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Resolving Cultural Conflict In Arthurian Literature

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issolving Cultural Conflict with Research on Arthurian Literature

Motivation: Dissolving Cultural Conflict
Worrying about cultural conflict and attempting to prove the value of academic research to the society, I aim to research on cultural issues in hope of finding out the reasons behind the social opposition and dissolving the conflict with their hidden commonality. Starting from connecting the East to the West, I hope our society can be more open-minded to foreign cultures, willing to learn more about Western cultures instead of merely their languages, and value the training from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature which helps students understand the Western philosophy, the cross-cultural issues and study the Western culture …show more content…

Aside from having undertaken two research papers on Arthurian literature since my senior year, I am planning my future research with the application of post-structuralism and …show more content…

To observe how the East-West intersection takes place and finds the possibility of the East “overpowering” the West, I started my research “Challenging the Western World in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” by focusing on the Green Knight’s intrusion to discuss how the Eastern Green Knight challenges and manipulates the Western Arthurian court.
Identifying Queen Guinevere’s authority in the Western chivalry and goddess Morgan Le Fay’s superiority in Eastern religion, I justified Morgan Le Fay’s intention to scare Guinevere as an Eastern cultural challenge. Additionally, to understand how the Green Knight effectively lures Arthur’s court into his challenge, I examined his challenge in both physical and verbal perspectives. With physical traits like his gigantic figure and unnatural greenness, the Green Knight reinforces Arthurian court’s fear by verbally challenging Arthur’s authority and emphasizing the violence in the Christmas game. Triggering Arthur and Gawain’s desire to eliminate the threat, the Green Knight baits the court to turn the “peaceful” Christmas game into a life-threatening beheading game, intensifying the impact of the cultural

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Sir Gawain is one of King Arthur’s knights. It is Christmas time in Camelot, the time of the year where knights return home and people celebrate their achievements as well as the birth of Jesus. Every year they have a dinner with the king that must begin with a story before eating. No one has a story to tell which causes the king to postpone the dinner until, all of a sudden, a green knight appeared. This story contains ideas known as the hero’s journey.

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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 the Once and Future King written by TH. White, White manifests the work’s whole in a single moment by giving Arthur several epiphanies throughout his life. He shows how Arthur develops gradually in a realistically complex way and having him face challenging situations, but also manifests the fact he still has flaws even as a simple person. Arthur’s epiphany ultimately developed him into a morally correct and pacifistic person.

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The paradox of Christ also raises the stance that there is nothing wrong with the imperfection and contradictions viewed while reading this poem. Most interestingly, the paradoxical Pearl poet added at the end of this poem, “HONI SOIT QUI MAL PENCE” (Part IV, L. 2531) otherwise translated as; “evil be to him who evil thinks” (page 64). This sentence adds further validation to the story of Sir Gawain by inserting background of King Edward. In conclusion, Sir Gawain and the green knight present a contradiction which teaches the reader a simple truth, which many often forget. We as humans are not perfect, however that does not mean we are

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The green knights adheres to the code of chivalrous conduct. The Green Knight is a mysterious, supernatural creature. He rides into Arthur’s court on New Year’s Eve almost as if summoned by the king’s request to hear a marvelous story. His supernatural characteristics, such as his ability to survive decapitation and his green complexion, immediately mark him as a foreboding figure. The Green Knight contrasts with Arthur’s court in many ways.

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Throughout this paper we will examine three ways in which the characters in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight attempt to cover up the underlying theme of violence within the narrative. During Fitt 1 of the poem, we uncover the first method in which the characters attempt to mask the fantasy of violence. In order to ensure their thirst for bloodshed does not spiral out of control, there are certain rules that the court must adhere to. The Court of Camelot places violence in a strict binary with courtesy.

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During the Medieval times chivalry was one of the most important characteristics a knight could display. Chivalry was viewed as a moral obligation that involved bravery, honor, respect, and gallantry. Knights were expected to uphold this code or face social consequences for any infractions, with punishments ranging from humiliation to termination of their knighthood. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” presents the struggles knights faced with honoring the chivalrous code at all times. Sir Gawain, while imperfect, exhibits qualities expected of knights and embodies the internal struggle between honoring the chivalrous code and giving into selfish desires.

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Relations Between Sir Gawain And The Green Knight And Christianity “Sir Gawain and The Green Knight” have a plethora of connections and relations to Christianity all around its story. Some examples could be Arthurian chivalry with the pentangle of Sir Gawain's shield and Mary's face in the middle, the battle between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight which took place inside the chapel of a church, and The Green Knight's decision toward Gawain in showing him mercy. These examples show only few reasons why “Sir Gawain And The Green Knight” have connections and relations towards Christianity. The ideals of Christianity and chivalry are brought together in Gawain’s symbolic shield.

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Essay: Consider how the Theme of courage is treated in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It has to be said that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is arguably one of the greatest middle English poems of the 14th Century. The author of the text, whom, amazingly is still unknown tells the reader, through the medium of poem the courage of the Great Sir Gawain as he bravely challenges the Green Knight. The poem also shows the courage of others. In Medieval times and especially medieval writings, there was a great engrossment with courage.

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The opening scene in the story shows the Green Knight disrupting the acts of communion between King Arthur and his knights. These acts of communion symbolize the togetherness, community, and even touch the basis of loyalty, which is supported by the selfless act of Sir Gawain putting his life in danger for his king. The Green Knight’s disrupting the acts of life-giving by, indecently, threatening to take the king’s life in a challenge. “And so all I ask of this court is a Christmas game.”(L. 63).

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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, composed by an unknown artist, is a medieval story that follows the tale of a knight who embarks on a journey after being issued a challenge from a mysterious green stranger. During his quest, Sir Gawain, the knight, stays at a castle in the wilderness and is housed by Lord and Lady Bertilak, both of whom test his chivalric code and his Christian ideals. Lady Bertilak is a seductress and tempts Sir Gawain, though he refuses all her advances, with the exception of her kisses. Lord Bertilak is the mysterious green stranger, known as the Green Knight. Once Sir Gawain completed his task, he discovers that Morgan le Faye, a witch scorned by King Arthur, orchestrated the entire challenge in the hopes of causing King

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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, whose author is unknown, is an Arthurian Romance/Epic that holds a degree of Christian symbolism. These Christian symbols are intermixed with Britannic Pagan traditions and themes in order to appeal more to the common British people at the time of the early Christianization of Britain. This can be supported by the stories of kings being created in the earlier centuries throughout history. In this particular story, this symbolism is important since all the knights of King Arthur’s Court were supposed to follow a certain chivalrous code of conduct, whether present in the courts or away on some other venture. The chivalric code being the embodiment of Christian virtue and valor, which was expected to be personified

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