Pentangle In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance about the adventure of Sir Gawain, King Arthur's Knight of the Round Table. This great verse is praised not only for its complex plot and rich language, but also for its sophisticated use of symbolism. Symbolism is a technique used in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to give a significance to the plot. The Green Knight, the Green Sash, and Sir Gawain's Shield are three of the most prominent symbols given to us in this verse.

​In the beginning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain is introduced as a courtly knight with a sense of perfection. The author does this to compare it to his failures, which are later displayed through Gawain’s acts at Morgan le Fay’s castle. Gawain is portrayed to be a chivalrous knight with honor and courage. Gawain is presented with a challenge: accept the game to cut off the Green Knight’s head, and in a test of courage and honor, set out to allow the Green Knight to return the favor to him in a year and a day. This initially shows the knightly characteristics of Gawain which presents him as noble and honorable, which allows the author to shock the audience when Gawain falls under pressure to actions that contradict the chivalrous code. The first of these actions taken by Gawain in opposition to his morals is the temptation

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

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 has an overload of symbolic archetypes, though one of the most symbolic, in my opinion, is Gawain’s shield. This symbolic shield accompanies Gawain on his journey to the Green Knight’s Chapel and has multiple meanings within itself. One is the picture of the Virgin

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,

The pentangle is Gawain's shield, it is used in battles and it is the shield he takes on his journey in search for the Green Knight. The pentangle contains the five virtues that Gawain is supposed to live by and stay true to throughout his

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 and the Green Knight” is an excellent work to reference when examining different relationships within Arthurian legends. The author of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is unknown, but he is sometimes referred to as the “Gawain Poet” or “Pearl Poet” because of his additional works: “Pearl,” “Purity,” and “Patience.” All four poems were part of the Alliterative Revival of the Middle Ages of Northern England, containing mostly religious content. This may be the origin of Gawain’s exaggeratedly religious portrayal in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is organized in a stanza arrangement. Each stanza ends with one short line and four longer lines, called the bob and wheel, which “knits” the story together. It may important to note that the work was most likely written in the fourteenth century. The work is set in sixth-seventh centuries, but includes modern advances in armory, dress, and décor from the time the poem was written. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” exhibits many different types of love and relationships in which they are demonstrated. Familial love, spiritual love, erotic love, and courtly love are demonstrated within families, friendships, marriages, and Godly relationships.

This heroism is symbolized most effectively with his shield, which bears a pentangle. The points on this symbol represent the knightly virtues of franchise, fellowship, cleanliness, courtesy, and pity, and it is said that “For ever faithful five-fold in five-fold fashion/Was Gawain in good works, as gold unalloyed/Devoid of all villainy, with virtues adorned in sight” (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 632-635). The shield reflects the chivalric qualities Gawain possesses without fail, and shows him to be a knight of the utmost honor. The shield also symbolizes piety, which Gawain shows more in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight than in the other stories. On the inner part of the shield is an image of the Virgin Mary, and looking at this image gives him strength (649-650). As much as the shield represents Gawain’s chivalry, it also represents the driving force behind his actions, which is his faith. Of Gawain, it is said that “All his fealty was fixed upon the five wounds/That Christ got on the cross, as the creed tells;/And wherever this man in melee took part,/His one thought was of this, past all things else” (642-645). Gawain uses his faith to fuel his actions, and to early Christian audiences reading this story this would be a clear indication of Gawain’s

The most significance of Gawain’s clothing emphasize his strength and courage of him sacrificing his life. Gawain shield represent the five areas of virtue: “flawless five senses, flauntless five fingers, faith in five wounds, fortitude in five joys, and fifth of fives” (Poet 740-41). According to Gawain, “those five things are more important to him than most other men” (Poet 741). The author greatly describe his clothing and the meaning of his shield because the inside of the pentangle contains an image of the Virgin Mary to make sure Gawain never loses heart. It is a symbol of truth, which the star has locked in with each other, forming what is called the endless knot.

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

Moreover, the pentangles five points create a structure for the poem to follow as ‘its five points fall at significant junctures of the poem” (Derrickson, 11). Therefore, Gawain’s shield fashions an important symbol in the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as the pentangles five virtues form the journey that Gawain embarks on in the poem. The use of the literary device of symbolism that is seen here, gives the poem its shape and a structure to follow, and assimilates the events in the poem.