Essay On Homosexuality In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

In medieval times, could it be possible that the stories being written are about homosexuality? Many scholars would conclude that homosexuality was not included in the composition of stories during this time. The story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight does not have a known author, instead what we do know about the author is based on what we can tell from his knowledge written in the story like the geography of the land. Because there is not a lot of information known about the poet, readers can not use his details to determine what may have been his view or point of this story. The Sir Gawain and the Green Knight poet utilizes gender role inversion, rejection of heterosexual behavior, and acceptance of homosexual behavior in a thorough modern reading to deny the presence of heteronormativity in this piece of medieval literature. The author creates a gender role inversion between the characters of Betilak’s wife and Sir Gawain through many comparisons in their actions. Bertilak’s wife takes on more traditionally masculine traits while Sir Gawain is described with more feminine traits when the two characters are together. In the first bedroom encounter of the two characters, Bertilak’s wife sneaks into the guest bedroom where Sir Gawain is sleeping and says “let’s make a truce, or I’ll bind you in

Within the actions of the characters in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, mostly Sir Gawain himself, the rejection of heteronormative actions and acceptance of homosexuality becomes more clear. The use of gender role inversion, rejection of heterosexual behavior and the acceptance of homosexual behavior that can be discovered by looking at this paper with a queer theory lens makes the theory that heteronormative actions were not the only accepted actions can be