Both Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” part of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, feature magical creatures. These creatures themselves are remarakedly similar, but the way the work in the story is very different. The first time we see each of the magical characters, the Green Knight in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the hag in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” the are ugly and strange looking. The Green Knight is giant-sized, completely green, including hair and skin, and riding a green horse. The hag is an old and ugly peasant women. However, during the course of the story, both of these characters change appearances. The Green Knight reverts to his original young, handsome Baron status. The hag chooses to also be young …show more content…
& pretty for her husband. Another way that the Green Knight and the hag’s characters are alike is in how they are both fairly manipulative and underhanded. They both use trickery to get their way. The Green Knight manipulates Gawain frequently, in the surprise of his speech after his head is cut off, in the collaboration with his wife to get Gawain to take the green girdle, and in his three-strikes-to-not-cutyour-head-off game. The hag manipulates the knight less often, but still profoundly. She asks for his promise in return for the answer to Guenivere’s question, but does not tell him what he is promising. She forces the knight to choose between herself young & beautiful & unfaithful or old & ugly and true, wanting to trick him into giving the wrong answer & condemning himself. Still, the way the two characters work in their respective stories is very different. The knight and the hag are opposites in the way they conduct the testing of the main characters of their stories, and in the way they themselves work within the plot & moral. The Green Knight in Sir Gawain does not conduct this period of testing for himself. He does so at the urging and with the help of Morgan. Morgan’s motives for Sir Gawain’s testing are to test the entire Round Table’s strength, bravery, & faith. That and she wants to see Guenivere faint. The Hag is testing this knight specifically and only, and she is testing him for herself. She conducts the testing to see if he will make a good lover and mate.
The Green Knight is the catalyst of the action in Sir Gawain. He bardges in to the Round Table’s Christmas dinner, demands that a knight step forward & cut off his head, and then speaks after his head is severed from his body & has rolled across the floor, reminding Gawain to look for him in a year. Later, Gawain stumbles across the Baron’s holdings, conviently placed, and the Baron, on behalf of his alter ego, the Green Knight, interacts with Gawain some more, providing more action and plot. In the End, it is again the Green Knight that controls the action, basically, the swing of the ax blade. The hag in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” on the other hand, does not control the action, she simply responds to it. The knight decided of his own free will to rape . . . [I’m missing part of the essay here] . . . moral of “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” Her discourse on the value of gentility and poverty, as well as her answer to Guenivere’s question provide the moral theme. It is she, not a narrator or another character, that gives the reader this info. She reinforces this moral at the end with her transformation in response to the knight’s answer to her own question. There again, her speech also reiterates the
moral. The two characters discussed here, the Green Knight from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the hag from “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, are both magical characters. That doesn’t mean, however, that they are necessarily the same. These two magical characters can be similar while acting very different.
His encounter with the Green Knight is imperative to his growth as a character. For the most part, all of the other supporting characters in the story remain static, whereas Gawain’s growth can be directly attributed to the task he he must complete to ensure the honor of Camelot. The Green Knight first appears and challenges anyone to come and chop his head off by stating that,
He observes the progress of one’s journey and listens to people’s prayers. Similarly, the Green Knight secretly watches Sir Gawain through a disguise – Lord Bertilak. By disguising himself, the Green Knight could continue to test Sir Gawain’s faith by initiating another agreement. Unaware of the Green Knight’s presence, Sir Gawain is continually examined to discover the truth to his fidelity. Initially, Sir Gawain faces stressful and challenging experiences along his trek to the Green Chapel. Alone and enveloped by harsh winter’s cold, he “prays for God’s grace to save him” (Champion 418). Luckily, Sir Gawain’s prayers are heard when he uncovered Lord Bertilak’s castle amongst the woods. By humbly inviting Sir Gawain into the castle, pleas for safety and shelter from harsh conditions are answered, a depiction of God’s (the Green Knight’s) grace. Nonetheless, Sir Gawain’s hardships do not cease, but in fact, they continue to fall and weigh upon his shoulders. Once again, Sir Gawain partakes in another agreement, involving the exchanging of winnings. Human faith is yet again being tested, and once more fails to succeed. The affection of Lady Bertilak is arranged by the Green Knight himself as another test; however, Sir Gawain “fell short a little . . . and lacked fidelity” (Winny 4.2366). Fear of death encourages Sir Gawain to submit to greed. In order to continue living, he wears the Green Knight’s
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight takes its protagonist, the noble Gawain, through
VII. Gawain is placed in many different situations in which he must demonstrate that he does, in fact, possess the attributes of a worthy knight.
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.
...Gawain’s time in the wilderness, living nature, and his acceptance of the lady’s offering of the green girdle teach him that though he may be the most chivalrous knight in the land, he is nevertheless human and capable of error.
Eisner, Sigmund. A Tale of Wonder: a Source Study of the Wife of Bath’s Tale. New York: B. Franklin, 1969.
Sir Gawain stands up for he believes that his uncle should not take on the Green Knight while so many others, as mentioned earlier, are able. Gawain is successful by not only standing for what he believes in but also in defeating the Green Knight. The Green Knight plays the role of the tempter in this scene. He first tempts the court, but is defeated. Sir Gawain overcomes his first
“Culture does not make people. People make culture” said Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian writer and educator, in a presentation on feminism in a TedTalk. The culture in which Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written was misogynistic and it shows in the writing of the poem. Medieval cultural misogyny manifests itself in multiple ways in SGGK. This paper will examine the negative relationships between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and gender by discussing: the representation of female characters, gendered violence, and Christianity in the Middle Ages.
The poem of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight compares a super natural creature to nature. The mystery of the poem is ironic to the anonymous author. The story dates back into the fourteenth century, but no one knows who originally wrote the poem. This unknown author explains in the poem of Sir Gawain not knowing of the location of the Green Chapel and or who the Green Knight really is. This keeps the reader entertained with the suspicion of not knowing. The author then does not give his name or take credit for his own work.
Huppé, Bernard F. "Rape and Woman's Sovereignty in the Wife of Bath's Tale." Modern Language Notes 63.6 (1948): 378-81. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Part of the essence of drama is conflict. A man cannot be considered a hero unless he has overcome some form of opposition. In many cases, this opposition comes in the form of another character. Typically, the conflict is simplified as a malignant character with wicked intentions committing acts which would be characterized as evil; the protagonist opposes this villain and usually overcomes that character, winning the day and the admiration of all. Sometimes, the main character becomes a hero by overcoming some force within his or her own self. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, this is ultimately what Gawain must do in order to be considered a hero.
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.
To commence, The Wife of Bath, Dame Alice, is dominant over all five of her husbands and although she struggles with her fifth husband to gain the upper hand in the marriage, Dame Alice nevertheless in the end accomplishes her initial intention. Dame Alice seems to be only authentically happy when she has mastery over her husbands. They have to willingly hand over this power, consciously or unconsciously, because without their consent she has a battle on her hands, both challenging the other for ultimate superiority in the relationship. The old hag, likewise, gains control over her husband when the knight places her in the governing position and yet again as seen in the Wife of Bath's Prologue, the knight must consent to give up this power in order for the old hag to acquire it, for if he had not given her control of the partnership, both would have continued unhappily.
On Christmas, The knight who is totally green rides into King Arthur's hall. The Knight decides he wants to play a game. He says, The knight who is brave to take off the Green Knight's head will be able to take the Green Knight's Ax, but the man who accepts this challenge must than return the stroke in a year. Gawain eventually accepts the challenge and off with the Green Knight's head. The knight picks up his cut head and than leaves, telling Gawain to look for the Green Chapel.