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Comparing The Ideals Of The Pentangle And The Chivalric Code

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The ideals of the Pentangle and the Chivalric Code allow Sir Gawain to be known as the greatest knight by elevating the expectations placed on him. With virtues such as friendship, generosity, chastity, courtesy, and piety from the Pentangle along with a moral code as strong as the Chivalric Code, Gawain is set apart from other knights and tried with higher standards. Many of these ideals would inevitably contradict one another, which makes his efforts to abide by them extremely noble. As difficult as they may be to follow though, without both the Pentangle and the Chivalric Code, Gawain would stand in line with the other knights rather than above. Religion, being represented in both the Pentangle and the Chivalric Code, is a leading virtue …show more content…

When Gawain was forced to choose between his friendship with Lancelot and honoring King Arthur and the round table, he chose the latter because it helped the most people in the long run. Even though friendship and loyalty to his king were pitted against each other in this case, Gawain was able to remain level headed and rationally choose the best option. In this situation, he thought about others rather than himself. This is not always the case. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain is presented with the opportunity to have immortality or to remain true to his morals. He ultimately chooses himself, proving that even he has flaws. While this may not have been the most noble option, it ultimately allowed him to become more humbled. Being aware that God is more powerful than him kept him humble to an extent, but everybody is inferior to God. Without making mistakes, Gawain could obtain a sense of invisibility in comparison to other humans. After Gawain’s inability to avoid contradicting the ideals of the Pentangle and the code, he is left feeling unworthy. The elevated expectations that he places upon himself allow him to create his own checks and balances. When King Arthur and the Green knight forgive Gawain’s mistakes, he continues to recognize his own faults rather than dismissing them like other people had

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The main theme of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the journey to maturity of Gawain, the hero. During the passage, Gawain goes through three tests on his development. First, Gawain shows courage and resourcefulness when he volunteers to take the Green Knight’s challenge instead of Arthur doing so. Second, Gawain shows authority, self-restraint, and integrity when he denies the sexual endeavours of the lady of the house. Lastly, Gawain shows bravery when he faces death by keeping his meeting with the Green

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In response to the taunting of the Green Knight, Sir Gawain says, "I shied once: no more. You have my word," (272-273). Gawain, like all natural man, shied away once from the Knight's sword as a defensive reflex, but he quickly shakes off any cowardice and announces to the Green Knight that he was caught in a moment of doubt. From there he goes to say that he ultimately is no coward, but rather a noble and courageous knight of the roundtable who is devoted and loyal to King Arthur. He is more than willing and prepared to take what is coming and preserve the honor of his people, as well as his own.

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Sir Gawain shows loyalty and humility when he makes the decision of honoring the promise he made with the Green Knight. This humility drives him to set off to pursue the Green Knight to honor the pact they agreed on. On his arrival at the Green chapel, he calls the Green Knight who emerges to greet him and to fulfill the terms of the contract (Cathell). Sir Gawain presents his neck voluntarily to the Green Knight who feigns two blows (Cooke 4). This is a commitment and a sign of piety that Gawain manifests.

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Even though the author of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is anonymous, the story is an embodiment of an epic heroic story. The story delivers evidence of the type of power that Kings and nobility held in the social culture. When the Green Knight challenges King Arthur, Sir Gawain steps up to represent and defend his king in spite of being weak. Sir Gawain states “I am the weakest…the loss of my life would be least of any; that I have you for uncle is my only praise…this folly befits not a king” (Greenblatt & Abrams, 2006, p. 131, 354-358). The nephew of the King’s offers his own life in order to preserve the King.

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Gawain’s values as a knight are in conflict, because he needs to be polite to the Lady, but he is also loyal to the Lord. Gawain ultimately fails

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775 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout his entire journey, Gawain tried to remain courageous and brave. In fact, Gawain demonstrated his bravery when he accepted the challenge that no one else dared to do. Following that he then showed his braveness by cutting off the Green Knights head and keeping his word to return in one year and one day. He even had enough courage to go on a journey by himself rather than having the other knights go along. Although Gawain is seen to be fearful of death because instead of giving away the girdle he kept it in secret so its magical powers would protect him from the Green Knight.

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757 Words | 4 Pages

Chivalry has many features that shape a knight, however the virtues that Sir Gawain presents the most are courage and honesty. One time when Gawain showed honesty and courage is when he went to fulfill his deal with the Green Knight. The guide leading Gawain to the Green Chapel told Gawain that he should run and that no one would know about his Failure to keep his promise. But Gawain said he must fulfill his deal: “But however heedfully thou hid it, if I here departed,/ faith in fear now to flee, in fashion thou speakest,/ I should a knight coward be, I Could not be excused./ Noy, I’ll fare to the chapel, whatever chance may befall” (85.13-16).

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What is chivalry, exactly, and how does Gawain demonstrate the chivalric ethos in the first two sections of the poem? [ ethos= ethical philosophy] Chivalry is the sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight including courtesy, generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms. The way Gawain demonstrates chivalric ethos is that he honors the King and shows bravery and humility by accepting the Christmas challenge and not allowing the king to do so. He keeps his word by going to the Green Chapel on the day agreed. He keeps his word by giving the Lord the kisses he gets from his wife.

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The pentangle on Gawain's shield is represented between five virtues. These virtues are friendship, generosity, chastity, courtesy, and piety. Each virtue displays the characteristics of a knight

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Throughout Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, we see many places where redemption and self-worth are extremely important to the plot. Redemption is the act of failing and falling, but getting back up again, time after time. Gawain fails to meet this in many parts of the story, including bad bets, trying to believe he was faultless, and, most importantly, blaming others for things he himself did. While the act of redemption is very real, Sir Gawain does not showcase this. Gawain can’t seem to learn his lesson when it comes to betting.

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573 Words | 3 Pages

Gawain is courteous to no end, even asking for permission to “abandon [his] bench and stand by [Arthur]” (Pearl Poet l. 344) so he may risk his own life instead of his kings to abide by the Green Knights game. He even humbly states that he “[is] the weakest” (l. 354) and that it would be the least lost of he was to parish which is untrue. Gawain is also extremely courteous when he is denying the wife’s attempts to seduce him saying he is “a knight unworthy” (l.1245). He plays a game of wits as he must not offend her advances but at the same time must not let the wife win the “game” because then he would have to lay with her and that would be uncourteous to his host, Lord Bertilak. The only time Gawain faults in his courteousness is when he refuses to acknowledge the agreement he made with Lord Bertilak which was “whatever [Lord Bertilak] win[s] in the wood shall at once be [Gawain’s] and whatever gain [Gawain] may get [he] shall give in exchange” (ll. 1107-08).

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1684 Words | 7 Pages

Consider how the theme of courage is treated in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a story that celebrates courage in a positive light in the majority of situations but we see that courage can have a negative impact on some of the characters in the story and it questions knighthood. Courage is an honourable term defined “The ability to do something that frightens one; bravery:” (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/courage) and for Gawain to be called this term defines him as a knight. His actions throughout the story makes it difficult to analyse how courage is treated in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

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1269 Words | 6 Pages

.This makes Sir Gawain as a relatable hero, opposed to the heroes that are portrayed as godly and infallible. Sir Gawain was not a military warrior with badges, he did not swing a weapon but one at the Christmas games in the beginning. Sir Gawain is considered a literary hero because he was brave for stepping forward to protect King Arthur, his king and uncle. He had faith that led him through his journey into the enchanted forest and into the castle and he did not abandon it. He was noble in being a guest at Lord Bertilak’s, or the Green Knights, castle by offering his services to Lord Bertilak and, resisting temptations, and not sleeping with Lady Bertilak, Lord Bertilak’s

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670 Words | 3 Pages

(Pg. 566 ) Gawaine’s loyalty is remarkable. Gawaine intelligently and skillfully leads his clan, stays loyal to those he trusts, but lashes out with his short temper. He remains the same most of the book, but at the end he forgives Lancelot and turns away from his family to stand by King Arthur.

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899 Words | 4 Pages

Respect (A Discussion on Chivalry used in The Green Knight and Morte D’Arthur.) Chivalry is code of conduct used by knights, and heroes of the past. “Chivalry, the order of knighthood and, especially, the code of knightly behavior that was a feature of the High and later Middle Ages in western Europe”(Funk). Along with this idea of Chivalry, Feudalism was used in Europe as well. Feudalism is the system of both government and land ownership, where in exchange for a nobleman 's oath of loyalty, a king would grant them land.

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