Gawain's Human Sexual Desires In The Green Knight

Although there is no sensual temptation in Arthur’s court, the nature of the environment illustrates the temptations of pleasures that evoke a will to live. Primarily, the simple temptation of pleasure is stemmed from tournament games:

“Time after time, in tournament of joust,”

They had lunged at each other with leveled lances

Then returned to the castle to carry on their caroling.” (41-43, 187)

The tournament of jousts reveals the pleasure in Arthur’s court; subjects are seamlessly rewarded and praised for their physical strength by the extravagant festivities of the court. Specifically, they are given copious amounts of food and dancing, which exemplify the luxuriance of the court and enable subjects to live comfortably and pleasingly. The poet reveals: “The hubbub of their humor was heavenly to hear: / so house and hall were lit with happiness” (46-48, 187). Due to Arthur’s vast amount of wealth, the subjects desire a will to live by detesting the challenge of the Green Knight in order to participate in the pleasures of the

Thus, he combines Gawain’s human sexual desire with his chivalric duty to a woman as challenges to his loyalty of the Christian chivalric code. Simultaneously, while facing the sensual temptation by Lady Bertilak, Bertilak assembles a pact with Gawain: “Here’s a wager: what I will win in the woods will be yours, / and what you gain while I’m gone you will give to me” (1106-1107, 209). The pact reveals Bertilak’s solution to the failure of Arthur’s court; by wagering a pact with Gawain that entitles him to all the produce Bertilak gains in the wilderness, he creates the truest form of a testament that will illustrate Gawain’s dedication to the Christian chivalric code. On the day of the hunt, Lady Bertilak seduces Gawain for the final time. However, she is met with refusal, and instead offers Gawain a gifted