Sir Gawain And Green Knight Analysis

gender role. The Lady’s role questions traditional presumptions of the roles of women in medieval literature. Women of the Middle Ages were generally dependent, inferior, and many female portraits in medieval texts did not fare better. While men of the Middle Ages were generally chivalry, valiance, noble and honest. Throughout the poem I began to see gender roles being reversed between Lady Bertilak and Sir Gawain.

A medieval romance is a kind of writing that has a mysterious, supernatural setting, idealizes chivalry and courtly love, and may involve masking a character's real identity. Usually the hero of a medieval romance is a knight who takes an unusual challenge and whose triumph brings glory to the king and the nation. This paper will be an analytical essay, I will examine the writing “Sir Gawain and the Green knight” and show how it fits into the medieval romance genre.

 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of the most intriguing Middle English chivalric romances known today. The poem is a delicately written balancing act between two cultures, clashing in a time of unease between the religion of tradition, (paganism) and the new religion, (Christianity). The poem is also one of the best known Arthurian tales, with its plot combining two types of folklore patterns, the beheading game and the exchange of winnings. The Green Knight is interpreted by many as a representation of the Green Man of folklore and by others as an allusion to Christ. The story is told in stanzas of alliterative verse, ending in a bob and wheel. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an important poem in the Middle English romance genre, because it involves all the typical plot progression of a hero who goes on a quest to prove himself. Yet what sets Sir Gawain apart from heroes of lore is his inability to finish his quest. The aspect which makes Sir Gawain and the Green Knight different is Sir Gawain’s failure. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a perfect example of the struggle between enduring Paganism and newfound Christianity.

“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is the classic tale of a knight of the round table who takes up the challenge of the mysterious Green Knight. The poem begins with the Green Knight’s sudden arrival and his declaration of his proposition: a knight may strike him, and then a year and one day from then he will return the blow. This tale is most well-known for dealing with the themes of a knight’s code of chivalry, loyalty, resisting temptation, and keeping one’s word. While the whole poem is full of great lines that beautifully deliver the message, one of the best passages come at the end of the poem after Sir Gawain has managed to survive his second encounter with the Green Knight. This passage perfectly encompasses the various themes of the poem, as it deals with all of the trials Gawain has faced up until that point and also explains how he deals with the shame he feels for surviving the game in the way he did.

Many years ago, knights were expected to form a certain type of relationship with their king, this relationship was otherwise known as fealty. Fealty is a knight’s sworn loyalty to their king (in other words a loyal relationship should be formed between the two). The use of this relationship is shown in the poem called “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” ( the author is unknown). This poem has a classic quest type of formula, with a knight receiving a challenge and then going out on a journey to pursue that challenge, leading to a return home to report the results of his quest. This story begins at Christmas time when a knight (who is completely green) rides into King Arthur 's hall. The Green Knight proposes a game to those who are around him which is that “Any knight brave enough to strike off the Green Knight 's head may do so, but that man must accept a return stroke in approximately one year’s time”. Gawain accepts the challenge because he will not allow King Arthur to accept this. Gawain manages to then cut off the Green Knight 's head. The knight then picks up his severed head and leaves, telling Gawain to look for the Green Chapel when it is time for Gawain to fulfill the other half of the challenge that he has accepted. Near the end of the chosen year, Gawain sets out in search of the Green Chapel because he must complete the given challenge. On his journey in search of the Green knight, he finds a castle in the wilderness. The

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the poem of a Sir Gawain and his quest to find the Green Knight and the green chapel in one year and a day later. This occurs after the Green Knight appears in King Arthur's court to test the honor of the legendary knights of the roundtable. The challenge he brought would be that he will withstand the blow of his axe from any of the knights as long as that knight would agree to meet him in a year and a day later to receive a blow from the axe in return. No one would accept it, not even King Arthur. Therefore Sir Gawain decides he would accept the challenge after the Green Knight provokes Arthur because he was not accepting the challenge. Sir Gawain would go on a year later on a journey to find the Green Knight and the Green Chapel with many peculiar things happening on the way. He eventually finds him and receives the same blow from the Green Knight with the axe but nothing happens to him. There are some archetypes in the story, and we will see some examples of them.

Medieval romances are dramatic theatrical narratives that usually include heroes, adventures, and of course the excitement of love. These stories have been around since the 12th century, first appearing in France and then later seen in England. They were some of the most popular texts of the era. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of these stories introduced in the 13th century. In fact, it’s so old that nobody knows who even wrote the poem. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an exciting tale where Sir Gawain is tested as a knight by facing challenges and adventures. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight shows us the all the main traits and characteristics of a medieval romance, such as supernatural elements, mistaken identity, larger than life characters, and lastly a hero facing and passing tests of loyalty.

The tale of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” focuses primarily on beliefs of honor, bravery, and chivalry. The main character, Sir Gawain, embodies these qualities. His character is meant to be a model of chivalry. He emanates honor when he offers to fight the Green Knight for King Arthur. Medieval people would admire this courageous act. In his struggles to keep his promise Gawain demonstrates chivalry and loyalty until his honor is assessed, in the end, by the Green Knight’s schemes. This tale also includes a larger-than-life character who commands respect, the Green Knight. This superhuman being defies all laws of nature when his head is chopped off, yet he still remains alive and alert. These characters and their extraordinary actions provide perspective for the values and interests of medieval people.

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, after Gawain ventures “into a forest fastness, fearsome and wild” (Norton, 311), he prays that he will be able to find “harborage” on Christmas Eve (Norton, 312). It is the middle of winter, and Gawain has been traveling in search of the Green Knight whose head he has cut off. After he prays and signs himself three times, Gawain finds a magical castle in the midst of a winter forest. He rides to the castle and is granted permission to enter by the lord. Gawain is attended to in a fashion befitting kings, and he meets the lord who tells his identity to all in the court. There are many significant implications and foreshadowings which occur during Gawain’s

Sir Gawain and The Green Knight is considered not only a most brilliant example of Middle English poetry but one of the jewels in the crown English Literatures, and sits in the British Library under conditions of high security and controlled humidity. In the anonymously written story, Sir Gawain And The Green Knight shows Sir Gawain’s chivalry form his loyalty to his King, being testing by Green Knight, and his behavior during game playing.

What really characterized the medieval period?is that each literary movement was influential in the creation of other texts. It was a kind of appreciation for literature in the sense that each piece of literature fed into another which means that they were connected and that there were influences between them at the time.

Sir Gawain and The Green Knight is about Arthur and his knights having a New Years Eve party. Suddenly, a stranger walks in on his horse with his green skin and a challenge. He challenged king arthur to play a game but his nephew stepped in his place. Gawain was to hit the Green Knight as hard as he could with the axe and he would return the favor. He struck a blow, the knight’s head rolled to the floor, the Green Knight got off his horse and picked it up and rode off so fast they thought sparks had flew off the horses hooves. The challenge of the green knight challenged Gawain's honesty and bravery. Later on in the story, Gawain finds out that the Green Knight was really Lord Berkilac and he was testing him. The tests of Lord Berkilac will question both his and Sir Gawain’s character, nobility, and bravery.

Nothing is known about the author who wrote the medieval poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Yet it is considered one of the greatest works from the Middle English era. It tells a tale of a mysterious and magical figure (The Green Knight) who presents a challenge to the pride and wealth of Arthur's kingdom. Sir Gawain accepts the challenge. However, the real test of the Green Knight isn't about strength or swordsmanship. It's a test of character.

“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.

According to Christopher Reeve, “a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” In today’s culture, the hero is frequently depicted as a knight in shining armor, an image that originates from age-old literature such as the fourteenth-century Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In such literary works, the heroic knight has several virtuosic character traits: friendship, chastity, generosity, courtesy, and piety; however, he must also endure a quest in which his virtues are tested. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, three obstacles challenge the hero Gawain’s morals, including the Green Knight, the seductress, and the threat of death, leading to a further maturity of