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Character analysis of King Arthur
King arthur and the knights round table literary analysis
Analyzing King Arthur
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Lady Bertilak tempts him further by saying, “Courtly virtue lining his heart, he’d never have stayed so long with a lady and left her unkissed” (98). To uphold chivalry is to uphold courtly love. Gawain does not want to kiss another man’s wife, but he wants to uphold chivalry which calls him
Sir Gawain boldly offers to defend the King's honor when he says, "I beseech you, Sire. Let this game
Fault and redemption. What do these two words really do in our lives? Do they give us another chance or are they just concepts that we want to follow? In the world we live in, one fault can often make or break something in our lives, but when granted with redemption, we don’t always take it as seriously as needed and soon our fault becomes someone else’s pride. Sir Gawain’s faults can be a constant reminder of the mistakes we all make as humans along with the quote, “It is clear then that there can be no redemption without fault, just as one is unable to return from exile without first being sent into one.
Sir Gawain shows loyalty and humility when he makes the decision of honoring the promise he made with the Green Knight. This humility drives him to set off to pursue the Green Knight to honor the pact they agreed on. On his arrival at the Green chapel, he calls the Green Knight who emerges to greet him and to fulfill the terms of the contract (Cathell). Sir Gawain presents his neck voluntarily to the Green Knight who feigns two blows (Cooke 4). This is a commitment and a sign of piety that Gawain manifests.
Gawain takes King Arthur’s place in the competition with the green knight, chivalry dictates this as the right course of action, a knight must protect and serve the king. Gawain then delivers the blow to the green knight, who then picks up his own head, and remains alive. Gawain fails to kill the green knight and now must face his own death next year. Later, Gawain makes his way to the green chapel to face the green knight. When he visits the Lord Bertilak on his own, Gawain struggles with the Lady and what to do when she invites him to kiss her.
Gawain, who had struck a deal with the lord to surrender all things he received during his stay in the lord’s dwelling, fails to do so in the name of self-preservation. The lord’s wife gifts Sir Gawain a green sash rumored to protect its possessor from physical harm. Gawain, recalling his inevitable meeting with the Green Knight, decides to contradict his agreement with the lord and “hid[es] it away from all hands and eyes” (Line 1875). His decision blatantly violated the chivalrous code, “failing a moral test in agreeing to hide the girdle from the husband, with whom he has the prior arrangement to exchange winnings” (West 9).
He respectfully refuses the advances of the Lord's wife showing loyalty and respect for ladies. He owns up to his mistake, confesses, and apologizes. Why is Gawain
“But no wonder if a fool should fall for a female and be wiped of his wits by womanly guile- it’s the way of the world.” (Armitage: 181,2414-2416) Gawain blames all of his troubles the past year on women. Not people who might’ve gotten in his way, or the lord of the manor, but specifically woman.
Gawain is courteous to no end, even asking for permission to “abandon [his] bench and stand by [Arthur]” (Pearl Poet l. 344) so he may risk his own life instead of his kings to abide by the Green Knights game. He even humbly states that he “[is] the weakest” (l. 354) and that it would be the least lost of he was to parish which is untrue. Gawain is also extremely courteous when he is denying the wife’s attempts to seduce him saying he is “a knight unworthy” (l.1245). He plays a game of wits as he must not offend her advances but at the same time must not let the wife win the “game” because then he would have to lay with her and that would be uncourteous to his host, Lord Bertilak. The only time Gawain faults in his courteousness is when he refuses to acknowledge the agreement he made with Lord Bertilak which was “whatever [Lord Bertilak] win[s] in the wood shall at once be [Gawain’s] and whatever gain [Gawain] may get [he] shall give in exchange” (ll. 1107-08).
Gawain plays this game fairly by giving all that he has received that day to the lord and the lord doing the same with him. This changes on the third day when the lady gives him the green girdle as something to remember her by. He first refuses this gift but after the lady revels that "whoever wears this girdle cannot be killed"(PartIIISummary), Gawain then accepts the gift and only exchanges the kisses that he
Medieval society had the idea to illustrate women under two Biblical figures Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene. This caused clashes in many aspects to question what loyalty must be. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the lady who is married is portrayed to be a lion towards Gawain, wanting sex from him and making him believe the stereotype of married women unable to control her sexual desires.. Also, young women who were married were depicted wild. In Miller’s Tale, Allison is portrayed as the unfaithful young wife of John, who could not control her desires of wanting Nicholas under her sheets.
American novel deals in depth with the theme of Greed as an aspect of human conscience crisis which leads to dilemma, problems, and predicament for human being. Novels such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth, Henry James’s Washington Square , Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, Michael Crichton’s The Great Train Robbery, and others expose clear image for the theme of Greed and its implications. F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the human predicament of Americans in 1920s, through his best novel The Great Gatsby . In this novel Fitzgerald deals with the theme of a lust for money and greed .
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.
The novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published the 10th of may 1925, revolves around the main character Jay Gatsby as well as Nick Caraway. All of Nick’s supposed friends are very self-centered and greedy. I believe that the characters in the novel personify greed. The novel is told through narration from the character Nick Caraway.
Set in the lavish era of the 1920’s, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the wealthy, yet sinful life of Jay Gatsby. When describing his character, Fitzgerald touches upon the three deadly sins: greed, envy and gluttony. James Gatz, having grown up in a small town to farmers, wished to make more of himself. Disowning his parents at a young age, he went off in search for money, and a new identity. “And when the TUOLOMEE left for the West Indies and the Barbary Coast Gatsby left too” (Fitzgerald 107).
