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Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Deceit Analysis

1052 Words5 Pages

Deceitful people can be taken as harmful and evil or wise and necessary. Sometimes it takes a little tragedy or harmful situation to make a person realize a change is needed. Deceitful people have reasoning behind their ways, and it is usually so the other person learns something about him or herself they would have never seen without being hurt. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, we see a heavy example of deceit for a reason. Lord Bertilak’s reasons for deceiving Sir Gawain exhibit fruitful ideals distributed throughout the text. 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. …show more content…

Sir Gawain describes the older lady [Morgan the Fay] as “rough and wrinkled” and “awful to see” (85). Gawain does not fully acknowledge her as well as he acknowledges Lady Bertilak. Sir Gawain “saluted the old one, but the pleasanter woman he wrapped in his arms for a courteous kiss and chivalric words” (86). Compassion is defined as sympathy for the misfortunes of others. Sir Gawain does the opposite of compassion. He does not look upon the older women with kindness; instead, he treats her as if she is irrelevant or not as important as Lady Bertilak. As a knight he is to uphold compassion towards all people along with companionship, courtesy, chastity, and charity. Lord Bertilak wants to see if Gawain truly values the code of chivalry. One of the virtues of the code of chivalry is the idea of courtly love. Lady Bertilak tempts him further by saying, “Courtly virtue lining his heart, he’d never have stayed so long with a lady and left her unkissed” (98). To uphold chivalry is to uphold courtly love. Gawain does not want to kiss another man’s wife, but he wants to uphold chivalry which calls him

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