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.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an amazing poem that combined a lot of medieval history along with a deep storyline in order to convey an enjoyable piece of literature. Right from the start, the readers will learn about a beheading game that will instantly draw their attention to the poem. Even though it may seem like a fun game at first, the readers are introduced to Sir Gawain and learned how the game affected him after it was completed. Throughout the poem, Gawain faced a lot of adversities, but those adversities helped Gawain changed for the better. Sir Gawain was being tested many ways, and the true objective of those tests was to observe if he is going to abide by the code of chivalry.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the author’s rhetorical purpose is to entertain the reader by telling a story of a knight learning truth and honesty. The author uses color, alliteration, repetition, bob and wheel, and antanaclasis to keep you interested in reading the poem. The first rhetorical device is color. The author uses color to help you picture what the characters look like. The uses sentences like “Splendid that the knight errant stood in a splay of green, and green, too, was the mane of his destrier.”
In the medieval story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the holly branch, the battle ax, and the green sash are used as symbols to represent life and death. When the Green Knight enters the room he “instead held in one hand a bought of the holly/That grows most green when all groves are bare” (L.27-28). The holly branch is green and it represents peace and the beauty of life and nature. The holly branch also has berries and they are poisonous representing death. On the other hand he “held an ax, immense and unwieldy” (L.29).
In class, we read many different books that all have different morals or lessons in them. For example, in “The Knight's Tale”,they show how love can be the end of you. In “The Pardoner’s Tale”, he tells how greed will destroy your friendship and end your life. In “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, they show how chivalry is the most important lesson from their time. This is why I have chosen “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” to be the best story that we have read this year.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an epic Arthurian romance poem, being a part of the "Alliterative Revival". The author of this poem is unknown, often referred to as the Gawain poet. It was written at the end of the 14th century (ca. 1375-1400). The story is centered around a chivalry knight, Sir Gawain, and the mysterious knight that challenges him to a beheading game, The Green Knight. The challenge is that one will attempt to behead the other, and if it fails, then the return blow will happen in a year and a day.
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.
Gawain's Virtues are put to the test by the Green Knight, forcing him to face his flaws and grow as a person. Grawain's reliance on prayer reflected the story's Christian themes. It helped in his path of self-discovery during his journey. The pagan element of the Green Knight's magical powers makes him viewed as powerful. “The magic element in this poem, in so far as it motives the heroic action and offers a situation for alluring, illicit love, is very characteristic of Arthurian traditions.''
Canto four almost resembles Canto two in the very beginning, especially in terms of themes. That recurring theme of man and the natural world appears yet again in this Canto. The more recurring part having to do with the fact that Gawain has to reenter the forest, but instead of him being scared and alone like he was the first time, he is confident and with an escort. Aside from this, the main focus of this Canto is on the theme of chivalry. The Green Knight praises Gawain for carrying out his quest like a true knight, but he still broke the chivalric code because he wanted to live.
In the story, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the main character, Sir Gawain, According to the Gawain-poet, King Solomon originally designed the five-pointed star. A symbol of truth, the star has five points that link and lock with each other, forming what is called the endless knot. The pentangle symbolizes the virtues to which Gawain aspires: to be faultless in his five senses; never to fail in his five fingers; to be faithful to the five wounds that Christ received on the cross; to be strengthened by the five joys that the Virgin Mary had in Jesus (the Annunciation, Nativity, Resurrection, Ascension, and Assumption); and to possess brotherly love, courtesy, piety, and chastity. The side of the shield facing Gawain contains an image
Literary Analysis of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight The selection of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight follows the basic format of the adventure. The author emphasizes communion to show the loyalty and community between King Arthur and his knights. The symbolism behind the relationship between Sir Gawain to humans and the Green Knight to the merciful God further shows the relations of this medieval romance to the Bible.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a medieval romance written in the late fourteenth century by an unknown author. It is part of the Arthurian legend and takes place in England during the winter. The knights of the Round Table have virtues tested when a mysterious Green Knight appears with a suspicious challenge, that leads Sir Gawain on an epic journey of self-discovery. Even though Sir Gawain is considered to be the perfect knight, his character is put to the test through a series of unbeknownst challenges that ultimately prove his true colors.
I read “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” in this summer holidays as an English homework and thought that the story has unique symbols in some scenes. Although the story contains many symbols, I explain some major symbols and how the story contributes to a greater meaning in the story. I think that the main symbols of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” are the pentangle on Gawain’s shield, the Green Knight, the green girdle, and poet highlights number in the story. First, according to the Sir Gawain’s poetry, the shape of mark is five pointed star, and so the symbol of the story is the pentangle on Sir Gawain’s shield. I think that it represents faultless in Sir Gawain’s five senses and never to fail in his five fingers.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, whose author is unknown, is an Arthurian Romance/Epic that holds a degree of Christian symbolism. These Christian symbols are intermixed with Britannic Pagan traditions and themes in order to appeal more to the common British people at the time of the early Christianization of Britain. This can be supported by the stories of kings being created in the earlier centuries throughout history. In this particular story, this symbolism is important since all the knights of King Arthur’s Court were supposed to follow a certain chivalrous code of conduct, whether present in the courts or away on some other venture. The chivalric code being the embodiment of Christian virtue and valor, which was expected to be personified
There have been many differing interpretations of the Green Knight’s purpose in the poem and what his green colour is symbolic of. The Green Knight enters Arthur’s court holding a holly-branch “Ȝe may be seker bi þis braunch þat I bere here, / Þat I passe as in pes, and no plyȝt seche” (Barron 265-266). The holly signifies peace but he also carries an axe, which signifies violence. Because of these dualities of his character, the Green Knight symbolic meaning can be interpreted in various ways.
