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Examples Of Pride In Sir Gawain

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Sir Gawain is an extremely humble man, one that is in complete submission to his lord King Arthur in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. While many characters in literature, such as Achilles, are a fireball of rage and testosterone, Sir Gawain is calm, cool, and always in complete control of himself. Gawain is humble as well, describing himself as the “weakest of [King Arthur’s] warriors”, one that is barely fit to sit at the King’s royal table (Armitage: Fitt 1: 734). Sir Gawain, according to Confucius in Analects, would be considered a gentleman, “straight as an arrow” in the noble’s court and on the battlefield (Confucius: Book XV: 15.7). He is extremely courteous, a man of his word, and performs the role of a knight adamantly. While Sir Gawain’s humbleness and self-deprecation is evident throughout the story, it is not justified or reasonable because Gawain is overstating his courtesy to put himself in the limelight. There are two types of pride in a man, low pride and high pride. High pride is the type of pride that Achilles in The Iliad exhibits, …show more content…

When accepting the Green Knight’s challenge, he states “were I not [King Arthur’s] nephew my life would mean nothing”, emphasizing his unimportance (Armitage: Fitt 1: 734). This is the proper way to act in front of the King and his court, and the attitude of self-deprecation is only fitting for a knight such as him. In a way he is correct, because in the Feudal System, knights are only a step above the freeman and serfs, therefore extremely unimportant compared to the King and his royal company. In this sense, he should ask to “politely take love of [his] place at the table” to accept the Green Knights challenge, because he is only a guest in the royal court (Armitage: Fitt 1: 734). However, since he is of royal blood, and because he is related to the king, this humbleness seems eerily similar to low pride in the eyes of the

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