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Symbols In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

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Symbols
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an epic filled with many forms of symbolism. Symbolism is when a symbol is used to represent an idea. The smallest things could have many different representations. A person could be reading their favorite novel and come across some type of symbolism and not even know it. Many great literature pieces have symbolism in them. Symbolism plays a great role thought out the tail of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; some of the great symbols that are used are, green, colors, ax and knight.
In fact, Green is the first symbol that is used in the tail. Green has many representations, but in the epic it is not used to represent the color. Green is a symbol that represents something way different. In the epic it says,” The blood splashed up from the body and glistened on the green” (line 13). In this line they are referring Gawain as green. The Green Knight referrers to Gawain as green, because he is a fairly new Knight. Towards the end of the epic the Green Knight referrers to Gawain as the man in green. As the speaker says,” O, merrily then he spoke, the man in green/ good you’ve got your heart back…” (lines 306-307). The Green Knight says that because Gawain is the new Knight and he wasn’t afraid of dying anymore. The word green is not representing the color in this epic it is representing Gawain being a new …show more content…

A color can be used to represent many things in literature. A knight wearing a maiden’s color would be like a married guy wearing his ring. Something that is cases to do harm; isn’t always meant to be bad sometimes the bad thing can do good in other people’s lives. A knight isn’t just someone who goes into war, a knight can also represent bravery or honor. These are a few symbols mentioned in the epic. There are many more symbols in the epic Sir Gawain and the Green Knight but it would take years to go through them

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