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Comparing Women In Sir Gawain And Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

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Sir Gawain and The Green Knight and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales are two pieces of British literature that are incredibly interesting and thorough. Women play important roles in both of the texts. Throughout Sir Gawain and The Green Knight there are several important females present. The women being Guinevere for a short period of time, Lady Bertilak, and Morgan Le Fay. Guinevere is presented at the beginning of the text before The Green Knight barges into the castle, and is presented as the standard of beauty. Sir Gawain encounters lady Bertilak as he nears the green chapel. Lady Bertilak takes advantage of her beauty while Gawain stays in her and her husband’s, lord Bertilak, castle. While staying in the castle, Sir Gawain is presented a …show more content…

Sir Gawain keeps his promise each day kissing lord Bertilak for a total of six times. Lady Bertilak also grants Sir Gawain, due to her fondness of him, a green sash that will protect Sir Gawain From harm and later saves his life. Morgan le Fay is the elderly, ugly, servant in the Bertilak castle. Morgan le Fay is a sorceress that is truly the puppet master in this tale. As for Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the miller’s tale and the wife of bath’s tale have interesting roles for women. The miller, in a drunken stupor, tells a tale of a love affair between a married woman and a younger man. The married woman, Alison, marries an older fellow and is then presented with the opportunity to cheat on him with a young scholar. Alison agrees and plays an awful trick on her husband so she and her new lover may be alone. The wife of bath is an incredible character in and of herself. The wife of bath starts with a long prologue, telling of her copious husbands and fondness of sex. Considering the standards for women in this time period, obedient, housewives, she has broken the

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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a Middle English romance poem written by an anonymous West Midlands poet. Sir Gawain, survives two tests: the challenge, to behead the fearsome Green Knight and to let him retaliate a year later at the distant Green Chapel; and the temptation to commit adultery with the wife of Lord Bercilak,whose castle he stays in when headed to the chapel. this story of Sir gawain follows closely with Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. The start of the story takes place in King Arthur’s great hall.

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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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1378 Words | 6 Pages

During Sir Gawain’s three day ordeal with Bertilak’s wife, she attempts to corrupt him, and test how virtuous he truly was. When Gawain arrives he swears an oath, with the Castle lord, Bertilak, that the two will trade what they earned the next day. Gawain is told to stay in the castle, to rest and recuperate, while Lord Bertilak and his men go out hunting. Lord Bertilak and his men go hunting three days, and each hunt lasts all day long. During these three days of hunting, Gawain is accosted by Lady Bertilak, who has secretly been setup to tempt Sir.

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Jessica Otto Professor Sikes 10/24/15 Creative Interpretation Project The Temptations of Lady Bertilak For my creative interpretation project, I decided to create an illustration of the character Lady Bertilak from the story “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”. Within the image, I have included various elements that are meant to represent a few of Lady Bertilak’s characteristics and actions from within the narrative. These elements include the three animals, the green girdle, and the pentangle.

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1052 Words | 5 Pages

Sometimes deceit is needed in order to see a person’s true virtues. Lord Bertilak wants to test his chastity and compassion. He sends his wife to tempt Sir Gawain in order to see if Sir Gawain will uphold chastity.

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159 Words | 1 Pages

The theme of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” can be found in other Middle English poems as well. Geoffrey Chaucer’s stories “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale” and “The Miller’s Tale” are two pieces from his infamous work “The Canterbury Tales”. These two stories exhibit the theme of a woman’s place in society. One other work of this time period that has this theme of

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1271 Words | 6 Pages

he embraced the lord and give him three kisses, as loving and eager as he could make them...” (Ridley #68). On the other hand, Sir Gawain portrays a very modest character during part II. While Lord Bertilak went out and hunted, Sir Gawain attracted much attention from Lady Bertilak. She even says, “Gawain, noblest of knights, even if I can have nothing of yours, you shall have something of mine” (Ridley #67).

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1719 Words | 7 Pages

Bertilak has one motive, that being to make Sir Gawain no longer look as if he is a Goddess, but as a failure. Lady Bertilak is very successful in deceiving Sir Gawain as part of Bertilak’s plan, leading to Bertilak's main motive being achieved, which is making Sir Gawain feel as if he is not as great as everyone thinks he is, and that really he is just a failure and sinner. At the end of the poem Sir Gawain and the Green knight meet to challenge each other when Bertilak reveals himself as the green knight “Because of our other agreement, in my castle; You kept it faithfully, performed like an honest Man, gave me everything you got. Except that you kissed my wife: I swung For that reason-but you gave me back her kisses” ( Page 128). Bertilak reviles himself, which conveys to Sir Gawain that he had been deceived the whole time, especially when Lady Bertilak acted as if no one would know and that they were completely alone the entire time she wanted to have relations with him.

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Women play a prominent role in medieval literature as they break tradition by gaining power and using it to their advantage. At this time, societies only allowed men to have power; however, the female characters in The Merchant’s Tale and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight defy this tradition. May and Lady Bertilak, Proserpina and Morgan le Fay, both have common tactics in order to gain power. Using the art of deception give May and Lady Bertilak the power to gain control over men. One day, in the garden, May asks if she can get on January’s back so she can get a pear.

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1211 Words | 5 Pages

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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422 Words | 2 Pages

As one of the most well-known Arthurian stories, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a chivalric romance from the 14th-century that has a foundation based predominantly on chivalric beliefs and behaviors. The knightly code of honor is what the story’s main plot circulates around, as well as the title character’s ability to maintain his honor and stay true to his chivalry. The existence of chivalric beliefs and behaviors in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are clearly shown when Gawain accepts the Green Knight’s challenge, dodges Lady Berciliak’s advances, and returns to Camelot wearing the girdle as a sign of his failure. The existence of chivalric beliefs is present throughout the entire story, even when the narrator first describes King Arthur’s

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573 Words | 3 Pages

The lines 1550-1553 from the Pearl poets epic Sir Gawain and the Green Knight epitomizes two of the most important virtues of a noble knight, and Sir Gawain, the man the story follows, defines what is a true knight. He holds a place next to King Arthur and the queen as well as exemplifying two of a knights most important virtues. The first being chastity and the second being courteousness, both however, are very much entwined in this tale. Throughout this epic and many other Arthurian legends praised these traits in the knight and as we shall see, Sir Gawain although still very much human, is a master of both. The virtue of chastity is extremely important in Arthurian legend and we can see this from examining Gawain’s shield.

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1021 Words | 5 Pages

Sir Gawain and the Green depicts this importance of faith by testing Gawain’s moral and knightly code. Gawain is the epitome of what a knight ought to be, with a strong moral code and an unquestioning faith, which he proudly displays on his shield with the Virgin Mary painted on the inside and the Pentangle on the outside. This faith is soon meet with a test the castle of the lord and his once strong faith in God falters. While Gawain is able to remain innocent when it comes to the seductive ways of the lord’s wife, he is unable to stop himself from accepting her magical girdle that would protect him against any harm, even though it is in opposition to both his faith and his loyalties. Gawain comprises his morals due to fear about his impending encounter with the Green Knight and he give into his fear and takes the magical protection the girdle offers.

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1243 Words | 5 Pages

Medieval society had the idea to illustrate women under two Biblical figures Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene. This caused clashes in many aspects to question what loyalty must be. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the lady who is married is portrayed to be a lion towards Gawain, wanting sex from him and making him believe the stereotype of married women unable to control her sexual desires.. Also, young women who were married were depicted wild. In Miller’s Tale, Allison is portrayed as the unfaithful young wife of John, who could not control her desires of wanting Nicholas under her sheets.

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1632 Words | 7 Pages

Also, because yielding to this unqualified claim will inevitably violate Gawain’s moral code, Lady Bertilak’s words cannot be considered innocent or lacking in purpose. This temptation gains the majority of its appeal by challenging Gawain’s reputation and pride, establishing a relatable relationship between Gawain and the audience as almost all individuals prioritize status and self-interest. Because this relationship is made, Gawain’s breach of morals in kissing Lady Bertilak reveals the near universal weakness of pride among the human race. The imperfection of mankind is further demonstrated when Lady Bertilak tempts Gawain with the green girdle. This gift attracts Gawain’s interest as it guarantees his safety, but it also challenges his virtue of honesty because Lady Bertilak “[asks Gawain]... to hide the gift from her husband” (1862-1863).

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