Humanity In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

Cowards justify their sins, while the courageous try to overcome their inequities. This is the most common principle that the majority of civilization instills in their children. Although, we often masquerade extenuating circumstances of when our human side starts to activate, almost involuntarily. The lengths that one will go to preserve his or her life is far beyond what the eye can see. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the human instinct to protect one’s self, even at someone else’s expense, is put on display through the actions of Sir Gawain. Ones character is easily established through ones actions. From the opening of the poem Sir Gawain appears to be a brave and noble knight. As it is, Sir Gawain is the one who eagerly leaps up to take on the Green Knight’s challenge thus showing his courage and nobility. Furthermore, he stays true to the agreement with the Green

Sir Gawain eventually encounters the Green Knight to meet his fate. However, what happens is not quite what Sir Gawain was expecting. The Green Knight strikes Sir Gawain a total of three times. The first two times he does not hit Sir Gawain, while on the third he hits him faintly hard enough to draw blood from him. The Green Knight turns out to have been Lord Bertilak and the three strikes represent the three gift exchanges. Sir Gawain thought he was being sly and saving himself when he did not tell The Lord about the green girdle. When in all actuality Sir Gawain’s sin is the only reason the Green Knight nicked him at all. Sir Gawain could have avoided the last strike if he would not have been a coward and accepted the fate he had agreed to. Instead he received the harsh consequences of his poor and selfish decision. The Green Knight however acknowledges him for resisting the temptation of the wife. In addition, the Green Knight understands Sir Gawain’s reasoning for with holding the girdle since he was trying to save