Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Christian Analysis

During the era that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written, there was the fusion of two religions coming together. The Pagan religion was the former belief system, but Christianity was on the rise. This is visible through the five sets of five that are discussed when describing Sir Gawain as the ideal knight. The five sets of five include the five joys: Annunciation, Nativity, Resurrection, Ascension, and Assumption; the five senses: sight, hearing, scent, taste, and touch; the five wounds that Christ received on the cross, Gawain’s five fingers, and five characteristics that everyone must follow: friendship, fraternity, purity, politeness, and pity. Gawain personifies all of these in such a way that he as himself can be viewed as the Christian religion’s ideas and beliefs. In the late 14th century when this was translated, that major Christian focus could have been used to convert Pagans to Christianity by making all of these Christian symbols so prominent in the text. Since Gawain represents all

Gawain showed severe loyalty to God when he was residing in the castle of Lord Bertilak, or the Green Knight. Even when Lord Bertilak’s wife, Lady Bertilak, tried to seduce Gawain, he showed politeness and purity, which are two aspects in the five sets of five. The politeness that Gawain portrayed was in his ways of turning down Lady Bertilak, he was subtle yet nice in rejecting her tries. “Let it be as you wish. / I shall kiss at your command, as becomes a knight, / and further, should it please you, so press me no more” (lines 1302- 1304). He grants her one kiss to keep from going further. Gawain comes to show his high level of purity when he denies her because not only is she married but her husband is also trusting Gawain in his home and has been a good host to