping up with an exciting plot. Both drama and mockery are at work in the character of Sir Gawain. He seems to be an over exaggerated character who in some cases is used to poke fun at king Arthurs knights. The author also seems to be making fun of stories of “True love,” this is shown most when the lady of the house gives Gawain a longwinded dramatic speech about true love as she tries to seduce him. Although, the author may be trying to show the qualities of a knight it comes off pretentious and self-glorifying on Gawain’s part. The work also uses a similar writing style as some of the other Arthurian tales written previous to Sir Gawain’s publication. In addition to using characters from previous Arthurian

works.
While the characteristics of the mock epic are less obvious in Spenser’s The faerie Queene, using genre criticism they become a bit clearer. The work itself is a satire written to please Queen Elizabeth. The work also utilized the satirical epic theme of mockery, instead of mocking the follies of man, Spenser uses evil characters to parody and mock Catholicism. Spenser also takes advantage of the style of an epic. Despite Spenser, having his own unique stanza rhythm and set up, he is still inspired by Christian texts much like other epics of the Early Modern period. The faerie Queene borrows characters from Mort De’ Arthur and other Arthurian works. However, Arthur is not the only work that inspired Spenser’s work, he takes inspiration and themes from the works of Homer, Dante and Virgil as well. Lastly, The faerie Queene, like many satirical epics looks at the characteristics of man. In spite of this being a common aspect The faerie Queene, is unique in the way it represents the positive characteristics of man in allegory while also mocking some characteristics by using the character of Duessa.
The work that shows the most characteristics of a mock epic is The rape of the lock, by Alexander Pope.

Like other mock epics The rape of the lock, takes advantage of the characteristics of drama, exaggeration, humor and mockery. Drama is an important piece of all mock heroics and no work uses it better than Pope’s The rape of the lock, the entire story itself is an over dramatized version of a regular day. Pope uses exaggeration of trivial everyday things such as playing cards in the first canto to an over exaggerated tale about recovering a lock of severed hair. The humor in the story shines through using the expressions of exaggeration and overdramatized tales of everyday life. Similar to the first two works The rape of the lock, uses mockery to look at both the downfalls of man such as pride and vanity as shown through the character of Belinda who for vanities sake continues to try to get her hair back despite being told that grace and forgiveness would suit her better. Pope also uses the The rape of the lock, also mocks the daily tasks of life by giving them an overdramatized narration similar to how a sports newscaster tries to add drama when they talk about a game. Alexander Pope uses they story of a group wealthy young people to mock the lives of those consumed with greed and vanity. Pope uses the style of a typical epic poem and utilizes the rhythm of heroic poems similar to the Iliad a work that inspired much of The rape of the lock. Using this style makes the

story an interesting read and while appearing much more serious than it is, the style of the story helps add to the humor of the work. Using genre criticism one can also compare one genre to another using this we can look at the comparison of Pope’s work to the Iliad an actual epic. It becomes apparent that Alexander Pope uses a lot of themes and ideas from the classic heroic story such as the use of magical creatures and allusions to Greek gods as we can see when Pope calls on a muse. The rape of the lock, is regarded as one of if not the best mock epic written thus far.
With the aid of genre criticism you can look at three different works from different areas written by extremely different authors and see the parallels in the writing that bind them all together. Looking at the three works, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The faerie Queene, and The rape of the lock, you can see the unique characteristics that make these works all mock epics as well as how they borrow from other works to benefit themselves. In , Sir Gawain we see mockery of overly chivalrous knights and tales of true love, while The faerie Queene looks at what the audience saw as the downfalls of Catholicism and The rape of the lock shows the over dramatic lives of wealthy young people.