King Arthur's Honor In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

King Arthur was an ideal person to many people during the medieval time period. He was brave, fair, fearless, supernatural, and honorable. These characteristics made King Arthur a legendary person. Many stories of the King Arthur legend exist today. These stories have many similarities and differences such as in Morte d'Arthur and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In both stories, the author's use the code of chivalry and fantasy, but one author decides to let King Arthur die and the other does not.

King Arthur and his knights represent the pinnacle of bravery, chivalry, and honor. However, when a strange knight, the Green Knight, enters Camelot with a challenge, none of the knights accept it (?). No knights wanted to go blow for blow with the Green Knight for fear of losing their lives. It is not until Arthur rises to face the challenge, to defend the honor of his court, that Gawain steps forward and accepts it. Therefore, the purpose of the Green Knight is to teach Sir Gawain to value his honor and the honor of the king more than his life.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a poem that portrays the ideal knight. Throughout this poem games tend to play a very important role. There are two different games that are played. These games are played to test a knights nobility and faith, to see how far he would go to he the perfect knight. The first game is between Gawain and the green knight. The green knight gives Gawain a challenge that he has to fulfill. During this challenge Gawain has to cut off the green knight's head. The second game is between Gawain and lady Bertilak, later in the story when Gawain goes back to finish the rest of his challenge he runs into lady Bertilak and she strikes him a deal. These games are all a test, to see which knight holds the most courage.

In the book Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain took a challenge between the knight. Sir Gawain also overcame other obstacles that he has been through. Sir Gawain went through many tests to prove that he could overcome anything. The knight challenged him, so he could prove that he wasn’t the coward he thought he was. Gawain showed his integrity by being honest and confess his wrongs. Sir Gawain showed the people of his kingdom how trustworthy he was; however, according to the book, sir Gawain was described as an honorable person, he showed integrity by admitting to his wrongful sins, and passing the test he had gone through.

There are many great movies, like “300” or “Saving Private Ryan,” that are told with the classic chivalry elements that were known to describe the noble knights from hundreds of years ago. Much like the courageous soldiers in these movies, Sir Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, faced many conflicts that might have questioned his moral code of nobleness. Sir Gawain was a great knight that was loyal to King Arthur and had the courage to take on the challenge the Green Knight proposed at the beginning of the poem. The Green Knight asks for a brave knight to strike him and in a years’ time for the challenger to receive the strike back from him. “The society in which Gawain lived was a valorous society,” (Engelhardt 219). Sir Gawain, throughout the poem, shows various traits that are traced back to chivalry. His character is not the only thing that shows chivalry elements. The symbols like the pentangle and the Green Knight himself represent values of chivalry. The plot unravels several conflicts that make Sir Gawain really contemplate the right thing to do and a major theme deals with the nature of chivalry. The poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is about chivalry because of its symbolism, plot, and the theme.

I paused, looking at him carefully. My mind spun with questions. How was it possible that one man’s ambition could destroy an entire kingdom? Tear apart families? Condemn people to hardship? I suppose we should have known. Ever since he was a young man, he had to make things right. Even as a child, he was sometimes foolish in his pursuit of justice. But who could have foreseen that this

King Arthur’s court at Camelot has rule that the knights should live by and it is the chivalrous code. Chivalry is defined as the sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight, including courtesy, generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms. To put the definition in better terms is that the more manly you are in battle, the more you have to treat your lady or wife as a princess. The fighting spirit, bravery and courtesy are important to a man’s character and cowardice is looked down upon as a severe defect.

“What is it that makes a man? Is it valor in battle? Is it a tongue that speaks true? Or is it a way with words that sways the ladies?”

Most Arthurian novels involve a violent conflict with multiple knights. In the cases of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” violence is taken to the extreme to show how knights are allowed to get away with killing innocent people as long as they are from Camelot. This idea is expressed multiple times throughout the book and movie and used in a rather humorous way.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,a religious english piece of literature about honor and keeping true to ones beliefs,is a grim story in which a mysterious green knight challenges the court of king arthur to a game. The game is one of death in which the challenger has to cut of the head of the knight with an axe and one year and one day later the green knight shall do the same to anyone who steps up and accepts the challenge. At his own demise Sir Gawain,the noble knight,accepts the challenge and drive an axe through the green knights neck,severing his head from his body. To everyone’s amazement,the green knight does not die,but instead retrieves his head from the ground and proceeds to leave the court. Sir gawain was stunned at the survival of the green knight but agrees still to meet him after the one year and one day mark has passed.

King Arthur Pendragon was truly, the greatest man who had ever lived. He was hailed as the messiah for his work in driving out the barbaric Saxons and unifying the kingdom of heaven under his steady hand. Among all the war and suffering that plagued this world, a land of peace and prosperity was created, one that valued justice and order above all else. But as with all kingdoms, there were those who sought to take power for themselves. The accursed traitor, Mordred, attempted to overthrow the great king in his thirst for power and war. He desired the queen, the throne, the country, so that he may take the world.

For example, in the medieval era, Chretien De Troyes believed that a king or knight should be perfect. De Troyes, who thinks that the poor behavior of the knights, doubled with his breakdown before the Round Table, reflects very poorly on Arthur as a leader. He believes that in order to be a good leader, a king first must conduct himself in the proper manner and lead by example. On the other hand, Amelia Joseph Burr believed that Arthur was a nationalist who put the interests of his people first. King Arthur believed the Normans and Romans were threats to the stability of England, so he drove them out.

“You’ve been unfair. Deceitful, even.” Mithian’s voice grew loud and she gave the king a look of extreme disapproval, brows drawn together and her eyes narrowed. “How would you like it if I’d done the same to you? The least you could have done was tell me the truth and allow me to decide how or if I wanted to proceed. This nonsense about how you ‘thought’ you’d be able to get over this other woman is preposterous. When you came to my chamber last night, you were still in love with her and you knew it. You should be ashamed of yourself, Arthur.” Tears ran down her face.

Lunabelle cried into Lydia’s lap while they sat on a bench. Claude stood next to them, tightly crossing his arms with frustration. It was unfair, unfair that Alis had to sacrifice herself for Claude’s stupid self. He just wanted to shout at the top of his lungs, wrecking everything around him. But no, he just punched the pillar that held up the tent.

Kara stared at the king as he finished his speech, amazed she'd been given a final chance at a reprieve rather than being led straight to the gallows. She knew then that Mordred was right about this man… saddened by the realization that Arthur had a truly merciful heart, quite unlike the monster Morgana had painted him out to be.