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The Real Hero
In the medieval poems Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written by an anonymous, depicts a vital character called Sir Gawain. He is a young knight who portrays bravery, nobility and chivalry. It shows the growth and his ability to loyally practice the ‘chivalrous code,’ which is indirectly compared with another noble knight, Sir Lancelot in the tale Le Morte d ‘Arthur and highlighted during the opening of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. He is a dynamic character who possess bravery, nobility and chivalry, and in doing so these characteristics enables the poem to take upon the task of showing the different spectrums of ‘knighthood’ and comparing them to the other knights.
One of the qualities he shows is bravery. Within the
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first few versus of the story/poem, we are introduced to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. During the Christmas time in the King’s court, the Green Knight enters the dining hall and challenges the court to a beheading game, in which one knight must behead him and in return has to find him after twelve months a day, allowing him to behead the same knight. After none of the knights from the round table take upon his challenge, he then proceeds to taunt them, which King Arthur responds by taking upon the challenge. Sir Gawain is then introduced when he requests the King to allow him to take upon the challenge, …"'Why should I tarry?' and smiled/with tranquil eye/ 'In destinies sad or merry/True men can but try"(214). The reasons Sir Gawain gives to allow the king to take upon the challenge shows that he does not think highly of himself nor feels the pride of being the nephew of the king. His decision to take upon the challenge is seen as a deed of benevolence and gallantry. During the time period when this poem was written, bravery was one of the critical attribute that a knight has to possess, however this was contradicted by the other knights at the round table. This trait is among the most highlighting trait in describing Sir Gawain and his imperative part in the first segment of the poem. Another trait is nobility.
Throughout the story, Sir Gawain’s characteristics nobility is witnessed. During the first segment, his Gawain looks and speaks in the way an ideal knight should look and speak. His clothes are regular for the knight; his speech, on the other hand, is somewhat distinct from other knights. He is the only knight that steps forward to save Arthur's honor and life in the story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. During the middle and latter versus of the story, Gawain’s nobility heightens. After twelve months as day, Gawain seeks out to find the Green Knight as promised. After reaching the forest, Gawain comes across a ‘stranger’ and his wife, who offers to assist him in finding the Green Knight, as Gawain is unaware that the host is the Green Knight himself. Upon his encounter, he is test by the wife of the host (Bercilak de Hautdesert), who openly flirts with him and attempts to seduce and lure him to infidelity. However despite his temptations, he yields them and only receives kisses from the lady, which he returns to the Green Knight in the accordance with their agreement. The wife of Green Knight, says that Sir Gawain is the "noblest knight alive" (239) after her attempts to lure him and test his honesty. Sir Gawain’s true nobility is witnessed during the second segment of the story where is lured into the lust by the wife of the ‘anonymous’ …show more content…
host. Another trait is chivalry.
This trait is one of imperative trait that Sir Gawain endures. This trait is evident in both the stories Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and le Morte d ‘Arthur. King Arthur’s court at Camelot is defined by a chivalrous code, in which fighting spirit, bravery and courtesy are vital to a man’s character and standing, and cowardice is looked down upon as a severe defect. The Green Knight's challenge is thus a challenge not just to each individual knight but to the entire Arthurian chivalric code, and that code is then shown to be hollow when none of the knights accept the challenge until Gawain, who identifies himself as the weakest of the knights, finally does. Gawain is faced with the need to be chivalric need to be honorable toward his host Bertilak while also showing the utmost courtesy and charm to Bertilak's/Green Knight’s wife, even as she seems intent on trying to seduce Gawain. Even though the lady makes advances towards him, he does not give in. “My body is here at hand/Your each wish to fulfill/Your servant to command/ I am, and shall be still” says the lady but to her surprise, Gawain refuses the chance to seize the perfect opportunity. This trait was among the highlighted ones since chivalric code was a distinctive code that all the noble knights had to
follow. Sir Gawain should have been a role model to many other knights since he showcased a living example of ‘a perfect knight.’ Today we read and learn about what a true knight depicts and Sir Gawain depicts the traits of bravery, nobility, and chivalry almost accurately.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain shows qualities of a chivalrous knight. He demonstrates that by showing generosity, courtesy, and loyalty during his travels. A mysterious knight shows up at the king’s castle and calls himself the Green Knight. The Green Knight then challenges one to play a game which he challenges the king to strike him with his axe if he will take a return hit in a year and a day. Sir Gawain steps forward to accept the challenge for his uncle King Arthur when nobody else in the castle would. He took the King’s role in the game to protect him from the Green Knight. He must learn to accept his responsibility as a knight, in accepting his fate.He demonstrates goodness at the hand of the Green Knight. He shows courage by accepting what is to come upon him during his voyage. His journey to find the Green Knight is filled with temptations.In the conversation with him and the “Lady”, Sir Gawain showed a Chivalrous code by keeping his loyalty to the king by not kissing his wife. The lady states “if I should exchange at my cho...
In his struggles to uphold his chivalric duties, Sir Gawain faithfully demonstrates the qualities of chivalry and fidelity until his honor is called into question by an unknown green knight that rides into the castle. Sir Gawain is King Arthur’s nephew and one of his most faithful knights. Although Gawain modestly refutes it, he has a reputation of being an honorable knight and courtly man. He prides himself on his adherence of the five parts of chivalry and is a pinnacle display of humility, piety, integrity, loyalty, and honesty that all other knights strive for. Though Gawain sits at the high table during the New Year’s celebration at Arthur’s court, he defines himself as the least of King Arthur’s knights in terms of both physical ability and mental aptitude.
When Gawain spurns the lady 's advances, she questions the validity of his reputation: "So good a night as Gawain is rightly reputed / In whom courtesy is so completely embodied / Could not easily have spent so much time with a lady / Without begging a kiss, to comply with politeness / By some hint or suggestion at the end of a remark. " Here we see the first example of Gawain 's values being thrown into opposition: he cannot hope to hold his honor, fellowship, and chastity without calling his chivalry and courtesy into question. Gawain faces a fork in the road in the first bedroom scene, yet it quickly becomes clear that neither road ends with perfection. The perfect, archetypal knight, one who seamlessly, simultaneously embodies all of the qualities so harmoniously unified on Gawain 's shield, cannot exist, as the five points of Gawain 's pentangle cannot fully be kept
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – A Test of Chivalry Essay with Outline: Loyalty, courage, honor, purity, and courtesy are all attributes of a knight that displays chivalry. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is truly a story of the test of these attributes. In order to have a true test of these attributes, there must first be a knight worthy of being tested, meaning that the knight must possess chivalric attributes to begin with. Sir Gawain is admittedly not the best knight around. He says "I am the weakest, well I know, and of wit feeblest; / and the loss of my life [will] be the least of any" (Sir Gawain, l. 354-355).
Sir Gawain is presented as a noble knight who is the epitome of chivalry; he is loyal, honest and above all, courteous. He is the perfect knight; he is so recognised by the various characters in the story and, for all his modesty, implicitly in his view of himself. To the others his greatest qualities are his knightly courtesy and his success in battle. To Gawain these are important, but he seems to set an even higher value on his courage and integrity, the two central pillars of his manhood.
When Gawain shows up at the Green Knight’s chapel, his mere presence provides comfort to his host, who greets him: “Sir so sweet, you honour the trysts you owe.” Perhaps the green gallant had been expecting Gawain, as representative of the crumbling House of Arthur, to be derelict in his duties. Gawain lives up to his good name. Similarly, he resisted the unbearable temptations of Lady Bertilak on numerous occasions, providing a mere kiss, in accordance with the code of chivalry.
“Sir Gawain and the Green knight” is a romantic Middle English poem written in the fourteenth century by an unknown author. This poem is a fairy-tale like story that gives its readers a glimpse into the social class system of Medieval England. This literary work opens with the famous King Arthur, a local bishop, and King Arthur’s knights enjoying a royal feast at Camelot during the Christmas season. This poem provides an accurate depiction of the feudal system of the middle ages. Within this tale are individuals representing the “pyramid of power” that symbolizes the social class system of Medieval England. This top of the pyramid group consists of royalty, clergy and noble knights.
In Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, our main character is faced with a challenge. A
In Gordon M. Shedd’s “Knight in Tarnished Armour: The Meaning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, he argues that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is truly about the strength and weaknesses of human nature. One particularly interesting part of his argument asserts that Gawain’s humanity broke medieval romance tradition.
The fact that he is willing to hold to his stated word is evidence enough that he has good ethics. After Gawain accepts the challenge of the Green Knight he promises to let the Knight perform the challenge to himself. Gawain also has respect for women and their wishes. Gawain’s respect is indicated by the immediate response of Gawain to kiss the lady of the castle after she comes in to greet Gawain for the first time. Gawain’s action stems from the lady’s statement, "So true a knight as Gawain is holden, and one so perfect in courtesy, would never have tarried so long with a lady but he would of his courtesy have craved a kiss at parting." The meaning of this quotation is if this man in the bed were truly the noble knight Sir Gawain, he would not have taken as long as he did to kiss the master of the castle’s wife. A few other examples from the ethics of Sir Gawain are the three promises or instances of gift exchanges with the lord of the castle. For the most part, Gawain holds to his word and gives to the castle lord that which he, Gawain, had received each day. The one instance that he breaks his code of ethics occurs when he exchanges the third gift of three kisses with the host, when in all actuality he had been given a girdle by the lady of the castle to aid him in his encounter with the Green
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a medieval poem by an unknown author, written in Middle English in the 14th century. This poem is uncanny to most poems about heroism and knightly quests as it doesn’t follow the complete circle seen in other heroism tales. This poem is different to all the rest as it shows human weaknesses as well as strengths which disturbs the myth of the perfect knight, or the faultless hero. The author uses symbolism as a literary device in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to give the plot a deeper and more significant meaning. Symbolism is used to emphasise the difference of this heroism story against others and therefore symbolism is of great importance in this poem. The importance of the following symbols will be discussed in this paper; the pentangle, the colour green, the Green Knight, the exchange of winnings game, the axe and the scar. This paper argues the significance of the use of symbolism as a literary device in the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Sir Gawain's inner values and character are tested to the fullest and are clearly defined in the text of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The unknown author describes Gawain and the other knights as "Many good knights" (Norton 159), and he is referred to as one of the "most noble knights" (Norton 159) in King Arthur's land. This claim by the author is solidified by a challenge presented by the evil Green Knight, who enters the court of King Arthur and asks him to partake in a Christmas game. Sir Gawain, after hearing this challenge, asks the king if he may take his place. This represents that Gawain is very loyal to his king. Sir Gawain is also an honest knight in the text because in a year's time he ventures out in search of the Green Knight to endure a blow with the ax as the rules of the game were stated. He very easily could have not have carried out his end of the bargain by not traveling to the Green Chapel to meet the evil being, but Gawain is an honest knight who is true to his word.
The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight revolves around the knights and their chivalry as well as their romance through courtly love. The era in which this story takes place is male-dominated, where the men are supposed to be brave and honorable. On the other hand, the knight is also to court a lady and to follow her commands. Sir Gawain comes to conflict when he finds himself needing to balance the two by being honorable to chivalry as well as respectful to courtly love.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a poem which tells the tale of a knight who undergoes trials-testing the attributes of knighthood-in order to prove the strength and courage of himself, while representing the Knights of the Round Table. One of King Arthurs most noblest and bravest of knights, Sir Gawain, is taken on an adventure when he steps up to behead a mysterious green visitor on Christmas Day-with the green mans’ permission of course. Many would state that this tale of valor would be within the romance genre. To the modern person this would be a strange category to place the poem in due to the question of ‘where is the actual romance, where is the love and woe?’ However, unlike most romances nowadays, within medieval literature there are many defining features and characteristics of a romance-them rarely ever really involving love itself. Within medieval literature the elements of a romance are usually enshrouded in magic, the fantastic and an adventure. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight follows Sir Gawain over the course of one year, from one New Years to the next, as was the deal he and Bertilak, the green knight, struck.
Even court life need not be washed completely of human sin and the natural instincts all animals rely on, for being godly, as Gawain is, should not be viewed as the primary characteristic of being moral. There should be a balance between humanity and godliness, similar to Aristotle's idea of a golden mean, that all these knights seek. By showing that knights should achieve this balance, the author extends his message to the common people, who look to knights as role models of morality. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight challenges the contemporary ideals of morality, presenting instead a golden mean that the common people would not have associated with their knightly role models before.