The Chivalric Code

The Code of Chivalry
The chivalric code was a set of principles developed in the Middle Ages in which it underlined through a knight’s oath the ideals of virtue, honor, loyalty, and honesty to his king, lady, and to God. Written in approximately the 14th century, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” serves to illustrate the ideology of the Code of Chivalry in King Arthur’s knights at the Round Table. Through his tests, Sir Gawain fails to uphold the chivalric ideals of complete honesty, bravery, and morality. His failure to live up to the ideal does not demonstrate his lack of virtue, but denounces perfection and highlights the human ability to err.
Sir Gawain strives to live up to the code of chivalry in his loyalty to his king and queen. When the Green Knight challenges any knight that has “gall,” “gumption,” or “guts” to strike him, only Gawain stands up to the challenge. Though King Arthur tells the Green Knight, “Your request is quite insane, / and folly finds the man who flirts with the fool,” Gawain still rises to the challenge in the name of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere (323-4). He demonstrates courage and complete loyalty in the face of an impossible challenge. He displays his humility saying he is the “weakest of [the] warriors and feeblest of wit” and if he dies, he would not be mourned over as much as any other knights (354-5). His codes of virtue are depicted in the poet’s description of the infamous pentangle worn on his shield. The five-pointed star is a flawless integration of everything Gawain strives to represent and carry out. The poet explains that it “is a symbol that Solomon once set in place” and it represents a set of ideals (625-6). Gawain is a noble knight who the poet deems worthy and appr...

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...s fellow knights. Gawain’s deep regret shows his efforts for upholding virtue, and his king and brotherhood give way to the Christian concept of acceptance and forgiveness. This acceptance of faults illustrate acceptance of sin in human nature and action. The chivalric code is therefore condemned as an impossible ideology to uphold.
Sir Gawain’s three tests of purity as King Arthur’s knight displays his virtues of honor and courtesy, but also reveals his faults of dishonesty and cowardice. In the Middle Ages, the chivalric code was followed by the knights at the Round Table, but the code was impossible goal toward perfection or complete purity. By allowing Gawain to fail in his tests, the poet illustrates that men are not perfect or without sin. Therefore, Sir Gawain is a representation of the imperfect man. His failures mark the acceptance of human fault.