Literary Devices In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

The usage of plot devices in a literature piece is not uncommon, it is used from fairy tales to autobiographies. Plot devices are mechanisms which keep the story going, devices which capture the reader's attention by annoying or confusing the reader to create suspicion and to keep the plot going. There are many functions which fall under ‘plot devices’ which not every fairy tale follows but there are some which Sir Gawain and the Green Knight acknowledges through the poem.

On year’s day in Camelot, King arthur and his kingdom is having a feast as a celebration. It is here when the unknown creature which is the Green Knight armed with an axe enters the hall ”there hurtles in at the hall- door an unknown rider” and proposes a game “you will graciously grant the game that I ask”. The Green

Knight proposes for someone in the court most valiantly the king to strike him with his axe once, with the sole condition that he would return the blow twelve months later.

It is here where the first function comes into play, being; the villain tries to find the hero [g]. It is here where Sir Gawain takes arthur's place and accepts the challenge. Sir Gawain was able to successfully hit the Green knight in the head with his first stroke “the shock of the sharp blow shivered the bones and cut the flesh” (424-425). It is here where another function comes into play being; the protagonist and the antagonist fight. As the time span of 12 months is slowly coming to an end, Sir Gawain sets off to find the Green Chapel which was the location he was given to complete his debt “now he rides in his array...” where the next function is seen which is that the hero or protagonists goes on a journey outside their home to look for the villain. It is until he reaches a castle amongst prayers where he is welcomed by Bertilak de Hautdesert “ To this home you are heartily welcome” (835). The function that comes into play in this portion of the poem is that the hero falls for a trap. Even Though, the trap is not as clear there is

something definitely suspicious about the warm welcoming to Sir Gawain and how he was given all the commodities without asking or being curious about Sir Gawain. All of these function are based around Propp’s morphology, of course it is not a sequence of plot devices which are used in every fairy tale or the way to look at plot. Nevertheless, it is an illuminating way to look at the overall plot and to be able to make connections to other stories and films through the story plots.

It personally took me some time to connect Sir Gawain and the Green Knight with another movie which I have seen before, this is because the story line used in this poem is extremely unique. Nevertheless, there is a series which have similar plot devices as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight such as Scooby Doo. This is a children’s series which was very popular around 6 years ago and it would bring suspension, mystical creatures, journeys and revelations. This series relates back to this poem as there is a hero and a villain, but the villain never truly ends up being harmful, or neglectful. The mystical creatures always seem to find the heroes and then disappear into another country or region leaving the heroes to leave their home and start a journey to find this mystical creatures which are labelled as villains. These heroes always find hospitality in the most suspicious places which are most commonly the enemy's ground where they end up defeating the mystical creature and returning home.