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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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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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Sir Gawain was not afraid of a challenge. Although the narrator points out that no one steps up to the test at first, when King Arthur was tryed, the strong Gawain accepted the challenge by saying “I beseech, before all here, That this melee may be mine,” (David and Simpson 121). Gawain distinguished himself by displaying his brawn, therefore bringing honor to his status as a Knight. As blank and blank said in their essay “Name of Essay”, Insert an essay quote from Mrs. White here). Farther developing his knight status, Sir Gawain did not simply ask the king for the affair, he continued with a length eloquent speech, possibly to showcase his intelligence and the tenacity of his mind.

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Sir Gawain takes knighthood to a deeper level and continues to see his knightly duties and responsibilities as they blatantly are verses getting hot-headed, dramatizing a situation, and uprooting his

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The ideals of Christian morality and knightly qualities are represented by Gawain’s gold, star-shaped pentangle. The five knightly virtues that Sir Gawain expresses are: generosity, chastity, friendship, piety, and courtesy. From the beginning of the poem, Sir Gawain portrays his generosity by agreeing to cut the Green Knight’s head with an axe. He makes this decision after King Arthur fails to do so (Cathell, 2014).

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Sir Gawain Pure, brave courteous, and chivalry those are the characteristics of Sir Gawain. He often functions on a human scale, with failing and succeeding, but learning while failing and succeeding. Sir Gawain’s brothers, Agravain, Gaheris, Gareth were also knights at the round table. There are legends about all the brothers but Sir Gawain stands out to be the most honourable. Even if Sir Gawain is not ranked the best of Arthur’s knight, but he is still one of the most important.

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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late fourteenth century Arthurian Romance Poem. During the time of Sir Gawain, society was dominated by males with women receiving little power. Women were treated with chivalry, but not respected as beings of their own rights. Knights were prided in having the code of chivalry yet were under the assumption woman could not attain much for themselves.

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I admired that he was always the first to put his courage to the test without knowing what he must do shows that Sir Gawain is the type of person I want as my friend. Aside from loyalty, honor and other Sir Gawain showed the religious values. As Christians he had to follow the chivalry code and the legendary tale of the knights of the round table . In this absorbing story his courage and chivalry are tested to the full when he sweared to serve the honors of his king by marrying the loathly lady.

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To be Humble or to be Honest It’s better to be hated for what you are then to be loved for something you're not, a quote by Andre Gide that symbolizes the relationship of all the characters. Those who rather sell themselves then to be loyal are people whom we can’t rely on. To be coward is to be someone who doesn’t accept reality.

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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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Surprisingly there are many times when Gawain follows the code and avoids shame. One example is when on a quest with a lady he lets her choose who she wants to go with herself instead of choosing for her. He refuses to help Aggravain and Mordred expose Sir Lancelot to King Arthur (this is possibly one of the only times when chivalry overcomes loyalty to kin). He also refuses to attend the burning of Queen Guinevere, and in a way shows a sense of right and wrong as well as power to refuse Arthur’s orders. This is a big deal in Le Morte because it shows that he must be important and a highly esteemed knight to be able to stand up to King Arthur (Bedwell 17-18).

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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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.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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