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Response essay on sir gawain and the green knight
Response essay on sir gawain and the green knight
Response essay on sir gawain and the green knight
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Temptation and Survival in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain faces choices as part of the Green Knight's game. The game is not the simple exchange of axe blows as it appears to be. It is actually a game of temptation and rule-breaking. In the end, Gawain fails this test given by the Green Knight and King Arthur's half-sister.
When the Green Knight arrogantly rode into King Arthur's domain, he showed no respect for the celebrated knights. He rudely laughed away the praise he had heard of King Arthur as "the praise of you, prince, is puffed up so high" (Norton Anthology 1465). He also ridiculed the knights as they hesitated to accept his challenge. Gawain eventually accepted the challenge, but didn't fully understand what the test would actually be. In what was probably a rage of protecting King Arthur's honor, Sir Gawain chopped off the Green Knight's head and began the game. King Arthur's soldier didn't understand that this would be a game of rule following instead of a match determining warrior skills.
The Green Knight is a charac...
Sir Gawain steps in to take the challenge after King Arthur first agrees to participate himself. Sir Gawain wants to bring honor to Arthur and asks permission to take his place. Gawain knows that he is not the strongest, smartest knight but the loss of his life would not be as bad as if King Arthur loses his life. King Arthur agrees to let him enter this game and gives him a weapon to use against this Green Knight. King Arthur says to Sir Gawain, "Keep, cousin what you cut with this day, and if you rule it aright, then readily, I know you shall stand the stroke it will strike after." (372-374) Gawain, with his weapon in his hand, is now ready to take part in the game.
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...
There are many parallels that can be drawn from the three temptations and hunting scenes and the three blows exchanged by the Green Knight. All of these scenes are interlocked together in the way that Gawain's quest is told and his trails he endures leading up to his meeting with the Green Knight to fulfill his promise made the year before.
The Green Knight challenges anyone in the hall to the beheading game, and no one takes him up on it. Arthur, angered by the Green Knight’s taunting, is about to accept the challenge himself when Gawain steps in saying "would you grant me this grace" (Sir Gawain, l. 343), and takes the ax from Arthur. This is a very convenient way for the author to introduce Gawain and also to show Gawain’s loyalty to Arthur, but it seems almost too convenient. There is an entire hall full of knights, why does Gawain step up?... ...
Many games are involved in the plot of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Green Knight, Bercilak de Hautdesert, plays a "Christmas game" with Arthur's court at Camelot (line 283); Gawain's host's wife plays games with Gawain throughout the third section of the poem; Gawain's sees his arrangement of mutual trade with his host as a game (line 1380); and all of the events of the story are revealed as a game of Arthur's sister, Morgan Le Fay (lines 2456-2466). Throughout the telling of the story, the author plays a mental game with the reader or listener, as well.
The Green Knight begins to mock the court; and then boldly, King Arthur accepts his challenge. Sir Gawain realizes that this should not be the king’s responsibility for there are others present worthy of the challenge including him. Symbolically, this scene can be seen as a Christian standing up for what he believes in. Gawain says, “I am the weakest, well I know, and of wit feeblest;/ And the loss of my life would be least of any; (354-355). Here, Gawain humbles himself before his lord, just as a Christian should in prayer to God.
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 Gordon M. Shedd’s “Knight in Tarnished Armour: The Meaning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, he argues that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is truly about the strength and weaknesses of human nature. One particularly interesting part of his argument asserts that Gawain’s humanity broke medieval romance tradition.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, King Arthur gets ready to commit in the battle of the Green Knight until Sir Gawain stepped up and insisted that he be the one to fight. Sir Gawain said to King Arthur, “I beseech you, Sire, / Let this game be mine” (Gawain Poet 124-25). By Sir Gawain requesting to King Arthur that he must step before the Green Knight instead of the King, Gawain showed many acts of bravery and loyalty to his people, which gave him the characteristics of showing honor and being an Anglo-Saxon Hero. Sir Gawain stepped up to this incredible mission because he knew he was the weakest of the knights, and believed that no one would miss him, but instead when Gawain went up for battle the Green Knight refused to strike. The Green Knight has said, “It was I who sent her to test you. I’m convinced / You’re the finest man that ever walked this earth” (Gawain Poet 354-55). The Green Knight had his wife give Gawain the green sash in order to test him, the Green Knight knew Gawain had the courage to compete against him but he just wanted the knights to realize it. Sir Gawain shows honor in this literary work, because even when he wanted to doubt himself and give up he never did, he kept fighting and eventually made it to the Green Castle even though he knew he might not make it out alive. He insisted to follow
Keller (2008) wrote, documented and describes in great detail two cases on the use of torture concerning Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison and the physical and psychological consequences resulting from months of daily abuse at the hands of U.S military soldiers. Keller’s article suggests the importance of supervisory forensic psychological evaluations and by implementing such tools on prisoners can ensure physical and mental stability. Keller also documented the tool used in the examinations of said detainees as the Istanbul protocol. The goal is to provide empirical analysis of Abu Ghraib detainee’s long term effects due to mistreatment and abuse. The message and tone of the article is both politically and scientifically motivated.
Shakespeare, William. “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. 9th Ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print
Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Eds. Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. Tenth. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2011. 1024-1129. Print.
By many accounts of Williams Shakespeare’s Hamlet the main character, Hamlet, is considered to be the classic tragic hero, but in fact Hamlet is not a hero at all. There are many accounts of heroes in earlier writings such as The Odyssey and Beowulf. These heroes had confidence, careful thought, and thought clearly in their times of trial. Hamlet was not any of these things. His inability to think clearly through his anger leads to indecisiveness which inevitably puts him in a situation that costs him his own life. Hamlet is a victim to himself in this play. Throughout the entire play Hamlet is very confused, indecisive, and blinded by his mission for vengeance. It also seems that while he is angry about the murder of his father he
In the play, Hamlet, William Shakespeare explores the theme of revenge. Throughout the work, Hamlet acquires a moral dilemma; he cannot decide how to carry out revenge without condemning himself. Thus, although the play promotes the idea of revenge at the beginning, the cultivation of dialogue, relationships, and complications provide evidence of the detrimental consequences and limitations of the theme.
"Hamlet." Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. Michelle Lee. Vol. 92. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 5 Apr. 2014.