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The Ideal Knight In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

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In Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, the characteristics of the ideal knight is represented by King Arthur’s court. However, it will be challenged by The Green Knight as well as Bertilak’s court. Sir Gawain would reach a new understanding that ideals would eventually remain as ideals and that he is human, therefore it is perfectly fine to feel weak. The clashes between religion and chivalry that defines the ideal knight in King Arthur’s court. This is found in Fitt 2 where Sir Gawain reaches Sir Bertilak’s court. In this fitt, before he enters the court, he is stripped of his armours and shield. The shield is significant as the pentangle represents the chilvaric codes — honour, courage, generosity and pledge-fulfilling — while Virgin Mary represents the …show more content…

However, due to the popularity of courtly love, fighting for a lady is to stand in for Virgin Mary. The removal of his armour and shield symbolises that his beliefs are to be challenged and break down. During his stay, he faces the three seductions scene by Lady Bertilak when Sir Bertilak goes out for hunting. These seduction scenes allows the christian ideals — chastity, fortitude, humility, temperance and satire on manners — to be at tension with the chivalric ideals. The first two seduction scenes creates tension between chastity and pledge-fulfilling towards the Lady’s advances. The last seduction scene, Lady Bertilak plays on his courage with the temptation of a chance of survival with a green girdle which is said to be able to protect him. Sir Gawain is only seen to compromise on his honour as he did not give the green girdle to Sir Bertilak as promised that they will exchange what they get for the day. Sir Gawain’s ideals that he has to hold up to as a knight has broken down as he realised that they contradicted with one another. Sir Gawain’s action of accepting the girdle suggest his desire to live. The notion of survival is an instinctive thought to

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On the other hand, Lady Bertilak possesses mental fortitude to stick to her pleas by demanding that he “teach [her about love] till [her] husband comes home” (1534). By returning the Lady’s kisses to the Green Knight, Gawain gets “a puff of air” instead of a cut from the axe (2352-3). The two sides later arrange for the deal to be extended again the next

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Deception is the act of deceiving; or the state of being deceived, which is something of very powerful nature. Deception can cause people to believe things that may or may not be true. Deception in most cases is used when an individual has a certain motive that he or she is trying to achieve. In the play Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, deception is present when Bertilak uses his wife to deceive Sir Gawain, by having her to try to seduce Sir Gawain on three different occasions. Although Sir Gawain remains loyal to Bertilak, Sir Gawain still takes the girdle; therefore, in the end Sir Gawain is left with a sense of failure, proving that Bertilak attained the motive he was seeking.

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The ideals of Christian morality and knightly qualities are represented by Gawain’s gold, star-shaped pentangle. The five knightly virtues that Sir Gawain expresses are: generosity, chastity, friendship, piety, and courtesy. From the beginning of the poem, Sir Gawain portrays his generosity by agreeing to cut the Green Knight’s head with an axe. He makes this decision after King Arthur fails to do so (Cathell, 2014).

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Sir Gawain first displays the chivalrous code when he puts his life in danger in order to protect his

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Gawain returns to King Arthur’s court all ashamed and sad that he’s failed a test of honor by withholding the green girdle from Sir Bertilak out of a desire to preserve his own life. He feels like he’s failed in his duty as a knight and let everyone down. Perhaps, more importantly, he’s learned that he’s not perfect and never will be. He explains to the whole court that he plans to wear the girdle forever as a reminder of his failing, because "a man may hide his misdeed, but never erase it, for where once it takes root the stain can never be lifted". But instead of being properly sobered, the whole court laughs at Gawain’s words and agrees that everyone in court will wear a similar girdle for Gawain’s

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When the Green Knight gives him the girdle back Gawain says "I gladly take it and be pleased to posses, not for the pure gold, nor the bright belt itself, not the beauteous pendants/When I ride in renown, and remember with shame the faults and the frailty of the flesh perverse, how it 's tenderness entices the foul taint of sin"(2439-36). It is at this point where the girdle has changed from a symbol of life to a symbol or shame and temptation. Gawain and the Green Knight say goodbye to each other and part ways. Gawain heads home ashamed of what he had done, when he gets home the court is overjoyed that he had returned and he was alive. When the court asks of the quest that he had been on he retells how it was all set up and that he now wears the green girdle out of shame because of his actions.

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“The Significance of the Pentangle Symbolism in ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.’” The Modern Language Review, vol. 74, no. 4, 1979, pp. 769–790. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3728227.

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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written by an author who is unknown to all, is a story, in the genre of Arthurian Romance/Epic, containing certain qualities of the symbolism of the Christian variety. “ So the star on this spangling shield he sported / shone royally, in gold, on a ruby red background… “ (Part 2, Lines 662-663 ) The meaning of this Pentangle has to do with Christianity. The fact that Sir Gawain displays this shield so proudly means he thinks of himself as a chivalrous and holy

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He comes across a castle and the lord and his lady offered him to stay, but the lord and Sir Gawain “agree to exchange whatever they receive during the next three days”. The translator then adds, “Sir Gawain keeps his pledge for the first two days, but he fails to give the lord the magic green girdle that the lady gives him on the third day, because she gives it with the promise that it will protect him from harm” (“from Sir Gawain…” pg. 17). Sir Gawain broke the code of chivalry, but it was to protect himself from harm he possibly could’ve received from the Green

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Taking the scenes described above in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the actions that both Lady Bertilik and Sir Gawain convey are actually the opposite course of action each fantasizes about. Using the example of rape culture, Zizek writes, “Men who actually perform rapes do not fantasize about raping women -- ….they fantasize about...finding a loving partner; rape is rather a violent passage d l’acte emerging from their incapacity to find such a partner in real life.” (Zizek, p. 702) If we take this approach to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, what occurs in the bedroom is the complete opposite of what both wish to do. Lady Bertalik, who fantasizes about being a noble and submissive wife to Hautdesert, agrees to this twisted game of flirtation at the supposed suggestion of her husband.

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