Comparing Women In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight And The Tale Of Gen

Comparison of women’s role in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Tale of Genji

Though women in the medieval times are usually helpless and submissive, there are some women who exercise their power, providing a challenge into the stereotypical image of women. Morgan le Fay and Lady Bertilak from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are examples of the women that challenged the stereotypical behavior of women in the medieval period. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is about how Sir Gawain, one of the knight from King Arthur’s Round Table, accepts a challenge from the mysterious Green Knight who challenges any knight to strike him with his axe and he will return the blow in a year. Gawain beheads the Green Knight easily, but the Green Knight

survived and he told Gawain he will return in a year to behead him. In order to keep the bargain with the Green Knight, Gawain decides to go on a quest to find the Green Knight. On his journey, he finds a huge castle in the enchanted forest. The owners of the castle, Lord and Lady Bertilak welcomed him into their castle for the holidays. Gawain demonstrates his struggles to keep the honor of the chivalry code when his honor is called into question by a test involving Lady Bertilak. Dissimilar to the women in the medieval society, women in the Heian period fit into the cliché image of women described at the time, as the men can cheat on their wives without any consequences and women are often married against their will to improve the social rank of their family. The Tale of Genji is about the world of the aristocrats in the Heian Period. Genji, the main protagonist, enters into a political marriage with Lady Aoi, daughter of an influential member of the court. Genji often neglects his wife because he does not care about her. Eventually, Genji has affairs with most of the aristocratic women around him, until he meets Murasaki, a ten-year-old girl. Upon meeting Murasaki, Genji decides to shape Murasaki into his ideal girl. Through the use of strong female characters and the weakness of men in a patriarchy society in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and the egoistic act of man towards women and women’s place in society in The Tale of Genji. Women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight play a more dominant role in the society than the women in The Tale of Genji, as they represent a threat to the male dominated society.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, women play a vital role in the plot by manipulating and influencing the men around them.

At the end of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain learns that he is tricked by Lady Bertilak; therefore, he gives an anti-feminist speech regarding his thoughts on women. He mentions that “Adam fell because of a woman, and Solomon because of several, and as for Samson, Delilah was his downfall…if only we could love our ladies without believing in their lies” (Gawain). Gawain is implying that women cannot be trusted and trusting women can lead to men’s downfall. Just like Adam in Adam and Eve, Adam trusted Eve so he ate the apple from the tree of wisdom, as a result he was thrown out of the Garden of Eden with Eve. It is not entirely Eve’s fault that Adam got kicked out of the Garden because Adam decided to eat the apple himself and if he really does not want to eat it, on one can force him to. Furthermore, this proves that Lady Bertilak is more than an evil seductress. Instead, she is a skilled conversationalist as she convinced Gawain to kiss her by attacking his weakness, which is the chivalry code, and his good name. She practically forced him to kiss her but she still managed to sound polite. Towards the end of the book, it is shown that Morgan le Fay is the main moving cause of the entire plot. The story transmits “the registers of the feminine text…. Plans initiated by one woman are directed at another, performed by a third, and modulated by

the actions of a fourth: reading this fashion, the romance is the theatre of its feminine figure” (Heng 6). Most of the major plots in the story are initiated by Morgan le Fay. Morgan le Fay enchants Lord Bertilak to become the Green Knight. She sends him to Camelot to meet King Arthur because she wants to test the will and the honor of the knights of the round table. Lady Bertilak also became Morgan le Fay’s pawn as she tries to seduce Gawain on a daily basis during his stay in the castle. Morgan le Fay wants to use Lady Bertilak to expose Gawain’s weakness. Since women in Gawain’s society had no power, Lady Bertilak and Morgan le Fay had to manipulate the men around them to assert control within the society.
Unlike the female characters in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the women in The Tale of Genji are taught to be submissive towards men because women cannot survive without men in their lives. In the Heian period of Medieval Japan, men had more social, political, and economic powers than women. They think that “men do not have to be mindful of women’s feelings. The reason women are generally more considerate than men… is because the powerless cannot survive without understanding men” (Komashaku 31). In The Tale of Genji, Genji have frequent affairs with other women without considering his wife’s feelings. All Genji cares about is to look for the ideal woman that can distract him for his love for Lady Fujitsubo, who is his father’s imperial consort. Despite having affairs with different aristocratic women, Genji still feels unsatisfied. He finally decided to search for a woman that he can mold into someone that can be a substitute to Lady Fujitsubo. Women is being portrayed as a toy that can be molded and shaped into something that a man wants. In chapter 2 of the story, Genji, his brother in law and some friends meet up to talk about women and the specific types of women that Genji will encountered in the future. The warden states that:
“women must never neglect her duty to assist her husband. A husband can get along well
enough if a woman is not too emotionally demanding, does not make a big fuss over
niceties … We men really should consider picking a completely childlike, complaint
woman… a woman we can mold into an acceptable and flawless wife” (Genji 1175).
Genji and his friends think that the perfect wife should be someone that is loyal but also feign ignorance when the situation requires. In a way, they are treating their wives like their servants by saying they want someone that will always fulfill what they want and rarely complains. It is also double standard because men can complain to the women if they want to but if their wives do it, it will ruin their relationship. The society expects women to be compliant to men at all times; thus, women cannot express what they are really feeling.
By not reinforcing his masculinity, Gawain is shown to be a weak male character in the medieval society.

Gawain left Camelot on a quest to find the Green Knight. He saw a castle in the enchanted forest and he was warmly welcomed by the hosts, Lord Bertilak and Lady Bertilak, and they told him to stay for the holidays. The morning after the Christmas feast, “the lord led the hunt, while good Gawain lay slumbering in his sheets, dozing as the daylight dapped the walls, under a splendid cover, enclosed by curtains” (Gawain 752). In the medieval society, men are expected to go on hunts and journeys to prove their masculinity. Gawain chooses to sleep instead of volunteering to go hunting with Lord Bertilak. Hunting is regarded as a masculine activity in Gawain’s society because it is violent and it requires intense physical skills. Sleeping, on the other hand, lacks in action and therefore emphasizes on Gawain’s lack of masculinity. Paralleling Lord Bertilak’s hunting scene is Lady Bertilak’s seduction scene with Gawain. She finally succeeded in seducing Gawain by finding out his weakness, “if he bore it on his body, belted about, there is no hand under heaven that could hew him down, for he could not be killed by any craft on earth” (Gawain 766). Lady Bertilak is assuming the role of the hunter as she tries to seduce Gawain, because it is usually the other way around. By taking the girdle from Lady Bertilak, Gawain is admitting to his weakness. Instead of presenting the girdle

that he got from Lady Bertilak, he decides to conceal it from the Lord. As a result, he commits an act of shame and dishonor the Arthur court. Since bravery is an important aspect for men in the medieval society, Gawain is shown to have lack of masculinity as he did not participate in masculine activity with Lord Beritlak and he allows himself to be seduced by Lady Bertilak.
Though women in the Heian period have more rights than women in other periods as they can own and sell property, the society is still dominated by men. Genji was infatuated by Murasaki when he first saw her in the Northern Hills when she was ten because she looked like Lady Fujitsubo; therefore, he decided to take her into one of his residence after the death of her grandmother. Hence, “Genji took advantage of Murasaki’s misfortune, abducting her to raise her as an ideal woman and make her serve as a substitute for Fujitsubo” (Komashaku ). By molding a little girl into his dream girl, Genji is treating her as his own fantasy as he knows that he can never be with Lady Fujitusbo. Throughout this entire process, Murasaki did not have an input in anything that is happening around her. Since Murasaki was only ten at the time Genji kidnapped her and took her under his care, she believes and does whatever Genji tells her to do. Thus, Genji is brainwashing her at a young age to think a certain way to fit his ideal girl. Unlike Murasaki who is loved and looked after by Genji, Lady Aoi, Genji’s wife, was being neglected by Genji. When Genji returned to the court and his father in law brings him to meet Lady Aoi, she was “not moving a muscle, so prim and proper, arranged like some fairy-tale princess in paintings… he found the whole situation intolerable” (Genji 1196). Since her marriage with Genji is a political marriage, Genji feels uncomfortable in front of her; therefore, he prefers to be with women with lower ranks. By not spending time with her, Aoi becomes a cold person because of Genji’s constant neglect towards her. When Genji tells her that she should “start acting like a normal wife. [He] has been quite ill recently, but [she] couldn’t be bothered to even ask how [he] was” (Genji 1967). It is ironic because all this time Genji had been neglecting Lady Aoi and now, he is complaining that she is not acting like a wife because she did not send him anything when he was sick. Furthermore, he thinks that it is okay to leave her alone for the majority of the time to have affairs with other women. Instead of trying to amend his relationship with Lady Aoi, Genji hardens his attitude towards her and considers her to be a naturally cold-hearted woman. Women are frequently viewed as an object to fulfill the desires and expectations of men. For that reason, Lady Aoi is not treated as well as Murasaki as she does not appeal to Genji’s expectations of how women.