Divine Justice In 'Sir Gawain And The Green Knight'

In most ancient literature some sort of divine justice is used to punish people's acts in life. This is that case with Dante's Inferno, where the Author categorizes hell in 9 circles. Circle 9 being the lowest sins and punishments as the circles decrease. From the time this was written to now in days many things have changed, and things are not seen the same no more. Back then sins like greed and gluttony were ranked as high sins but now people would probably rank those very low with other things like murder way on top. Yet the basic structure set by Dante remains.

Grendel the antagonist character of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" would fall into the 7th circle of hell. He is a violent monster who terrorizes people, fitting the violence circle. Not only does he terrorize people but commits murders on a constant basis and harming everyone who comes in his way. Grendel was no regular murderer, he would kill people by the dozens without caring about anything. He enjoyed killing people and wanted people to fear him. In the book it talked about how in the first night he killed

30 people. In today’s modern society this crime is the worst crime possible and it is harshly punished. Yet circle 7 does not seem like it's the worst but at the time this was written things where saw differently than now in days.

The Green Knight was a character who was surrounded by mystery and was hard to judge.

The Green Knight ended being the host and judge for an honesty and integrity test of the round table knights for a game created by Morgan le Faye. In the book first, he appeared as the Green knight to challenge the Knights of the green table, to challenge one of the member to a bet, where Sir Gawain ended up being the volunteer. Later he appeared as the king of the castle who would help Sir Gawain find the Green Chapel and test his honesty. In other words, he was the villain of the story but also protagonists guide to victory. In today's society he would be seen as a fake person with two faces "a fraudulent person". According to Dante's inferno he would fall in to the 8th circle of hell where the "Frauds" pay for thissins. Because of his fraudulent identity I think that this is the sin that best fits

him.

Sir Gawain is a character whose actions would not seem sinful to most people in today's society. Instead of being a sinful person he would look like a person to look up to in most ways. Sir Gawain was a courteous person who did little no harm to other people, because he followed the code of chivalry. Therefore, I would say that Sir Gawain would not fall into any of the 9 circles of hell according to Dante's inferno in "my" opinion. If he had to be put into one of the circles the one that would come the closest to his actions would be circle 2 for the sin of lust. In the book it talks about how he strictly follows the code of chivalry and how he is a respected Knight and his wife. He followed the code of chivalry so much that he was put behind his back and the wall when the lady of the castle seduced him. He did not really have a choice but to kiss the lady of the castle in multiple occasions, but every time he returned his earning back to the king. He did this because he did not want to offend the lady or displace her, but he put his limits, so he would not be committing adultery.

The slave owners from Mauritania don’t just fall into one circle of hell but fall to multiple levels not just one. The circles they would fall in to would be circles 3 "gluttony", 4 "avarice", and 9 "treachery". Circle 3 being the worst therefore serving their time there, for their need for surplus of food, materials, and labor. In the video it showed how the slave owners had a better living than those who were enslaved. This meanwhile those who were slaved had nothing more than enough to stay alive under harsh conditions, their masters where living in abundance. This is why they would have to be assigned to circle 3 of hell and be forced to slosh around forever in the vile muck for eternity. For all the suffering that they have caused people but mainly for their habits.

After all some of these characters have adequate punishment s for their actions and some don't. Sir Gawain for example back then he would have been placed with no drought in circle 2, but now in days that is questionable. Not only that but having murder on as the top sin would be what people would say now in days but that was not the case when the Inferno was writen.