Archetypes In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the poem of a Sir Gawain and his quest to find the Green Knight and the green chapel in one year and a day later. This occurs after the Green Knight appears in King Arthur's court to test the honor of the legendary knights of the roundtable. The challenge he brought would be that he will withstand the blow of his axe from any of the knights as long as that knight would agree to meet him in a year and a day later to receive a blow from the axe in return. No one would accept it, not even King Arthur. Therefore Sir Gawain decides he would accept the challenge after the Green Knight provokes Arthur because he was not accepting the challenge. Sir Gawain would go on a year later on a journey to find the Green Knight and the Green Chapel with many peculiar things happening on the way. He eventually finds him and receives the same blow from the Green Knight with the axe but nothing happens to him. There are some archetypes in the story, and we will see some examples of them.

An archetype, which can also refer to as a universal symbol, can not only limit it to theme, setting, and symbol but can also refer to as a character. A type of archetype can not only represent one character, it can represent many different types of characters. Depending on the story that the author wants to try and portray. In the medieval romance, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dramatically demonstrates how a single character can play many archetypal roles. This story possesses many different types of characters that can all have more than one archetype. Having characters that more than one archetype in this story helps build Sir Gawain’s character and helps guide him through his initial quest and trails that he encounters to face in order to face the Green Knight. There are several different characters in the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that aid in the troubles that Sir Gawain faces throughout the story.

In this paper I will discuss the ideas, cultures, characteristics of the Middle Ages are referenced and how their presence interlocks in the work. Sir Gawain’s quest covers his obligation to have success on the test of becoming a Green Knight. This would help have return blow for the following Christmas. Because the Green Knight proposed a challenge, Gawain was required to follow the terms of the agreement. The journey to find the Green Knight is a sequence of temptations. He lodges at the Castle Bertilak, and completed bargains with his host. Gawain will exchange anything he gambles on with the Bertilak catches on the hunt.

In many works of literature, many archetypes (or symbols) are used to help the reader understand the story of a hero’s quest. In the Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, the hero has to go on a fatal journey to uphold the reputation of Camelot. While enduring that journey, Gawain has to conquer many trails. Gawain’s succession of trials leaves the hero, like Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, a “sadder but wiser man.” With all the trials that Gawins intakes, many archetypal characters contribute to the theme of the story.

Archetypes can be found in most literary work, especially in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight most characters or objects served to aid in the development of the hero by being either a situational, character, color, or a symbol archetype. The poem begins with a challenge being presented to the knights of the Round Table by the Green Knight. While seeing that no one else will accept the challenge, putting Camelot’s honor at stake, Gawain accepts and then realizes that in a year they must meet again and the Green Knight will return the blow that Gawain gave to him. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dramatically demonstrates how a single character can play many archetypal roles.

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.

With every corner we turn in today’s culture, we become more and more aware of the archetypes that surround us. Archetypes are the works of a typical character, situation, setting, or symbol that can be found in fantasy and reality. An example would be the renowned medieval story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Pearl Poet. The author permeates the story with situational, symbolic, and character archetypes that illustrate the profound life of Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain was apprehensive of his journey at first, but as time passes, he began to make choices that unveils to the audience the true flawed knight that he was.

In almost any story, whether novel or poem, lies a hero. Depending on the path, a variety of archetypes usually accompany the hero. 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 introduces the common archetypes often found in various pieces of literature, explaining “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,” in his preface to the 1949 edition. To summarize, after learning of the different archetypes found in a story, one

An archetypal analysis of Gawain’s quest reveals some significant changes that occur in the hero’s character. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, an Arthurian legend, our protagonist, Gawain, must interact with various character and experience different situations in ways that weave our tale together, alter Gawain’s character, and add meaning behind our story. Gawain must travel from his home of Camelot in order to preserve The Round Table’s honor by fulfilling a challenge proposed to him, In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the author utilizes situational archetypes to further our hero, Gawain, along the story. “The Call to Adventure” (Campbell 45) brought forth by the Green Knight pushes Gawain from his familiar community of Camelot out into the world of adventure. Gawain is no longer allowed to live in his peaceful world, but

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’s first portrayal of being a true knight comes when the Green Knight makes his appearance in Camelot. The Green Knight first speaks to King Arthur and proposes that they play a “game.” Arthur will strike the Green Knight with his axe, and in return the Green Knight will return the strike in a year and a day. King Arthur agrees to this game and its terms, but as he steps up to accept the challenge, Gawain comes forward and offers to participate in the “game” in place of King Arthur. Sir Gawain says to King Arthur, “I implore with prayer plain that this match should now be mine” (341-342). Gawain goes on to strike the Green Knight, cutting off his head. However, the strike does not kill the Green Knight; he picks up his head from the ground and repeats to Sir Gawain that he will return the blow in a year and a day. In this moment, Gawain’s bravery is clearly showcased. First, he takes a challenge in place of his king, which he did not have to do.

Knights are well known for their gentlemen like characteristics. They are also unique due to the fact that they follow a noble knightly code of conduct. People often refer to the codes as the “code of chivalry” where knights must follow certain traits in order to be known as noble knights. There are a fair amount of traits that knights must be known for, and I believe the most important three of them all are honesty, loyalty, and most of all bravery.

The Green Knight's original challenge was for someone to step forward and strike him with his own axe under the condition that he meet him again one year later to receive a blow in return. Arthur steps up to the challenge, but in order to protect him, Sir Gawain steps up and meets the challenge instead. One year later he leaves Camelot to fulfill his agreement to receive a blow in return. Along his way to meet the Green Knight, Sir Gawain is met with a series of challenges as he encounters new people and new places. These challenges are moral and ethical in nature and are meant to test the quality of his character. He falls short, but has given his best effort. When he comes face to face with the Green Knight, he only gives him a minor

The events of the poem begin with a feast in the court of King Arthur at New Year which the Green Knight interrupts to offer his challenge. King Arthur’s custom is to not sit down to eat until either someone has told a story about “sum aduenturus þyng”(l. 93) or if such an event actually occurs, which follows the Gawain-poet’s source of the First Continuation of Chrétien de Troyes’ Perceval . King Arthur thus symbolically invites the Green Knight into the court as providing the adventure he was waiting for, so that the Green Knight “does not disrupt the courtly ceremonial so much as complete it.” However, the Gawain-poet deviates from his source by having King Arthur accept the Green Knight’s challenge, and then Gawain interrupt the King just before he is able to do so, as opposed to the rash Caradoc who leaps forth to take up the challenge immediately. As Benson writes, by making this change from the source, Gawain “is thus no longer a free agent.” As demonstrated even by the seating in the hall , it is inevitable that Gawain should take the place of King Arthur, since for King Arthur to take the challenge is “not semly”(l. 348), and since Gawain is the second after his uncle. Gawain, introduced in the poem as “gode Gawan”(l. 109), and it is precisely on the reputation of Arthur’s knights that the

An archetypal analysis of Gawain’s quest reveals some significant changes that occur in the hero’s character. We will analyze the progress of the hero, Gawain, as he ventures out to complete his quest. By analyzing the works of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight along with The Hero With A Thousand Faces, and how it completes the Hero’s Journey.