Examples Of 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

​Sir Gawain, nephew to the well-known King Arthur of the Round Table, is regarded as the most elite and noble of all the knights in the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Yet, like anyone else in the world, Sir Gawain is far from perfect. Gawain, a courteous knight living a life dedicated to honor, courage, and self-preservation, is tested on his chivalrous code throughout his journey; a search for the Green Knight. Throughout the tests, Gawain’s actions reveal that even the best of men can be selfish and are subject to guilt and sin.

The author goes on to reveal yet another very important attribute of the loyal knight, his moral goodness. This is done in the description of the shield that Gawain arms himself with to undertake his journey to the Green Chapel. The shield is adorned "with [a] pentangle portrayed in purest gold" (Sir Gawain, l. 620). This pentangle symbolizes Gawain’s "faith in the five wounds of

“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, perhaps the most perfectly wrought of all medieval English romances, has called forth a wealth of scholarly commentary, in regard to its main symbol, the Pentangle” (Beauregard). Christianity is evident in this epic poem. “Some knights in the Medieval Era would carry a shield symbolizing bravery and battle; Sir Gawain is symbolized by the Pentangle that shows his morals” (Beauregard). The pentangle symbolizes the virtues to which Gawain aspires: to possess brotherly love, courtesy, piety, and chastity, “First he was deemed flawless in his five senses;/ secondly his five fingers that were never at fault;/ thirdly the five wounds Christ received on the cross/…The fifth set of five which I heard the knight followed / including friendship and fraternity/, purity and politeness that impressed at all times/, and pity which

When Gawain finally embarks on his quest to find the Green Chapel, his code of chivalry is

Shown to be a noble high class knight, Gawain’s behavior portrays that he is a brave and moral character. When King Arthur is about to meet the Green Knight’s challenge, Gawain steps in to take his place and asserts that he is the weakest of all knights and that he would not be missed if he had died. He conveys that he is truly humble and is willing to sacrifice himself for his uncle, expressing his courage and chivalric values of selfless loyalty. Furthermore, Gawain is depicted as “reputed good and, like gold well refined, He was devoid of all villainy, every virtue displaying”, hence the golden pentangle represents his purity and given that it is also a symbol of religion, Gawain depicts that he wants to be connected to God and maybe

    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 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by an unknown author referred to as the “Pearl Poet,” we are introduced to Sir Gawain. Gawain is a knight of the Round Table and he is also the nephew of King Arthur. As a knight, Gawain is expected to possess and abide by many chivalrous facets. Throughout the poem he portrays many of the qualities a knight should possess, such as bravery, courtesy, and honor among others. Because of his ability to possess these virtues even when tempted to stray away from them, Sir Gawain is a true knight.

Sir Gawain accurately portrays his outward pentangle identity and knightly virtues through his armor through his travels. His armor carries the symbol of the pentangle or the “endless knot” (2.630), which characterizes Gawain as “For ever faithful five-fold in five-fold fashion / [with] … good works … [and] with virtues adorned”. His armor embodies visually the expectations his chivalric virtues of courage, courtesy, and fidelity and the pentangle with its five senses, fingers, joys, virtues, and wounds. As Gawain travels through the dangerous and cold forest, he bravely continues on to find the green knight and hold true to his vows and his armor. The commitment of Gawain to complete his duty satisfies his knightly virtues of courage and faithfulness and the virtues of the pentangle. He encounters serpents,

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 finally moves on from the castle and goes to the Green chapel, which happens to be a mound. He gets there, and is admittedly scared, but ready to die. The Green knight goes to strike Sir Gawain with his axe, but does not. The Green knight notices Sir Gawain flinches and begins to mock him. Sir Gawain proceeds to tell the Green knight that he will not be able to pick up his head like the Green knight did. The Green Knight goes to strike Sir Gawain a second time and Sir Gawain does not flinch this time. Sir Gawain is ready to die now after the first flinch. The Green knight then went to strike Sir Gawain a third time and he began to get frustrated, the Green knight began to talk with Sir

In Arthurian romances, the knight Gawain fulfills a central role as a member of the legendary Round Table. Alone or accompanied by other chivalrous knights, Gawain traverses the land of Logres, searching for adventures and achieving great feats of heroism. To those he encounters on his quests, Gawain often represents the epitome of chivalry and knightly valor. However, Gawain’s actual characterization is not constant in every tale where he is present. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Chretien de Troye’s Perceval, and Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur, Gawain’s character vacillates from being the paragon of chivalry to the antithesis of heroism, and these characterizations serve as a foil to the figures of

- The Green Knight’s challenge entails two crucial perspectives that principally deal with humanity’s morality and frailness. The Green Knight exemplifies the natural world that wants to challenge what a civilized society can be really capable of instead of spreading boastful words. The Green Knight’s first intention of the challenge is to test King Arthur’s gallantry in order to perceive if he is righteous enough to be a King of Camelot. If he does not accept the challenge, then that would be an indication of cowardice.

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

The pentangle in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight which is displayed on the front side of Gawain’s shield, represents his knighthood and all that Gawain stands for. “In particular, Gawain 's courtesy is associated with his virtue in the symbolic device of the pentangle in his shield (Morgan, p.770).” One of the points of the pentangle represents courtesy, which means a knight has to be courteous to not only women, but also men, in order to be able to be seen as reaching this pillar. Courtesy is an important virtue to knights because without courtesy knights would be seen as rude and uncaring, so knights provide their service free of charge, while acting as politely as possible, in order to try and achieve this mark of knighthood. Gawain was