Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Morgan Essay

In the poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Morgan le Fay only appears in the last two FITTs and there is only a little description about her. However, she is actually the initiator of the whole story: it was Morgan who sent Green Knight to Arthur’s hall “to put pride on trial” and “to test what distinction and trust the Round Table deserves” (2455-2458), and then Sir Gawain’s adventure began. As we know, Morgan was always described as an antagonist of Arthur in the legends. However, when Morgan tried to combat against Arthur, why did she choose to “test” him? What was Morgan’s purpose to test the knighthood spirit of the Round Table?

This key character, Morgan le Fay, was not fully developed in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but we can

In Arthur’s Hall, every time when the Green Knight referred to the chivalry of Arthur’s men, he would say “…are called the best”(259) or “the towering reputation of the Round Table”(313)—all that he and Morgan knew about them was “heard,” they did not actually see the worthiness of those “legendary” knights. When the Green Knight came to Camelot, he asked, “who is the governor of this gaggle?” (224-225) Arthur’s men were only “gaggles” in Green Knight and Morgan’s eyes, even though they absolutely knew Court of Arthur and their high reputation. Only after all tests were over and Gawain was proved to be the “most faultless fellow on earth” (2363), in Green knight’s heart he truly admired him and Gawain became the loved one in Hautdesert.

Then another question appeared. Since Morgan had the magic to turn Bertilak into the Green Knight, who was powerful enough to be a real threat to Arthur and his knights, why she did not choose to start a “battle” and destroy Camelot? Furthermore, there were plenty of opportunities to hurt or kill Gawain; even Gawain himself had believed that he would lose his life eventually, but the consequence of this “Beheading Game” was only a slight cut on his neck. In fact, Morgan had found a more effective way to hurt Arthur and Gawain, not physically but

Because they truly cared about their reputation, when they realized they could not match their names, they would feel deeply depressed. This was why Morgan chose their “pride” as the target. At the beginning of this poem, Arthur was expecting some challenges would fall on his knights. For him, he believed in his noble knights. However, for Morgan, she wanted Arthur’s knights to fail. In FITT i, the Green Knight mocked and laughed at this “best castle and brotherhood” when no one stood out to accept his challenge. On the one hand, he enraged them to lure them into his “Beheading Game”; on the other hand, he was also “putting their pride on trial.” Soon, Morgan le Fay succeeded for the first time—hearing Green Knight’s words, “Arthur saw red and his men hurt.” At the end of “Beheading Game,” realizing that Bertilak had known the secret of the green girdle, Gawain cried, “But tell me what it takes to clear my clouded name” (2387-2388); the reputation as a Round Table knight was important to Gawain. At last, Gawain realized his sin and he said, “But when praise for my prowess in arms swells my pride, one look at this love-lace will lessen my ardor” (2437-2438). One failure on the battlefield might not hurt his pride so much, but this ashamedness, represented by the green girdle, would accompany him throughout his life. After all, Morgan succeeded the second