Archetypal Characters In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of the most intriguing Middle English chivalric romances known today. The poem is a delicately written balancing act between two cultures, clashing in a time of unease between the religion of tradition, (paganism) and the new religion, (Christianity). The poem is also one of the best known Arthurian tales, with its plot combining two types of folklore patterns, the beheading game and the exchange of winnings. The Green Knight is interpreted by many as a representation of the Green Man of folklore and by others as an allusion to Christ. The story is told in stanzas of alliterative verse, ending in a bob and wheel. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an important poem in the Middle English romance genre, because it involves all the typical plot progression of a hero who goes on a quest to prove himself. Yet what sets Sir Gawain apart from heroes of lore is his inability to finish his quest. The aspect which makes Sir Gawain and the Green Knight different is Sir Gawain’s failure. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a perfect example of the struggle between enduring Paganism and newfound Christianity.

At first the hero has no clue of the excursion set upon them, they receive a call to a journey from the herald which changes their life. In the poem, during the celebration takes place when the Green Knight challenges Camelot, “If any knight be so bold as to prove my words, let him come swiftly to me here..” (Weston 6); thus ultimately making this request the call for Gawain. Even though the Green Knight displays this challenge towards King Arthur, Gawain wholeheartedly intervenes and presents himself as the one to undergo the challenge. As Gawain agrees to the “fateful region of both treasure and danger…” (Campbell 53). He is a bit hesitant towards the refusal of the call the Green Knight has exemplified to the knights of Camelot but knows he must do it for the reputation of Camelot. Gawain must decapitate the Green Knight with an axe and in return the Green Knight has a right to deal him another but respite a year and a day Gawain has been given. The hero must leave the community to reach the initiation for the ultimate task. Gawain realizes he must uphold the chivalric code and accepts the task given and leaves the following year. When the hero departs for their quest, cultural values can be examined based upon their behavior. By the time Sir Gawain must depart for the Green Chapel, Arthur’s knights place various symbols on his armour demonstrating the rank of symbolism in Camelot with reference to Christianity.

Every story that has ever been written appears to have the same story line once it is broken down. They all follow an outline that was proposed by James Campbell called the monomyth. The outcomes of the stories may vary, but they all follow a certain story outline that has certain key points within the plot. Each story is also believed to have their character fall into certain categories within the monomyth story line that makes each story have the same structure (Campbell 12). Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dramatically demonstrates how the Green Knight’s monomythic roles of the evil figure who is ultimately good, mentor, and herald contribute to the development of Sir Gawain throughout the poem.

On his journey Sir gawain comes across a great deal of character archetypes. These would include trickster, the “lord”(The Green Knight), and the supernatural aid (God). These character archetypes ultimately found their place into the stories theme,conflict, and contribution to Sir Gawain’s character development. The first character archetype would be the Green Knight who serves as the trickster/mentor. The reason why the Green Knight’s the trickster is because he discusses himself as the lord to try and trick Sir Gawain into committing adultery with his wife, but he also serves as a mentor because in the end the Green Knight teaches Sir Gawain the theme of the story. We can conclude with this because Sir Gawain states, “I shall look upon it...and remind myself of the fault and faintness of the flesh.” (Weston )This statement ultimately shows that all of the Green Knight’s tricks soon serve as a moral to Sir Gawain, teaching him to humble himself everytime he looks upon his scar. This also shows a small resolution towards Sir Gawain’s conflict,because everyone time he looks at that

Even in the middle ages of literature, a story such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight had many aspects of Joseph Campbell’s view of the hero’s journey. In the story of our character Sir Gawain accepts a “Call to adventure” (Campbell 45) and goes on a quest that will go through many of the archetypes. Likewise, there lies one character, The Green Knight, that can be many of the archetypal characters in the cycle of the hero’s journey. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dramatically demonstrates how a single character can play many archetypal roles.

Gawain, a knight of the famed King Arthur, is depicted as the most noble of knights in the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Nonetheless, he is not without fault or punishment, and is certainly susceptible to conflict. Gawain, bound to chivalry, is torn between his knightly edicts, his courtly obligations, and his mortal thoughts of self-preservation. This conflict is most evident in his failure of the tests presented to him. With devious tests of temptation and courage, Morgan le Fay is able to create a mockery of Gawain’s courtly and knightly ideals. Through the knight Gawain, the poem is able to reveal that even knights are human too with less than romantic traits.

“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” exemplifies 3 elements of an epic – supernatural forces, hero of unbelievable stature, and vast setting. In the poem, the Green Knight made first appearance in King Arthur’s round table and challenged the King. Instead of Arthur, Sir Gawain accepted the Green Knight’s game and beheaded the Green Knight. Supernaturally, the Green Knight did not die but he walked away. As the story went, the Green Knight explained that he used the spell of a witch to deform his body, which explains why he did not die when Sir Gawain cut his head. Moreover, the poem had a hero of unbelievable stature, which was Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain was known to have peerless chivalry and courtesy and has a position as one of the King Arthur’s knights. It is true that being Arthur’s knight made him high in stature, but his chivalry and courtesy mainly made him high in stature through view of others. Lastly the poem had vast settings which the story took place in various settings. At the beginning, the story started from Arthur’s round table, then Sir Gawain goes to a journey through the wilderness of northwest Britain, to a castle, then to the Green Chapel where he faced the Green Knight. Throughout the story, the setting shifts as Sir Gawain journeys to fulfill his promise with Green Knight.

Every story that follows the basic premise of John Campbell's “monomyth” theory will almost require the foundation of the tale to include certain archetypal characters that urge the story forward. This is especially evident when reading the medieval romantic story “Sir Gawain and The Green Knight” which is filled with symbolism and representative colors. The reading includes the hero of our story who is a valiant knight of King Arthur's round table, he is faced with a quest that he feels obligated to complete out of his duty to camelot. As Gawain faces the trials implemented by the overall villain of the story, Morgan La Faye, His moral development is perfected.

According to Joseph Campbell, archetypes are found just about everywhere in anything storytelling related as they are meant to serve as the foundation of a story. The departure, initiation and return are essentially the plot of any given story. Campbell describes this process as one that showcases the adventure of the “tales of a number of the world’s symbolic carriers of the destiny of Everyman” (Campbell 33). A prime example of this particular web of archetypes is portrayed in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as Gawain, the hero, journeys to find the Green Knight.

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the Green Knight takes on the role of multiple archetypes throughout the poem these different archetypes helped aid in the development of Sir Gawain. In the beginning of the poem the Green Knight becomes the “Herald or announcer of the adventure” (Campbell 48), when the Green Knight comes to the knights of the Round Table to present his challenge. After Gawain accepts and begins his travels to the Green Knight’s Chapel he stumbles across a castle belonging to the Host. Gawain makes a deal with the Host to stay for three days, unbeknownst to Gawain that the Host was the Green Knight in disguise. The Green Knight’s many roles in this poem help to develop Gawain’s character, by being his mentor figure as the Host, the Green Knight

A number of archetypal situations occur in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that serve to promote Gawain’s moral development. At first he hesitates to go to take the place of the king, but he does it anyways and he keeps putting it off when it comes to the days before the reunion with him and the Green Knight. Morgan, Arthur's sister, plays the trickster, “know where justice lay, the old trickster revealed himself, made known his prank” (Campbell 42) and the devil figure because she was unsuccessful in destroying Camelot by sending the Green Knight there to frighten Guinevere to death. When first introduced she is to be the opposite of Lady Bertilak, Lady portrayed beautifully and Morgan as the ugliness in her presence. He did not know of her being the one that is ruining his home community until the Green Knight told him that it she put him up to this. “First I menaced you with a feigned one, and hurt you not for the covenant that we made in the first night, and which you didst hold truly. All the gain didst you give me as a true man should. The other feint I proffered you for the morrow: my fair wife kissed you, and you didst give me her kisses--for both those days I gave you two blows without scathe--true man, true return. But the third time you didst fail, and therefore had you that blow. For 'tis my weed you wear, that same woven girdle, my own wife wrought it, that do I know truthfully. Now know I well your kisses, and your conversation, and the wooing of my wife, for

In almost any story lies a hero, whether it be novel or poem, and depending on the path, the hero is usually accompanied by a variety of archetypes. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines “archetype” as “the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies.” Joseph Campbell’s A Hero With A Thousand Faces explains the common archetypes that are often found in various pieces of literature. “The parallels will be immediately apparent; and these will develop a vast and amazingly constant statement of the basic truths by which man has lived throughout the millenniums of his residence on the planet,” explains Campbell in his preface to the 1949 edition. In other words, after learning of the different archetypes that can be found in a story, one can easily identify which character represents which archetype. One must also understand that each story— bearing its own unique characteristics— will not always follow Joseph Campbell’s analysis to the tee, but will bear very similar qualities. For example, a character may represent multiple archetypes. Looking at the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, we find this to be a common trend, but characters are not the only part of a story that can be analyzed. In fact, a number of archetypal situations, characters, colors, and symbols appear in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that serve to promote Gawain’s moral development.

A number of characters in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight play key archetypal roles in the perfecting of the hero’s moral development such as the Green Knight and the Hostess. These two characters reveal their importance and the theme of the entire poem through the trials that they force the main character, Sir Gawain, to endure while on the quest to maintain Camelot’s honor.

A particular archetypal character in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight who plays a central role in creating the conflicts that help to develop Gawain’s character and the ultimate theme of the work is the Green Knight. The Green Knight deals with different archetypes, the evil figure… ultimately good, the trickster, and can also be considered as the mentor. In the story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, at the end once Sir Gawain finds the green chapel the green knight brings about not necessarily to trick Sir Gawain he

In the groundbreaking work of comparative mythology, Hero With A Thousand Faces, Campbell defines archetypes as “representation[s] of the irrepresentable…smaller images of the greater (Campbell lvii). These “smaller images of the greater” throughout medieval romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight contribute to demonstrating the overall theme of human tendency toward reducing past events to superficial ones to the reader. Misfortune strikes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight when knight Sir Gawain engages in a celebration with his fellow knights and uncle King Arthur at Camelot. An unexpected visitor known as the Green Knight interrupts the festivity and challenges the King Arthur’s knights to a suicide quest. After Sir Gawain accepts, follows through with, but ultimately fails the proposed challenge, the people of Camelot positively receive him. Most interestingly, the belt that symbolises Sir Gawain’s failure to Sir Gawain himself becomes a symbol of triumph for the people of Camelot upon his return. Through his journey, Sir Gawain becomes aware of the weakness of flesh while the people of Camelot remain willfully ignorant. The dual nature of how the hero and the community view the boon reflects the illumination gained by the hero but lacking in the common person.