Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Essay

Imagine going on a long, harsh journey through dark, foggy forests alone, with little food and drink along the way. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain goes on a journey through the forests by his lonesome during the medieval period to reach his destination of the Green Chapel to meet the Green Knight after a year and a day’s time. It is in the Green Chapel where Gawain gets nicked on his neck by the Green Knight for keeping the girdle a secret. Clearly, this poem can be considered a Medieval romance that was written by an unknown author in the 14th century. In fact, it was found that Sir Gawain was actually one of King Arthur’s knights of the round table who was actually the youngest of them all. Throughout Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain continues to be impressive yet flawed.

At times he is confident yet at other times he is self-depreciating, meaning he is critical of himself. First, Sir Gawain expresses his confidence in his tone of voice when speaking to others. For example, when preparing for New Year's Day he responds with adequate confidence in his comment “Gladly, sir, all ready” (Borroff l. 186). Additionally, Sir Gawain presents himself as having an advantage within his confident speech when he says, “I beseech, before all here, That this Melee may be mine” (Borroff l. 115-116) as if he had already won. Most importantly, Sir Gawain has low self-esteem throughout Part I. Although this can be considered contradictory, this was clearly shown when he tells the king that he is not worth anything and he states, “the loss of my life would be least of any” (Borroff l. 129). He then proceeds to be self-deprecating by saying, “I am the weakest, well I know, and of the wit feeblest” (Borroff l. 128). Obviously, in the first part of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain is depicted as both confident and