Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Essay

“Sir Gawain and the Green knight” is a romantic Middle English poem written in the fourteenth century by an unknown author. This poem is a fairy-tale like story that gives its readers a glimpse into the social class system of Medieval England. This literary work opens with the famous King Arthur, a local bishop, and King Arthur’s knights enjoying a royal feast at Camelot during the Christmas season. This poem provides an accurate depiction of the feudal system of the middle ages. Within this tale are individuals representing the “pyramid of power” that symbolizes the social class system of Medieval England. This top of the pyramid group consists of royalty, clergy and noble knights.

Throughout history, archetypes have become increasingly common. In the medieval, chivalrous, romance narrative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, archetypes are heavily displayed, particularly in the character of the Green Knight- who holds several archetypal roles himself. The Green Knight performs the most crucial archetypal roles in the reading and he plays a pivotal part in perfecting of the hero’s--Gawain’s--moral development and revealing some significant changes that occur in the hero’s character.

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

The story displays a type of chivalry by Gawain through respect. Knights respect women, their peers, as

With any story, characters are an essential part of understanding the growth and development of a hero while also allowing the reader to better understand the overall message of a piece of literature. That being said, the poem entitled Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is no different as the knight, Sir Gawain, serves as its hero while other characters help fulfill the various archetypes within “the idea of the monomyth that Campbell defines”. (Campbell lviii) Throughout the poem, Gawain finds himself interacting with the aforementioned archetypal characters and becoming a more honorable knight in the process. Two characters in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight play key archetypal roles in the perfecting of the hero’s moral development.

The tale of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight is a well-known piece of literature spawning from the middle Ages. It’s believed to be dated around the year 1400 and it currently survives on a single manuscript in the British Library shared by three other poems. Pearl, is one of the middle-aged poems on the manuscript, the other two are named: “Patience” and “Cleanliness,” and are considered Bible Stories to Historians. These Other Poems however haven’t shown promise of survival in British Literature and Chivalry courses as much as Sir Gawain and The Green Knight has. Not having a known Author also makes this story all the more interesting considering the nature behind the story as well as the mysticism involved in the text. In this essay, a broad

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 Pearl poet’s Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, an epic talk emerges to reveal a man’s journey of honesty, morals, and honor. Sir Gawain accepts a challenge in place of his uncle King Arthur, with hidden tests and viable consequences. As Gawain begins his journey, he proudly upholds his knightly honor and seeks out his own death; however, Gawain gives into his human emotion and is soon distracted from his chivalrous motives. As a result of this distraction, Gawain is marked with a scar to show his dishonest and cowardly deception. This scar is a visible reminder to Sir Gawain that honor and prestige cannot always protect against the desires of the flesh. Gawain pays for his sins at the Green Knights axe (Stone 136). This sin

Though often extensive detail may be condemned as mere flowery language, in understanding Sir Gawain and the Green Knight one must make special emphasis on it. In color and imagery itself, the unknown author paints the very fibers of this work, allowing Sir Gawain to discern the nuances of ritualistic chivalry and truth. His quest after the Green Knight is as simple as ones quest toward himself. Through acute awareness of the physical world he encounters Gawain comes to an understanding of the world beyond chivalry, a connection to G-d, the source of truth. He learns, chivalry, like a machine, will always function properly, but in order to derive meaning from its product he must allow nature to affect him.

Throughout the history of fictional writing, cultural values of certain time periods have been expressed and implemented through the depiction of the heroes’ experiences on their journeys and the knowledge they gain by the quest’s end. For example, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a chivalric romance written in the Late Middle Ages, Gawain epitomizes a knight with the characteristics that knights from the Late Middle Ages were expected to possess according to the requirements outlined in the rules of chivalry, such as honor and valor. Likewise, Beowulf, the hero of the folk epic Beowulf, embodies the qualities of an exemplary hero as well as king. Therefore, in both stories, the reader encounters a heroic character that is presented with traits that Anglo-Saxons and the Middle English valued in their culture through their stories’ monomyths, a concept of similar and structural sequences that can be applied to many stories, created by Joseph Campbell. Some of these values are carried from the Early to Late Middle Ages and can be seen through the works of both Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Beowulf.

Between 1100s and 1500s English Literature has evolved from epic poems written in Old English, like Beowulf, to poems about Christian values and courtly love written in Middle English, a new language spoken after the Norman conquest. It is in this time period that the poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” was written. This essay explores the poem's female characters such as Queen Guinevere, Morgan Le Fay, Lady Bertilak and the Virgin Mary throughout the text and their marginal and secondary role in the story.

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 an Arthurian poem; an enchanting story of chivalry, romance and heroism. With its intricately woven details, parallels and symbols, the reader will often easily overlook these facets in a story of this caliber. Undoubtedly, the author would not have spent time on details that do not add to the meaning of the overall telling of the story. The three hunting scenes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and in parallel, the three temptations, monopolize a considerable portion of the story. In a comparison of the three hunts and their corresponding temptations, we will see how the poet parallels these circumstances to emphasize the meaning of its symbolism.

 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 an Arthurian romance that is one of the first to highlight women’s roles during the period of change that comes with King Arthur’s demise. Culturally, during the time period, women had little perceived power. Women were treated well and often idolized, but they remained in a male-dominated society, where they were not respected as their own capable beings. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is heavily laced with the Knight’s “Code of Honor,” namely the idea of chivalry. During this time, the chivalric code gave men the idea that women could not achieve much, so these men needed to achieve it for them. Women in Arthurian times, as well as throughout the rest of cultural history, were seen as the downfall of men. Compared to Eve from Biblical times, women were a symbol of lust, sexuality, and temptation. It was the man’s duty to avoid those temptations and remain virtuous. This essay argues the use of this poem as a forewarning toward the danger of women to men’s honor and chivalric values. ¬