Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Analysis

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In the story Sir Gawain and The Green Knight the author is Sir Thomas. The story has a religious background and is about a rivalry between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that all started at a festival on New Year’s Eve at King Author’s court. The Green Knight challenges the leader or anyone willing to take the challenge to a “game.” The knight states he will allow whoever takes on the test to strike him with his own axe, on the grounds that the acceptor find him in about a years’ time to receive the same blow back in return. King Arthur is shocked but accepts the challenge. Just as he begins to agree to the terms Sir Gawain jumps up and asks to take on the test himself. He grips the axe and cuts off the knight’s head in one fatal blow. To everyone’s surprise the headless knight now picks up his head and restates the terms of the pact to remind Gawain in a years’ time they are to meet at the Green Chapel so he can return his blow. The author of the article Catherine Swanson says that the story is good and important.
The time finally comes for Sir Gawain to take the journey to the Green Chapel to meet up with the Green Knight as he previously agreed. During his travels he faces all sorts of obstacles such as beasts of the wild, hunger, and extremely cold weather. As the days pass Gawain becomes desperate. On Christmas Day, he prays to find somewhere to hear Mass and suddenly as he looks up there is a castle in the distance. The lord of the castle opens his home to Gawain and introduces him to his lady and an old woman that also lives there. Gawain and the lord make a deal that every day they will exchange what the lord finds out hunting and in return Gawain will exchange anything he has managed to obtain by staying behind at the ...

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... perfect person in all the court. “The Green Knights game gave Gawain his fame.”

In conclusion the story was at first about the rivalry between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but in the end turned into being about his traits and the challenges he overcame. Sir Gawain displays human like traits throughout the story. He is only human. At the start of his journey through the wild he felt desperate. He also showed extreme courage and bravery for even attempting to go through with his end of the contact. At the end of his stay in the castle he was only human and decided to lie to the lord about his last exchange on the last day. In the end of the story he was ashamed and guilty for lying. His courage to save the life of the king made him the most perfect in all the court. To himself he felt dishonest, but for what he had done he was heroic and it made him famous.

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