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Character Analysis: Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

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Zach Beckner
February 5th, 2017
Literary Studies
Professor Carey
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Formal Essay: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a classic medieval tale by Pearl Poet depicting a variety of morals such as chivalry, “trawthe”, honor, fortitude, and more throughout the story of a young knight, Sir Gawain, who served as part of King Arthur’s court at the Round Table. One Christmas, King Arthur and his royal court were celebrating the holiday as well as the upcoming New Year with an extravagant feast and lavish party. In the midst of the party, an enormous green knight unexpectedly enters the court on his horse and tells King Arthur and his knights that he does not wish for a dual, but rather, to participate in a Christmas …show more content…

The Green Knight purposefully attempted to invoke chivalry upon the knights and when Sir Gawain decided to step-up and accept his challenge, his “trawthe” to the Green Knight was sealed. The seasons quickly passed and before Sir Gawain and the King’s court knew it, December and the New Year had quickly approached. Sir Gawain eventually set off in his stunning armor atop of his horse, Gringelot, in search of the Green Knight and his chapel. Gawain knew he had to fulfill his end of the challenge because all knights are supposed to give precedence to their chivalric values of courage, honor, and in this case, fidelity to his agreement with the Green Knight. Sir Gawain’s chivalric values are also represented in the form of the pentangle designed across his shield. The pentangle represented the five knightly virtues believed to be necessary for all knights: generosity, courtesy, friendship, chastity and piety. It is through the Green Knight’s challenge that these virtues and Sir Gawain’s chivalric values are truly tested and strained. After continuous battles,prayer, and an extremely difficult journey throughout the wilderness, Sir Gawain was lucky enough to come across an enormous …show more content…

Sir Gawain also fulfilled as well as broke his trawthe with the Green Knight. He fulfilled it by actually setting out for the chapel and his end of the bargain. However, he failed his “trawthe” to the Green Knight twice, once through not exchanging all of the gifts and the other through trying to cheat and survive the beheadingment. By the end of the story, Sir Gawain had also ended up failing to account for EACH of the values represented by the pentangle on his shield and vowed to forever wear the green girdle as a representation for his failure and sin in his quest with the Green

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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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Would you be able to hold steadfast to your core values and knighthood when faced against a sorcerous Green Knight with an itching to kill? Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written by the Pearl Poet, is a Medieval Romance tale about a noble knight who puts his life on the line in order to defend his king. Sir Gawain is a prestigious knight who demonstrates passionate integrity and honor as he remains faithful to King Arthur and holds true to the knight's code of chivalry. Although Sir Gawain knew that his life would be thrown into grave danger, he chose integrity and proved his loyalty to the king by upholding the virtues of knighthood.

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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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Gawain takes King Arthur’s place in the competition with the green knight, chivalry dictates this as the right course of action, a knight must protect and serve the king. Gawain then delivers the blow to the green knight, who then picks up his own head, and remains alive. Gawain fails to kill the green knight and now must face his own death next year. Later, Gawain makes his way to the green chapel to face the green knight. When he visits the Lord Bertilak on his own, Gawain struggles with the Lady and what to do when she invites him to kiss her.

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Which led to the Green Knight explaining to Gawain that he is actually the same lord of the castle where Gawain spent his holidays. The first two blows, he claims, were in return for the way Gawain returned the kisses of his wife, following the rules of their game as an honest man should. The third blow, he says, was for Gawain’s failure to return the green girdle to him on the last day. But because Gawain’s failing was only because he wanted to save his life, and not because he's just dishonorable, the Green Knight forgives him. He leaves Gawain with only a scar and a girdle as a reminder of his very human sin.

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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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Although Sir Gawain does not want to take the Green Knight’s challenge, he honorable takes the place of King Arthur and lies about his worth. The Green Knight arrives carrying an axe and holly, symbolizing peace and war, but tells them that he “travel[s] in peace and seek[s] no trouble” (12). Despite saying that he wants no trouble, he proposes a game involves one strike with his axe by whoever is brave enough for another done by him a year later. The court is baffled by his request, and when no one speaks up to take the Green Knights challenge, he ridicules them by conveying that “all the pageantry and power of the Round Table made nothing by the words of one man” (13). After the Green Knight finishes mocking the Knights of the Round Table, Arthur boldly takes the challenge until Sir Gawain politely requested to take his place.

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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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Despite the human flaws that each knight bears, all three knights represent knighthood and the chivalric code because of its importance in medieval society.                                                                          The author of  “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” describes Sir Gawain as the “most courteous knight” (215) in Arthur’s court  because he models chivalry ideally. Gawain’s chivalric traits

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In the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, we begin in King Arthur’s court at a Christmas feast. A stranger, who calls himself the Green Knight, interrupts the festivities proposing a game. Anyone from King Arthur’s court has the chance to have one swing to chop of the Green Knights head, but in return the brave man who does must find the Green Knight at the Green Chapel in a year’s time, and allow the Green Knight to return the favor. When no knight rushes to take on his challenge, the Green Knight insults the court by calling them cowards. "What, is this Arthur's house...

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