Similarities Between Sir Gawain And The Green Knight And The Canterbury Tales

“He is my knight in shining armor,” is a cliché that is all too frequently tossed in conversation. While it is meant as a positive statement, a historical perspective debunks the honorable and romantic stereotype of the knight. Upon analysis of both historical and fictional knights, one is enlightened as to why the phrase is an inadequate expression of adoration. In the modern world, the knight seems to be the figurehead of the medieval era. He stands as a stronghold of purity, honor, and hope. Ultimately, the knight is a symbol of the Christian faith, a mighty disciple of God. In reality, medieval knights were not the beacon of faith they are commonly portrayed to be. Although the concept of knighthood reflects values of Christianity

intertwined with ideals of chivalry, the legendary knights of lore strayed far from perfect grace. Knighthood began as a form of payment for parcels of land. During the 10th century, society was based on the feudal system. In this type of socioeconomic structure, lords would lend fiefs of land to migrant workers in exchange for money or military service. Because monetary payment was not typically feasible, “a man who held his estate in knight's fee owed service as a knight to his lord,” in order to pay off his debt for the land. Until the addition of ethics and chivalry around the 12th century, knighthood was a secular institution (Velde). The addition of ethics to knighthood inevitably led to the creation of the Code of Chivalry that knights so strongly swore by. This code makes an appearance in many medieval works, such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Canterbury Tales, and Morte Darthur. It serves as the metaphorical glue that holds a knight’s morality together. According to the Code, knights should, “fear God and maintain His Church,” first and foremost (Alchin). This theme, along with several others, is found throughout the Bible. While the Code of Chivalry reflects the Bible, it in itself is not a holistically religious creed. The Code is not a set of laws, rather a list of principles to adhere to, consisting of underlying Christian motifs.
Despite pledging to follow the religion-laced ethics in the Code of Chivalry, knights led strikingly secular lives. In fact, they appear to be false Christians, praying over themselves and claiming to be devout, yet deliberately disobeying God. In Sir Thomas Mallory’s Morte Darthur, Sir Lancelot, the most renowned knight in King Arthur’s court, consistently violates several of the Ten Commandments, all-the-while praying that God deliver him from danger. Sir Lancelot’s sins lead to suspicion, war, and eventually the dissipation of King Arthur’s Round Table. The plot of Morte Darthur is driven by an affair between Lancelot and King Arthur’s wife, Queen Guinevere. According to Mallory, Lancelot frequently visits the Queen, “[is] had into the chamber. And… The Queen and Sir Lancelot [are] together” (Mallory 484). His affair disobeys the commandment found in Exodus 20:14, stating that one, “shall not commit adultery” (Amplified Bible). As if the affair is not secular enough, Sir Lancelot breaks another commandment. In Exodus 20:13, God commands that one, “shall not commit murder” (Amplified Bible). Despite claiming to worship God, the knight again disobeys Him, shedding the blood of numerous characters. The secularism of Lancelot’s character is blatantly obvious upon reading Morte Darthur. Through his many preventable sins, Lancelot is exposed as a false Christian.
The secular knight can also be observed in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Although the epic at large has a heavy influence of Christianity, more so than that of Morte Darthur, it still contains secular actions of knights. The poem tells of a young knight at Arthur’s Table, Sir Gawain, who takes up several challenges with the Green Knight and ultimately must face his own death. Sir Gawain, and in some instances his fellow knights, ultimately falls victim to vices, such as pride and dishonesty. The first instance of pride occurs early in the poem, after the Knights of the Round Table are too fearful to take up the Green Knight’s challenge. The Green Knight begins to taunt the Round Table, asking, “Where’s the fortitude and fearlessness you’re so famous for? / And the breath taking bravery and the big-mouth bragging?” (Sir Gawain 311-312). When the Green Knight has finished ridiculing them, the Gawain poet goes on to say that, “those words had pricked [the knights’] pride,” (Sir Gawain 321). This line shows the frailty of the knights’ egos. The Bible warns against pride in James 4:6 when it is said that, “God is opposed to the proud and haughty, but gives grace to the humble” (Amplified Bible). Pride is regarded as sinful, thus the self-righteous nature of the Knights of the Round Table is secular. While Sir Gawain is essentially a morally sound character, he is not exempt from temptation. During the three day game with Bertilak, Sir Gawain shows exceptional loyalty and honesty, that is, for the first two days. He does as he promises, kissing the lord as many times as the lord’s wife kissed him. However, when presented with the life-saving girdle, he agrees to stray from honesty. Sir Gawain, like most mentally stable individuals, does this because he values his life. The secret Gawain swears to keep ultimately, “[leads] to treachery, fraud, falsehood, and other sins” (Beuregard 149). Gawain’s motive for lying is not the factor that labels the action as secular, for valuing life is not a sin. The secular aspect is simply that Gawain did not completely comply with the rules of his game with Bertilak. In lines 1090 to 1091, Bertilak asks Sir Gawain if the knight will stay true to his word. To this, Gawain replies that the lord can, “trust [his] tongue” (Sir Gawain). Sir Gawain has every intention of being faithful at the time of this exchange, however, once he believes there is an opportunity for continued life, Gawain is deliberately untrue. In Psalms 89:34, David writes, “My covenant I will not violate” (Amplified Bible). David’s Psalm is a biblical example of a virtue that Christians should uphold. Because Gawain falls victim to multiple secular temptations, he can be deemed as a secular character.
While Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Morte Darthur provide textbook examples of secular knights, the sinful actions of the heroes in these stories pale in comparison to the ungodliness of the knight in the Wife of Bath’s Tale, a selection from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.

In her tale, the Wife of Bath describes the dire quest of a knight to find what women most desire. This quest is a result of the knight’s decision to rape a fair young girl. This is the rapist’s first secular action of the tale. The Bible accounts for rape by condemning any rapist to death, thus solidifying the immorality of sexual assault (Amplified Bible Deut. 22: 25). While rape is quite arguably one of the most evil of acts, the knight is also incredibly vain. This is evident in his reaction to his sentence of marriage to the woman whom he describes as “loathsome and so old” (Chaucer 244). The knight is so distraught by the misfortune of keeping his word, he wishes to be dead. The vanity that is displayed by the rapist is addressed in Proverbs 31:30. This verse reads, “Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” (Amplified Bible). In correlation to the Canterbury Tales, this verse explains that the knight should not be dismayed by the physicality of his new wife because eventually beauty will fade. Instead, he should concern himself with the spirituality of the woman. Her spirituality is to aspect she will use to honor God, as beauty leads only to vanity. The knight’s obsession with beauty is his demise. It causes him to lust after the young woman, as well as shame his wife for her old age and undesirable appearance. In any case, the knight’s passion for vanity and the absence of virtue creates a completely secular

character.
Although extremely prominent in medieval literature, historic knights are not free of the tarnish of secularism. This is exemplified best by none other than Sir Thomas Mallory, the author of Morte Darthur. Despite being sworn to upholding a clean reputation, Mallory, “was evidently a violent, lawless individual who committed a series of crimes” (“Sir Thomas Malory”). Mallory was convicted of several heinous crimes, such as rape and poaching. Perhaps the most disgusting action of Mallory is not his affinity for crime, rather his audacity to ask for prayer and deliverance. In the last paragraphs of Morte Darthur, Mallory asks of the reader, “pray for me while I am alive that God send me good deliverance” (Malory 500). While Mallory has subjected himself to a completely secular life, he still professes faithfulness to the Lord. As if in response to Mallory, Titus 1:16 reads, “they profess to know God but by their actions they deny and dishonor Him” (Amplified Bible). In dishonoring God with his despicable activities, Mallory’s plea essentially falls on deaf ears. It is not logical to believe that after leading a life in which the hunger for sinful indulgence is constantly fed, that God will be willing to deliver Mallory. Sir Thomas Mallory may cling to Christianity in his time of need, but he does not address the Lord on a regular basis, nor adhere to the commandments God has made of His people. Therefore, Sir Thomas Mallory cannot be considered a Christian.
One cannot deny the influence Christianity has had on the idea of knighthood. The religion is entangled in the virtues supposedly praised by the knights. While knighthood has roots in Christianity, it is inevitable that the knights themselves were not as religious and noble as common stereotypes portray them to be. It is unreasonable to claim knights such as Sir Lancelot and the knight in the Wife of Bath’s Tale are not majorly secular. Despite this, works such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Morte Darthur, and The Canterbury Tales, as well as the life of Sir Thomas Mallory, provide not only entertainment, but examples of what to avoid and how to become stronger in faith and morality. Because of the cultural, religious, and historical significance, as well as the simple joys learning of reading, these medieval works are valued and widely read to this day.