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Similarities Between Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

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The Medieval and Renaissance time periods had very distinctive styles with certain characteristics specific to their own. Medieval works can be classified by their usage of the following 5 characteristics: courtly romance, heroic quest, alliterative verse, bob & wheel, and use of lineage. Courtly romance and heroic quest are heavily used styles in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Knights venturing off on quests to prove they are honorable to their court is what the Medieval period is all about! This is evident in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight when Pearl Poet writes “As Fortune them might aid- in quest of honour fair- This was his custom good when as in court he were” (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Chapter 5). Pearl Poet also carefully …show more content…

The first chapter of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is bursting with a history of lineage to set the stage. Those characteristics of Medieval literature differ greatly than the styles of the Renaissance period. The Renaissance styles include: return to the greeks, humanism, and iambic pentameter. Renaissance Literature can clearly be seen returning to the greeks in Hamlet, where Hamlet struggles with “Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And, by opposing, end them?” (Hamlet Act III, Scene I, Lines 58-61). Hamlet values classic Greek values such as truth, beauty, and wisdom, none of which he can find in his tragic life, which makes him question whether life is worth it at all. The return to Greek’s values and ideals during the Renaissance age happened due to the humanism sweeping Europe. Theaters and plays became more widely available, and people were encouraged to study and learn about the Greeks. Another key characteristic of the Renaissance time period is Shakespeare’s classic iambic pentameter, which can also be seen in lines 58-61 of Act II Scene II. All these characteristics add a different element to the Renaissance period, and help us identify literature from that time

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