Joie-lyn Fox
Professor Jurasinski
April 9th, 2018
Short Formal Essay
True Self
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight edited and translated by James Winny is a poem about a knight, Sir Gawain, from King Arthur’s court. In the very beginning Sir Gawain volunteers to take King Arthur’s place upon the Green Knights arrival when he declares that one knight must agree to receive a blow by his axe after having the chance to give a blow to him. Sir Gawain ends up chopping off the Green Knights head and is then declared to meet the Green Knight in one year to accept a blow from the Green Knight and his axe. When the year comes Sir Gawain sets off to find the Green Knight at the green chapel, which where he will receive the blow. On Sir Gawain’s ventures
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to find the green chapel he wears a shield with a pentangle painted on the front of it. This shape represents the five virtues of a knight. These five as well many other virtues being something that King Arthur’s court relies on heavily. Sir Gawain deals with hardships along the way to the green chapel and prays to God and Virgin Mary that he finds somewhere to rest for the night. After the prayer is ultimately when he finds a castle. This castle owned by the lord, Sir Gawain did not know at the time but later finds out it is the Green Knight’s. He stays for a couple of days before he heads off to find the green chapel. During Sir Gawain’s stay at the Green Knights’ castle it seems as if Sir Gawain’s loyalty to knighthood was tested through the challenges he partakes in. As stated before, King Arthur and his court rely so much on how well someone presents themselves with the virtues of knighthood and displays good manners. The real feelings a knight feels are things that should never been shown or seen, only if they are real feelings and actions don’t go against the virtues of knighthood . When this poem is read closely I believe that the challenges Sir Gawain is put through is a way of showing that knights though they take the codes of chivalry very seriously, under certain circumstances this may not be the case. Knights are all supposed be loyal and never to show fear. For Sir Gawain that is not the case. Although he is seen as the best knight in the court, he is human and shows his true self. On page 133 of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the Green Knight says to Sir Gawain, “Only here you [Sir Gawain] fell short a little, sir, and lacked fidelity,… / But because you wanted to live: so I blame you less.” Green Knight excuses the fact that Sir Gawain has failed the test and broken some of the codes of chivalry. He did so to save his own life. Sir Gawain does follow the codes of chivalry up to a certain point but when his life depends on it his true self shows. This passage shows that the life of a knight should matter more than whether they follow the codes or not. In A Knights Own Book of Chivalry by Geoffroi De Charny he states, “For if you are wise, you will only do good and ought not to excuse yourself from being a man of worth and loyal, as it is the greatest and most supreme good there is…” (Charney 2013: 73).
This quote means that if a knight is smart he will do only good and not stray away from being faithful. Saying knights have to always do the right thing and always stay true to the people around them and the things they say. Never taking into consideration reasons why doing the wrong things and not being loyal to the codes could be something that has to be done in order for survival. When Sir Gawain arrived at the castle he agreed to stay in the castle and rest while the lord went out and hunted with his men. He agreed that at the end of the day the two men would exchange the things they had won during the day. On the first day the lord went hunting and Sir Gawain was in bed when the lord’s wife came. This resulted in him not being able to get out of bed and get dressed. They talked and eventually the lord’s wife kissed Sir Gawain. At the end of the day the lord gave Sir Gawain venison and the lord received a kiss from him. The second day the same thing happened in Sir Gawain’s room, but this time two kisses came from the lord’s wife. The lord gifted Sir Gawain a boar’s head and lord was gifted two kisses. On the third and finally day the lord’s wife gives Sir Gawain three kisses, but this time also offers him gifts. First …show more content…
a ring that he refuses and then she offers a green girdle. She tells Sir Gawain that if he wears the green girdle “for he cannot be killed by any trick in the world”, hearing this he accepts the green girdle (Winny 2011: 103). Later, when he exchanged the daily gift with the lord he received a fox and gave the lord three kisses, but does not give him the green girdle. By doing such Sir Gawain is being unfaithful to the lord, he agreed to give the lord each day’s winnings, but on the third day he does not. Sir Gawain knows that he will soon face the Green Knight for the blow that will kill him, which he had agreed upon a year ago. His life is at risk and although he was unfaithful to the lord, he was unfaithful with good reason. Sir Gawain did not stay true to the codes of chivalry that King Arthur and other knights in the court work so hard to acquire. Though Sir Gawain is still being loyal to the agreement he made with the Green Knight a year earlier he “fell short of the second great chivalric virtue, loyalty” when he did not give the green girdle to the lord (Charny 2013: 38). In result to falling short of this virtue Geoffrio De Charny would say Sir Gawain is not a wise man as well as not a good knight. Sir Gawain did what any human would do and saved his own life showing his true self and not sticking to the knightly duties. A second example of where Sir Gawain’s true self is shown, and the knightly side does not matter is when he finds the green chapel and faces the Green Knight.
Knights are supposed to be brave at all times and through any danger. Geoffrio De Charny believes that “the good knight will not retreat from battle, but will stand his ground…” (Charny 2013: 38). Simply put, any man that runs from danger is not a good knight. Although Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are not at battle, Sir Gawain agreed to receive this blow from the Green Knight. When Sir Gawain finds the green chapel and the Green Knight is about to give him the blow that would killed him, Sir Gawain flinches and moves out of the way. The Green Knight even states at this point, “I never heard of such a cowardice shown by that knight. / I neither flinched nor fled, sir, when you [Sir Gawain] aimed one at me…” (Winny 2011: 129). This showing that Sir Gawain is not a good knight, but the Green Knight is, never flinching before he took the blow from Sir Gawain in the very beginning of the book that took his head off. Though they are both human, Sir Gawain shows the true human reaction to this situation. Most, if not all humans, would flinch and get out of the way if they were about to be killed by an axe. Although he is not being brave and courageous like the codes of chivalry says he should be, he is human, his life depended on this
reaction. Geoffrio De Charny’s book A Knight’s Own Book of Chivalry is a guide to be a good knight and states all the virtues a knight should have. King Arthur and his court live by these virtues and are ranked according to how well they are mastered. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight shows that although knights try to stick to the codes of chivalry, there are events and things in life that matter more. In Sir Gawain’s case his life depended on the fact that he must stray from the virtues stated in Charny’s book. He was not loyal or courageous when he should have been, but this saved his life. Work Cited Charny, Geoffrio De, and Richard W. Kaeuper. A Knight’s Own Book of Chivalry. Translated by Elspeth Kennedy, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013 Winny, James. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Middle English Text with Facing Translation. Broadview Press, 2011.
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 the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Poet Pearl, Sir Gawain, knight of the Round Table, acts chivalrously, yet his intents are insincere and selfish. It is the advent season in Middle Age Camelot, ruled by King Arthur when Poet Pearl begins the story. In this era citizens valued morals and expected them to be demonstrated, especially by the highly respected Knights of the Round Table. As one of Arthur’s knights, Sir Gawain commits to behaving perfectly chivalrous; however, Gawain falls short of this promise. Yes, he acts properly, but he is not genuine. The way one behaves is not enough to categorize him as moral; one must also be sincere in thought. Gawain desires to be valued as
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a fourteenth-century tale written by an anonymous poet, chronicles how Sir Gawain of King Arthur’s Round Table finds his virtue compromised. A noble and truthful knight, Gawain accepts the Green Knight’s challenge at Arthur’s New Years feast. On his way to the Green Chapel, Gawain takes shelter from the cold winter at Lord Bercilak’s castle. The lord makes an agreement with Gawain to exchange what they have at the end of the day. During the three days that the lord is out hunting, his wife attempts to seduce Gawain.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written in the fourteenth century by an anonymous contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer. It is a tale of bravery, adventure, and coming of age. This is the ballad of Sir Gawain, one of King Arthur's knights, who is challenged to seek the green knight whose head he chopped off during the Arthur's Christmas dinner. The Modern English translation by Marie Boroff (1967) makes the poem easier to read and understand. The passage that is explicated is between lines 298 and 1207 in the Modern English translation. In the passage, Gawain, after feasting with the host, finally gets to meet the lady of the Bercilak. He is also introduced to Morgan le Faye, Arthur's evil half-sister, who is disguised as an older woman. Sir Bercilak, the host of the castle tells Gawain that he knows the location of the green chapel, and has Gawain play a game with. All throughout the passage different clues are given that the aforementioned castle has unusual abnormalities, but Gawain choses not to ponder about their significance. If Gawain thought about unusual things that were happening in the castle, he could have avoided his future ebarrasment and cut on the neck.
...stops him from sleeping with Bertilak’s wife, only until his finds a way to avoid death does he goes against them. What Gawain learns from the green knight’s challenge is that instinctively he is just a human who is concerned with his own life over anything else. Chivalry does provide a valuable set of rules and ideals toward which one to strive for, but a person must remain aware of their own mortality and weaknesses. Sir Gawain’s flinching at the green knight’s swinging ax, his time in the woods using animal nature requiring him to seek shelter to survive and his finally accepting the wife’s gift of the girdle teaches him that though he may be the most chivalrous knight in the land, he is nevertheless human and capable of error.
"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is a poem written by a poet (name unknown) approximately 6000 years ago in the late 1300's in the medieval times. This story was originally written in medieval literature with a real unique rhyme scheme, but was translated later in time to regular English for high school students and researchers to study and read.
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.
Sir Gawain was heroic in seeking out the Green Knight to finish the challenge that was brought to King Arthur’s men. “Said Gawain, ‘Strike once more; /I shall neither flinch nor flee; /But if my head falls to the floor /There is no mending me!’” (lns. 2280-2283) There was no physical power that forced Sir Gawain to keep true to his word. Gawain sought out the Green Knight, just as he had promised, and was now about to receive the blow that would send him to his death. This quote shows that Sir Gawain was ready to be dealt his fate, and that he knew there was no way for him to survive as the Green Knight had done earlier in the poem. This shows a very human side to Sir Gawain as he appears somewhat afraid of death, but ready to face it nonetheless. It is this willingness and readiness to accept death at the hand of the Green Knight that makes Sir Gawain a...
In the first segment of the poem, we are introduced to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It is Christmas time in King Arthur's court when the Green Knight enters the dining hall. He is very large and completely green. He challenges the court to a beheading game in which one of the knights must cut off the Green Knight's head and then in 12 months and a day find the Green Knight and allow the Green Knight to chop his head off.
Sir Gawain, nephew of King Arthur, accepts the challenge of an inexplicably green wandering knight on the condition that he return the favor in a year’s time. The green knight’s challenge involved taking a whack at his bare neck with an axe. Gawain decapitates him, as any rational man would think that would be the end of it, yet then the knight picked his head up off the floor, made the promise of recompense, and took his leave. Events transpire and in trying to find the green knight he happens upon a castle with a lord (who turns out to be the Green Knight) and lady. The
The Green Knight is a character in the 14th-century Arthurian poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Green Knight appears before Arthur's court during a Christmas feast, holding a bough of holly in one hand and a battle axe in the other. Despite disclaim of war, the knight issues a challenge: he will allow one man to strike him once with his axe, under the condition that he return the blow the following year. At first, Arthur takes up the challenge, but Gawain takes his place and decapitates the Green Knight, who retrieves his head and tells Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel at the stipulated time. In Sir Gawain, the Green Knight is so called because his skin and clothes are green. The meaning of his greenness has puzzled scholars since the discovery of the poem, who identify him variously as the Green Knight; nature, magic and a Christian symbol or death symbol, all exemplifies the color. Not only is green associated with the knight, but the color also comes into play when he arrives at the castle; throughout the poem and throughout his journey.
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.
Arthur is an unusual king since he is not self-centered, and he cares about his people. Arthur makes everyone happy. For instance, "The most famous warriors, and in Arthur's castle, And the loveliest ladies in the world, and Arthur The noblest of rulers, reigning in his court"(Line 51). Hence it shows that many people believe that Arthur is a noble king. In addition, it is also stated, "Refused to eat til the others were served..." (Line 86). By this, it shows that Arthur cares about others and he isn't singled out, or special. He doesn't get "special treatment" because he is a king.
After reading through the piece of literature Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one will realize there are many elements present throughout that could be analyzed such as humility, chastity, and courage. It could be interpreted that the author meant for the main theme of the writing to be a theme of chastity. Although the element of chastity is present in that Sir Gawain is tested by many sexual temptations, the element of humility is one that is prominent and changing throughout the piece. Humility is apparent throughout the story in the way Sir Gawain displays false humility at the beginning, the way he keeps his humility during his stay at the castle, and the way he is truly learns humility after his challenges with the Green Knight are over.