Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight, a poem of pitting chivalrous courage against a game of deceitful trickery, relies heavily on the symbolic messages its protagonists send through their apparel. The anonymous poet dedicates numerous lines to describing the artifacts of armor, clothing, and jewelry both characters display. Dress, designed to convey a multitude of concepts is crucial to the story's plot; the elements of garb also work in tandem to reaffirm specific personality traits. The dominant role and emphasis of apparel as portrayed by the poet is in part a logical extension of the medieval culture climate in which the poem was penned. Middle era society placed high value on cloth and textile in general, an attitude that is reflected in the poem, where the author places high value on its description and uses it to convey plot and personas. Concentrating on the description of the Green Knight when he first enters King Arthur's court and the description of Sir Gawaine's imminent departure on the quest to find the Green Knight, will show their distinct entities and the opposite roles they have assumed in the "beheading game", essential to the development of the story line. Furthermore, the poet also places emphasis on armor, particularly the shield Gawaine uses; an analysis of this will confirm that accouchements are valued as important vehicles to convey central theme in the plot. Finally, the green girdle, the piece of cloth that leads to the climax end of the poem, will be evaluated for its emblematic content. "There [hurtled] in at the hall door an unknown rider," almost by deus es machina, a timely yet somewhat improbable occurrence, King Arthur's wished upon entertainment and Sir Gawaine's enemy appear in the text (Si... ... middle of paper ... ...raits. And secondly, it represents the Green Knight's power and skill at deception. The duality of the girdle is an extension of the duality of the Green Knight's persona. While the girdle represents freedom and life (it is green), it also represents destruction and finality. The same is said of the Green Knight who is a combination of fertility and destruction. Written beautifully in the middle ages, the poem's elaborate descriptions of textiles such as clothing and armor, serve to emphasize the culture climate in which it was composed. The time dedicated to detail reflects the author's own societal values. Moreover, in a piece riddled with deceit and trickery, clothing is a tangible way to express character traits and add dimension to the plot. The story of Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight traverses from commencement to finality on a sea of symbolic trappings.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight consists of three hunts, three temptations, and three different animals. It is not by accident that the first day's hunt is for deer. The deer represents the innocence and purity of Gawain as a knight. The lengthy and detailed description of the hunt and the capture of the deer serve to emphasize the symbolism of the deer. The even more detailed description of the slaughter and butchering of the meat further emphasizes the symbolism. It can be inferred that the butchering of the deer is similar to the fate that awaits Gawain when he meets with the Green Knight.
When the Green Knight arrives at Camelot, he challenges Arthur’s court, mocking the knights for being afraid of mere words, and suggesting that words and appearances hold too much power with them. Although the Green Knight basically tricks Gawain, by not telling him about his supernatural capabilities before asking him to agree to his terms, Gawain refuses to withdraw of their agreement. He stands by his commitments, even though it means putting his own life in jeopardy. The poem habitually restates Sir Gawain’s deep fears and apprehensions, but Gawain desires to maintain his own individual integrity at all costs which allows him to master his fears in his quest to seek the Green Chapel. After Gawain arrives at Bertilak’s castle, it is quite obvious that h...
The Green Knight then arrives at Arthur’s court to pose a challenge for someone to cut off his head and to have the favor returned a year later. He and his horse are both entirely green and are clad in rich attire. The horse’s saddle is described as follows, in lines 164-167: “ About himself and his saddle, set upon silk,/ That to tell of the trifles would tax my wits,/ The butterflies and birds embroidered thereon/ In green of gayest, with many gold thread.” The Green Knight’s appearance makes his supernatural qualities apparent from the start, even before he is able to survive decapitation. Though his ornate clothing establishes him as a respectable knight, the fact that he is entirely green is not normal. Green is often associated with creepy, monstrous things, so therefore the knight is given a supernatural quality by that color.
Anonymous. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Norton Anthology of English Literature Sixth Edition. Volume 1. Ed. M.H.Abrams. New York: W.W.Norton and Company, Inc., 1993.
In the final scenes of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain’s encounter with Sir Bertilak allows Gawain to perceive his own flaws, manifested in his acceptance of the Green Girdle. The court’s reaction to his personal guilt highlights the disconnect between him and the other knights of the Round Table. Gawain’s behavior throughout the poem has been most noteworthy; his understanding of his sin, one that many of us would dismiss since it was propelled by his love of life, enhances his stature as a paragon of chivalry.
Dissimilar to King Arthur’s opulent and boyish description, the Green Knight appears earthly, like an overgrown lumberjack in a debutante ball. His very entrance to the narrative aims to shatter Camelot’s superficial relationship with earthly trials. While Arthur seeks pleasure in hearing tales “of some fair feat” (92), the Green Knight undermines all formality known to be chivalrous challenging the king to a life risking game. With a “broad neck to buttocks” (137), (opposed to Arthur’s’ court depicted in the ever regal color red,) the Knight is clothed in green, the color of nature. He appears with no armor other then his faith, merely a utilitarian woodsman’s ax. While Green Knight is described like an animal who is said to have “wagged his beard” (306) yet understands the cyclical nature of life and truth of mans futility, it is only after Sir Gawain proclaims his lack of strength (though he says it at that point as a matter of chivalry) that he is able to ...
Symbolism is used throughout literature to give deeper meaning to a variety of literary works. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight symbolism is seen through the actions of Sir Gawain against the trials he faces. The poem is first set during Christmas time at Camelot, showing that they were Christian for they were celebrating Christmas. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight shows the struggle between a good Christian man against the temptations of this world. Symbolically, one can see Sir Gawain holding true to Christian values: first, by standing up for what he believes in; second, by staying true to a future mate; and thirdly by repenting from sins due to a broken promise.
No matter where we go in the world, we will always be surrounded and tempted by sin. These temptations test our character and morality, and they prove that our human nature inherently causes us to fall to the sins that encompass us. Even though the world is a dark and immoral place to live, we all value our lives and are prepared to do almost anything to protect ourselves from harm’s way. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the green girdle serves as symbol that highlights Gawain’s incessant love for life that tempts him to stray from his knightly code of chivalry.
The pentangle, also called the “endless knot,” (630) is a five-pointed star enclosed in a circle, worn as an amulet to “avert evil from or bring fortune to the wearer” (Talisman, OED). Writer Eliphas Levi says that when the pentangle is pointing up it represents spiritual dominance over the material. Presented the other way, the physical world rules over the spiritual -often associated with dark magic (Pentagram, Wikipedia). This parallel foreshadows the trickery played on Sir Gawain by the Green Knight. The Green Knight challenges Gawain to a “Christmas game” (283) in an attempt to humble Gawain, tempting him with worldly pleasures and proving that even the greatest of knights are not perfect. Upon finding the Green Chapel, Gawain suggests that “Here might / The devil himself be seen / …at black midnight” (2186-8). Comparing the Green Knight to the devil proves accurate because at the end of the play, the Green Knight confesses that “the count of your kisses and your conduct too, / And the wooing of my wife—it was all my scheme!” (2360-1). Describing the midnight as “black” (...
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a medieval poem by an unknown author, written in Middle English in the 14th century. This poem is uncanny to most poems about heroism and knightly quests as it doesn’t follow the complete circle seen in other heroism tales. This poem is different to all the rest as it shows human weaknesses as well as strengths which disturbs the myth of the perfect knight, or the faultless hero. The author uses symbolism as a literary device in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to give the plot a deeper and more significant meaning. Symbolism is used to emphasise the difference of this heroism story against others and therefore symbolism is of great importance in this poem. The importance of the following symbols will be discussed in this paper; the pentangle, the colour green, the Green Knight, the exchange of winnings game, the axe and the scar. This paper argues the significance of the use of symbolism as a literary device in the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight revolves around the knights and their chivalry as well as their romance through courtly love. The era in which this story takes place is male-dominated, where the men are supposed to be brave and honorable. On the other hand, the knight is also to court a lady and to follow her commands. Sir Gawain comes to conflict when he finds himself needing to balance the two by being honorable to chivalry as well as respectful to courtly love.
The Green Knight, serves as a symbol himself. He is presented as a mixture of foreign and familiar, evil and good. In the beginning the Green Knight is carrying peace(holly-branch) in one hand and war(battle axe) in the other. It is very difficult to see what the Green Knight stands for, because for every positive we see a negative, and for every extreme there is an opposite extreme shown. In the beginning he comes, we believe, to harm King Arthur or Sir Gawain. In the end, we find out that he had planned the whole affair to test Sir Gawain. King Arthur and the other Knights of the Round Table were also taught and cowardice and how to be stronger and better people.
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.
The poem’s intricately balanced structure challenges the reader to seek out a resolution coherent with his or her own ethics. An admirable knight of King Arthur's renowned court, Sir Gawain is directed by a complex set of ethos, a collaboration of principles symbolized by the mystical pentangle. A five-pointed star composed of five interlocking lines; the figure represents a multitude of guiding tenets, representing both religious and knightly ideals. One can recognize that “the pentangle cognizance is explicated by the poet to signal Gawain’s complete Christian perfection, and for the reader to be aware of contemporary concerns about magical protective practices, hinting at human frailty” (Hardman 251).
In the Old English poem Beowulf, the warrior culture is centered upon the heroic codes of each individual, as well as the court as a whole. Members of Hrothgar’s court are ranked based upon the identities and reputations of their ancestors. It can be said that the armor of these warriors, as it has travelled from generation to generation and warrior to warrior, is emblematic of the very reputations these warriors consider most important. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, too, armor plays an important role. It is representative of the virtues Sir Gawain is challenged to uphold, and, on a larger scale, is also