Comparing Women In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the men and women appear to have different roles in the society. The men attempt to live a more noble life while emasculating the power of the women. Throughout the poem, women display hints of their potential through manipulation and trickery, traits that are uneasily recognized by men as growing power.

Morgan la Fay manipulates the Lord Bercilak to assume the role of the Green Knight, and she uses him for revenge against Queen Guenevere. She engineered a plan in which she hoped “to cow…Queen Guenevere, [and] kill her with dread” (2460). In other words, she intended to frighten the queen by forcing her to witness Sir Gawain severe the head of a green man, while the man remains alive and proceeds to pick

up his detached extremity. The author never reveals the queen’s reaction. Although, King Arthur does address “his courteous queen in speech of the court: / ‘Dear dame, never let this day’s doings dismay you.’” (469-470). One could assume by his speech that the queen became unsettled by the crude event that had just occurred as he feels the need to comfort his wife. However, this could also be perceived as the king trying to suppress any retaliation or opinion the queen may have of the horrid incident. Unfortunately, the author leaves broader context out of the poem. It seems there is no particular reason for Morgan la Fay to wish such a fright on Queen Guenevere. However, a bit of background information proves that Guenevere had put an end to an affair that Morgan la Fay was pursuing with Guenevere’s cousin, and this motivated Morgan la Fay’s evil actions.
Late in the poem, the men recognize the magnitude of effect the women had on their actions.

For example, Sir Gawain admits that he was outsmarted by Morgan la Fay and Lady Bercilak, “Both [Lady Bercilak] and that other, my honorable ladies,/ Who so neatly entangled their knight in their nets,/ It’s no marvel a man can be made to look foolish,/ Be wrecked and disgraced by such womanish wiles…” (2412-2415). But these women were more than just clever players in the plot of the poem. They use their abilities, namely manipulation and wiles, and desires to fuel the events of the story. The two exemplify how women can possess freedom and control even within the highly constraining, patriarchal structure of medieval times. Through the characters of Morgan la Fay and Lady Bercilak, one can witness the true power of women to achieve their ends via the manipulation of men even in the patriarchal society of Camelot. Sir Gawain’s speech to Lord Bercilak reinforces that women are the driving force of action in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Sir Gawain, having been fooled, agrees that the trickery in which the women employed worked quite well on him, as it compelled him to fail in honoring his own chief virtues. Lady Bercilak appealed to his sense of chivalry when attempting to seduce him. He succumbed to temptation when he accepted the green sash from the Lady Bercilak. Once again, women exercise their power through manipulation and artifices to attain their

end.
The majority of the poem focuses on the actions in which the men perform, while the women are displayed behind the scenes directing them.

Granted, the Green Knight claims that he sent his wife, the Lady Bercilak, to seduce Sir Gawain (2361-2362). However, he is instructed to do so by Morgan la Fay. It originally seems that the Green Knight is the schemer because he executes most of the actions that comprise this grand plan, but he plainly admits to Sir Gawain later in the poem that “she [Morgan la Fay] sent [him] in this semblance to search out [King Arthur’s] hall” (2456). This information is astonishing as it transfers all of the credit the Green Knight has earned by causing distraught to Morgan la Fay. The author indicates that power is not so much based on strength in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight so much as it is centered on nobility and religion. Lady Bercilak services both in order to manipulate Sir Gawain. “Thus the lady assayed him and sounded him steadily/ To move him to mischief, and more if she might./ But his defense was so fair and faultless indeed/ That neither trespassed… (1549-1553). The test on the battlefield now becomes the test of remaining chaste. Finding that Sir Gawain can too easily resist sexual advances by clinging to his religious background, Lady Bercilak attempts to cause fault in his nobility. Here, the knight caves by accepting a gift and not returning the favor to Lord Bercilak in the evening because he desires that “his soul…be saved when

his body [is] spent” when he faces the blow from the Green Knight the next morning (1879). The lady sways Sir Gawain to receive the gift because it means that he would fail his test. By accomplishing this task, Lady Bercilak proves to be more dominant in the situation than Sir Gawain, and strengthens the argument that women are highly influential in the actions preformed in the poem.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, strange events occur in which heads are severed and a green knight travels on a green horse. These abnormal occurrences display what appears to be a major clash between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but these two men are merely pawns in a larger conflict between the women, Morgan la Fay and Queen Guenevere. The women, although not seen undertaking much of the action, instigate what befalls in the poem.