Archetypes In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight : Character Analysis

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.

When talking about a morally ambiguous character, many ideas may float to mind. Perhaps a Dr. Jekyll type of person will pop up in your mind, or maybe just simply a person who doesn’t let morality get in the way of their ambitions. For a character to have a sense of evil present in them, it is not necessary for them to walk around with an ominous laugh, or anything comical in those lines. Similarly, for a character to have a sense of good, it does not mean they have to be perfectly correct either. In order to put the morally ambiguity into perspective, it is necessary to analyze the presence of both good and evil into a real character, and how it affects the story as a whole. From the Pearl Poet’s chivalric romance, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, Sir Gawain is an excellent example of a morally ambiguous character. In the poem, Gawain’s purely good image was shattered when he cut off the Green Knight’s head, since he took the game as a challenge. That event could be considered as the event that set the plot into action, as the following events are all resulting from Gawain’s action. However, Gawain symbolizes good by initially embracing the knight's moral code in accepting the challenge and then, agreeing to the terms of the Green Knight. Gawain still symbolizes goodness by demonstrating proper knightly actions at times. The Pearl Poet uses Gawain as a morally ambiguous character to set up the plot. He firstly sets up Gawain as a good character, then uses a series of

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, many archetypes can be found, like in most works of literature. This literary work included situational and symbolic archetypes as well as character archetypes and color archetypes. Each archetype in the poem aided in Sir Gawain’s development as a character. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dramatically demonstrates how a single character can play many archetypal roles.

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.

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.

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.

The definition of “hero” is someone who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. Both stories listed below have one man, the hero, using chivalrous attitude to help their town’s people for the better. Although created from two different time periods, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’s journey motif can be easily compared to Beowulf’s, as well as contrasted.

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.

Everyone desires something in life. The protagonists in fantasy will go on quests one of the reasons are his or her desires that convinces his or her to leave but these desires can evolve in time. Often revealing what the main character wants from life by the end of their quest. After examining Artmiage’s text I believe that Gawain’s original desire was to get the approval of King Arthur and to prove that he is a great knight. Gawain states “I am weakest of your warriors and feeblest of wit; loss of my life would be grieved the least. Were I not your nephew my life would be nothing; to be born of your blood is my body’s only claim” (Artmiage, 20). This shows he is being self-critical believing any honour he has is a result of Arthur. Generally

ethic like Christianity, which views sin as an inevitable part of a man’s character. In fact, part of the lesson that Gawain must take away from his encounter is that he is an imperfect being, as prone to failure as anyone else.

The main events that unfold in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight predicate themselves on an initial challenge offered by the titular Green Knight:

As many brave men and women stand up and fight for our country, not to benefit them but just to help fight for our freedom no just their own. An act to courageous for many living within the United States of America but to American soldiers it is just another day fighting and protecting the people of America. Even though it is common for the military to protect civilians, they do have a similar character who has the same mindset as they do. Sir Gawain, the youngest knight of the round table, Took up the Green Knight on his dare on new years eve in Camelot which is King Arthur's court. In the unidentified but has been called Sir Gawain and the Green Knight poem, this man of the round table is brave enough to take upon the dare

Throughout the history of fictional writing, cultural values of certain time periods have been expressed and implemented through the depiction of the heroes’ experiences on their journeys and the knowledge they gain by the quest’s end. For example, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a chivalric romance written in the Late Middle Ages, Gawain epitomizes a knight with the characteristics that knights from the Late Middle Ages were expected to possess according to the requirements outlined in the rules of chivalry, such as honor and valor. Likewise, Beowulf, the hero of the folk epic Beowulf, embodies the qualities of an exemplary hero as well as king. Therefore, in both stories, the reader encounters a heroic character that is presented with traits that Anglo-Saxons and the Middle English valued in their culture through their stories’ monomyths, a concept of similar and structural sequences that can be applied to many stories, created by Joseph Campbell. Some of these values are carried from the Early to Late Middle Ages and can be seen through the works of both Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Beowulf.