Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Deception Analysis

Deception is the act of deceiving; or the state of being deceived, which is something of very powerful nature. Deception can cause people to believe things that may or may not be true. Deception in most cases is used when an individual has a certain motive that he or she is trying to achieve. In the play Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, deception is present when Bertilak uses his wife to deceive Sir Gawain, by having her to try to seduce Sir Gawain on three different occasions. Although Sir Gawain remains loyal to Bertilak, Sir Gawain still takes the girdle; therefore, in the end Sir Gawain is left with a sense of failure, proving that Bertilak attained the motive he was seeking.

Deception is a powerful tool in seeking a certain motive; therefore,

In the play Sir Gawain and The Green knight there are many different times throughout the book, that involve characters using different forms of deception. However; I think the biggest use of deception is when Bertilak uses his wife in order to test Sir Gawain’s loyalty, but also to achieve his motive, which was to cause Sir Gawain to feel as if he was a failure. Bertilak’s wife enters Sir Gawain’s bedroom on a mission to make Sir Gawain fall into temptation, and of course the first thing Sir Gawain really notices is Lady Bertilak’s beauty. “Her Face was sweet, Her skin was white and Pink; she spoke like birds, Singing, and her small lips laughed” (Page 95). This makes the point that beauty can be very deceiving, explaining why Bertilak would use that to his advantage. As the poem continues Lady Bertilak makes it known to Sir Gawain that no one will know and that they are alone, so Sir Gawain may do as he pleases with Lady Bertilak “And here you are, and we’re alone, My lord and his men away in the woods, All men asleep, and my maids to, Your door shut, and locked with a bolt-And having my house a man so loved I refuse to waste my chance, for as long as it last. Now please us both, Decide our path” (Page 96). This further acknowledges

Bertilak has one motive, that being to make Sir Gawain no longer look as if he is a Goddess, but as a failure. Lady Bertilak is very successful in deceiving Sir Gawain as part of Bertilak’s plan, leading to Bertilak's main motive being achieved, which is making Sir Gawain feel as if he is not as great as everyone thinks he is, and that really he is just a failure and sinner. At the end of the poem Sir Gawain and the Green knight meet to challenge each other when Bertilak reveals himself as the green knight “Because of our other agreement, in my castle; You kept it faithfully, performed like an honest Man, gave me everything you got. Except that you kissed my wife: I swung For that reason-but you gave me back her kisses” ( Page 128). Bertilak reviles himself, which conveys to Sir Gawain that he had been deceived the whole time, especially when Lady Bertilak acted as if no one would know and that they were completely alone the entire time she wanted to have relations with him. This furthers my argument that Bertilak was very good at using everything he had in order to deceive Sir Gawain, which he was very successful in. Bertilak conveys to Sir Gawain that he knew the entire time Sir Gawain was being deceived, Bertilak believed that no other knight would be able to withstand the temptations of lust; however, Sir