Chivalry In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

When you think of a knight what do you picture? Do you picture a fragile, cowardly, dishonorable man? Of course not, you picture a strong man who is willing to give up his life for the kingdom. In “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” retold by Susan Thompson, a legend is told of, Sir Gawain on his quest to protect his king and fellow knights’ honor. After the Green Knight had challenged them and embarrassed King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Sir Gawain took up the challenge in an act of true chivalry. In this legend about a battle of knighthood between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain is the better knight. He is a true romantic hero and follows the Knight’s Code of Chivalry, by serving the liege lord, King Arthur, in valor

Essay with Outline  Loyalty, courage, honor, purity, and courtesy are all attributes of a knight that displays chivalry. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is truly a story of the test of these attributes. In order to have a true test of these attributes, there must first be a knight worthy of being tested, meaning that the knight must possess chivalric attributes to begin with. Sir Gawain is self admittedly not the best knight around. He says "I am the weakest, well I know, and of wit feeblest; / and the loss of my life [will] be least of any" (Sir Gawain, l. 354-355). To continue on testing a knight that does not seem worthy certainly will not result in much of a story, or in

The fourteenth century placed social and economic changes in the government. The founding of chivalric orders kept aristocratic ideals alive, and because of this, there were major changes in chivalry. Chivalry is the religious, moral, and social code of a medieval knight. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain is characterized as being one of the most loyal knights that followed chivalric orders. Not only is he deemed loyal, but he has a reputation of being a great and courtly lover. Great knights are devoted to the church before anything else. On the other hand, when courtly love is presented to him, Gawain is conflicted between the physical love and spiritual love he has for the church. Morgan le Fay and Lady Bertilak sought to use their strength and age differences to test Gawain’s knightly honor. Lady Bertilak’s role, specifically, were orders of Lord Bertilak. Behind closed doors, Lady Bertilak had a powerful presence because she tempted Gawain with tokens of love. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Lady Bertilak is the most powerful female in the story because the sexual innuendos she fulfills for her husband tests Gawain’s knightly honor.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a classic example of the behaviors of a medieval knight and how the code of chivalry works within the courts and towards women. When Sir Gawain visits Bertiak’s castle, he respectfully treats the elderly woman and Bertiak’s beautiful young wife with the same level of dignity. “To the elder in homage he humbly bows; the lovelier he salutes with a light embrace. They welcome him warmly, and straightaway he asks to be received as their servant, if they so desire” (lines 973-976). The treatment of women is an essential part of the code of chivalry. If Sir Gawain had only given attention to the pretty young woman, then he would not have been abiding by the knight’s code of honor. He also keeps the code of chivalry intact when he says “Lover have I none, nor will have, yet awhile” (line 1790). Sir Gawain says this to Bertiak’s attractive wife, when she tries seducing him in the bedroom, which proved Sir Gawain’s loyalty to Bertiak, upholding his chivalric code. Honorable Sir Gawain demonstrates the knightly code of chivalry throughout the poem.

    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a tale that takes place in the medieval period. During this time period, knights were considered very common and were expected to follow one main code of law, chivalry. This code mainly stated that a knight must be loyal to his king, honest, modest, and brave. Chivalry is practiced in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in the form of tests that are given to Gawain to reveal his true character, and what is valued most to him. Throughout these tests, Sir Gawain proves that he values his honor over his life and will not fall to temptations displayed to him.

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem, The Knight’s Tale, the author encapsulates chivalrous characteristics in his telling of a battle for love. In its fundamental form, chivalry idealizes a knight’s conduct, both on and off the battlefield (Gregory-Abbott). Chaucer employs this “heroic code [of] bravery, loyalty, and service to one's lord” to illustrate the idillic knight throughout the narrative (Rossignol). Chaucer’s poem, The Knight’s Tale, exhibits the ideals of chivalry in the form of two knights, desperately in love with the same woman, and a wise Duke who embodies the voice of reason. Each knight upholds honor through compassion, troths, and heroism on the battlefield, despite their afflictions with each other.

With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity, you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight there were three major tests of integrity. Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. To be blindly tested by a man he just met, sir Gawain proved himself worthy aside from the sash test. The Green Knight tested Sir Gawain’s integrity by making a deal, telling his wife to seduce him, and giving him the sash through his wife.

In literature, authors often use words that have many meanings within the piece of work. By looking deeper into these meanings, an insightful interpretation can be developed to allow the reader to experience a version of the work not apparent from the surface. In “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” the author successfully attaches virtue, vice, and valour to the green girdle, an object Sir Gawain obtains as a gift. The green colour of the girdle represents rejuvenation and change throughout the story. Just as nature is reborn when winter changes to spring, Sir Gawain is reborn when the girdles meaning changes from virtue to vice to valour. This helps Sir Gawain to recognize the qualities he possesses in his character, and he eventually

Humans are not perfect! Sir Gawain the great knight had flaws and showed many human qualities. Even King Arthur had his flaws and made bad decisions. Guinevere is also not perfect as she gets tempted by Lancelot. Humans also love, hate, and can be evil or good.

How is integrity portrayed throughout "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"? Integrity is commonly known as being honest. Sir Gawain obtained integrity throughout the entire story. He faced several dilemmas; however, he did not succumb to his morals as a loyal knight and husband. The theme of integrity was observed through Sir Gawain's character. As a major theme in the story, Sir Gawain enforced integrity by being confident and courageous, neglecting seduction, and confessing his guilt and sins.

Christianity principles’ correlation to chivalry was expressed by how Gawain carried himself. While he was staying in the castle, he made sure he conducted himself as a knight would. There was nothing less than a respectful tone ever spoken from him. He thanked God for leading him to shelter. There was never a fear of his fate because what was to come was God’s will. The Middle Ages chivalry was contradictive when it came to the relationship between Gawain and Bertilak’s Wife. His Christian ideal was to honor the king and queen for quartering him from the cold. Gawain engaged in some inappropriate contact with the Queen. The status of the Queen would have never allowed him to be allowed with her in his bedroom. Gawain never touched her, but

Upon first Reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, I noticed that it comes off as a romantic normative poem about chivalric ideals and traditions of the ruling class with covertly Christian Images. The protagonist character Sir Gawain stands out as the role model of the chivalric ideals of the 14th century while displaying Christian images on his armor. The combination of Gawain’s armor and actions throughout the poem exemplify his characteristics of Christian perfection and chivalric ideals. The very first scene with Bertilak of Hautdesert known as the Green Knight begins to mold your perception of how chivalrous Sir Gawain is by portraying him as valiant, humble, and virtuous knight to Arthur. I felt that the interruption of Arthur

In the opening lines of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Gawain-poet predicates the numerous dualities—which lead the reader through questions of moral seriousness—that exist in the poem. The opening historical recounting, according to Richard Hamilton Green, reminds the reader that “the greatness of the past is marred by reminders of failure” (179). The paradox of triumph and greatness arising out of failure foreshadows Sir Gawain following the same pattern of fate as his predecessors. While the completion of Gawain’s quest reaffirms the historical paradox of greatness, his journey to renown is fraught with situations and symbols that develop the poem’s main concern of moral seriousness. The Gawain-poet skillfully reveals his

At the end of Medieval literature a new literature was created. Women wanted stories where they could have a role. The women wanted to be treated like queens. This idea of courtly love-where a knight honored a married woman like he would “his liege lord” (Schwartz 1) can be found in Gardner’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Sir Gawain must honor such a lady. Because Sir Gawain honors a married woman, he struggles with being an honest and loyal knight.

In Chrétien de Troyes’ Yvain, Calogrenant relates his ‘adventure’ in Broceliande. He meets a monstrous herdsman in a forest, who asks who Calogrenant is: