Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Literary Analysis Essay

Literary Analysis of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”
Romantic literature of the Middle Ages have strong themes of love. In “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” courtly love, amongst many other types of loves, can be analyzed linear to the main character’s struggles and accomplishments. The story has an idealization of romanticism and the following paper will determine whether spiritual, courtly, and erotic types of love are considered a suffering or an ennoblement towards the main character.
Under the royal court of King Arthur, Sir Gawain and the rest of the nobles are known as “the most chivalrous and courteous knights known to Christendom (“Gawain” 51).” Gawain’s love for his faith is evident throughout the story, which may or may not

Due to the spirituality of the situation, the challenge is bound by a divine oath which Gawain is obligated to “solemnly swear (“Gawain” 394)” by; this comes as a disadvantage to Gawain, for if he did not go through with the promise, he would only be humiliating himself and going against his moral code, but by swearing to God, he is honorably going against his conscience and relationship with the Lord. As the story progresses, Gawain uses spiritual love to ask for protection, even imitating the cross sign and saying, “Be near me in my need (“Gawain”

The erotic love in the story clashes with Gawain’s spiritual and courtly love; it goes against both of them by tempting him in order to break his faith and promises. The kisses given to Gawain by Bertilak’s wife, which in turn are given to Bertilak, “produce the possibility of homosexual relations” but also, “renders them unintelligible (Dinshaw pg. 206),” So, although themes of homosexuality are present in the story, they are merely for the Gawain’s moral, courtly love, rather than erotic love, and do not interfere with his promise .However, when the lady tries to “entice him to wherever her intentions might lie (“Gawain” 1550)” in order to get him to turn against Bertilak, the erotic love between them is present. In turn, Gawain makes the biggest mistake throughout the story, he accepted the green girdle and “went on to beg him not to whisper a word (“Gawain” 1862),” and sealed it with a third kiss. The effect of this seduction lead to Gawain being scratched in the back of his neck by the Green Knight’s axe. The repercussions of succumbing to the erotic love, again, led to the eventual suffering of Gawain in his