Challenging Chivalry: Deception in 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'

The code of chivalry is one that is well known by people. This is the set of rules that a knight should follow to be well respected and to be a gentleman. Readers may believe that all knights perfectly follow the code in most fairy tales. This is not true. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by Marie Borroff,breaks this common belief. Sir Gawain is a part of King Arthur’s Round Table and accepts a challenge from the Green Knight to cut his head off. In return, the Green Knight would return the same blow a year later to Gawain. The value of truth is broken throughout the poem. The Green Knight has a title of knight but is known to lie. The Green Knight should not be considered a knight because he breaks the ideal of being truthful through his deceitful behavior while playing his games with Sir Gawain.

Sir Gawain willingly plays the game the Green Knight proposes due to fact that he does not know about the Green Knight’s immortality. Originally King Arthur accepts the Green Knight’s request. Gawain knows that Arthur cannot accept this because he is the king and takes Arthur’s place instead. The Green Knight tells Sir Gawain

“As stoutly to strike one for another,

I shall give him as my gift this gisarme noble, [...]

And I shall bide the first blow, as bare as I sit” (Borroff 287-290)

before Sir Gawain beheads him.

Nothing about the Green Knight’s immortality is mentioned to Gawain. After the Green Knight survives the beheading, Sir Gawain now has the constant thought of inevitable death on his mind for the next year. This is the first instance where the Green Knight does not live up to the code of chivalry. The Green Knight lies to trick Sir Gawain into playing the game. The game is an excuse for the Green Knight to kill a good knight. A knight should not kill for fun. There should be a good reason on why he is taking someone’s life. This leaves a smudge on the Green Knight’s reputation that is hard to

ignore.
Identity is another lie that the Green Knight tells that discredits his knighthood. When Sir Gawain survives the blow that the Green Knight gives him, the Green Knight tells Sir Gawain that he is “Bertilak de Hautdesert” (Borroff 2445). Lord Bertilak is the man who takes Sir Gawain into his home. During his stay, Lord Bertilak nurses Gawain back to help and proposes that they play a game. Bertilak would go out and hunt and give his game to Gawain, and in return Gawain would stay in the castle and give what he received to Bertilak. Both men were true to their promise. Lord Bertilak gives Sir Gawain the meat. Sir Gawain then “embraces his [Lord Bertilak’s] broad neck with both arms,/ And confers on him a kiss, the comeliest that he could” (Borroff 1388-1389). Sir Gawain is so committed to Lord Bertilak that he gives him a kiss. This shows the homosocial bond between the two. A homosocial bond is the strong connection between two males. Knights and lords have this sort of bond because of loyalty. The knight has to fight for his lord and protect him. If the knight does his job, the lord will be pleased and will trust the knight. Sir Gawain trusts Lord Bertilak from the start and is not hesitant to kiss him. This is the start of their homosocial bond. Lord Bertilak brakes this sacred bond by revealing that he is the Green Knight. There is an immediate loss of trust between the two. Gawain feels betrayed because Lord Bertilak is a good and trusting figure while the Green Knight is a murderous one. The connection can never be repaired due to Lord Bertilak’s dual identities.
Sir Gawain is never informed at the beginning what the real goal of the game is because the Green Knight tricks him into playing it. After Sir Gawain finds out that Lord Bertilak was the Green Knight, Bertilak reveals that he wants “[t]o assay, if such it were the surfeit of pride/ That is rumored of the retinue of the Round Table” (Borroff 2457-2458). Bertilak
Lord Bertilak is also deceiving himself due to the his false belief that he is in control. Originally when Bertilak informs Gawain about the game he says, “it was all my scheme” (Borroff 2361), but he then says that Morgan plan was “to afflict the fair queen, and frighten her to death” (Borroff 2460). Lord Bertilak is acting like he is the puppet master, but he is only a puppet. Morgan le Fay is a part of Lord Bertilak’s court. She is the evil enchantress in many stories about King Arthur. The main plan is not to test Arthur’s knight’s chivalry, but to get back at Queen Guinevere. This cause is not noble at all. Lord Bertilak is lying to himself to possibly make him feel better about going through with the plan. Morgan is also know because “her arts cannot subdue” (Borroff 2455). It is clear that Morgan is in control of the Green Knight/ Lord Bertilak. She is way too powerful and Bertilak cannot escape from her control. This also means that a knight is working for a villain.