Sir Gawain in Transition Essay

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.

Throughout this story, Sir Gawain has shown his great personality, and his commitment to being a true knight. He proved that he was humble, self-disciplined, truthful, and had integrity. Gawain woke up one morning to find that the host's wife had crept in the room, and sat on his bed. She jokes that she had snuck in and captured him. Gawain plays along, until the wife tries to talk him into engaging sexually. Gawain continuously denies her requests politely. The Wife says that she would have married him instead if she could have. Sir Gawain was humble and expresses that her husband is a better man. she finally gives up, but requests a kiss. She continues this for the next two days, yet Gawain contains himself, and keeps his mind and body pure,

The first temptation of Gawain is perhaps the most difficult for him to defend. This temptation corresponds with the hunt scene involving a stag. In terms of the hunt, the stag is hunted due to it being a staple food, but it can also be mounted as a trophy. In the same sense, the Queen views him as the “stag” she is trying to hunt. Her sexual desire for him is the sole purpose of her “pursuit”. She then tries to guilt him by saying, “A good man like Gawain… could have never lingered so long with a lady without craving a kiss” (p.164; line 1297). She is, in a sense, "hunting" Gawain in that she is pursuing him for the sole purpose of making him her “trophy” but is not flirting with him as much as she does in the next two temptations. If he falls prey to this temptation, then he has failed his knightly honor. In his reaction to the Queen, Gawain acts much like a stag. He first tries to unsuccessfully ignore her. Then, he stealthily avoids her advances, not directly confronting her, but subtly downplaying her advances, until he could attempt to escape.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a classic example of the behaviors of a medieval knight and how the code of chivalry works within the courts and towards women. When Sir Gawain visits Bertiak’s castle, he respectfully treats the elderly woman and Bertiak’s beautiful young wife with the same level of dignity. “To the elder in homage he humbly bows; the lovelier he salutes with a light embrace. They welcome him warmly, and straightaway he asks to be received as their servant, if they so desire” (lines 973-976). The treatment of women is an essential part of the code of chivalry. If Sir Gawain had only given attention to the pretty young woman, then he would not have been abiding by the knight’s code of honor. He also keeps the code of chivalry intact when he says “Lover have I none, nor will have, yet awhile” (line 1790). Sir Gawain says this to Bertiak’s attractive wife, when she tries seducing him in the bedroom, which proved Sir Gawain’s loyalty to Bertiak, upholding his chivalric code. Honorable Sir Gawain demonstrates the knightly code of chivalry throughout the poem.

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.

More proof of Sir Gawain’s chivalrous and courageous character is evident when he arrives at Bercilak’s court. The people are honored that their guest is Sir Gawain, the most honored of all the knights on earth, even though Gawain describes himself as young and untested. They whisper to each other that Gawain, whose “courage is ever-constant” and “custom-pure,” will demonstrate and teach them his “command of manners” and “love’s language”(SGGK l. 912, 924, 927). The conversation of the household serves to provide proof of his Gawain's fine character.

Sir Gawain is reluctant to accept the Green Knight’s challenge. He fears for his life. In the end he only accepts the challenge to protect King Arthur’s life and honor. He knows it is his duty to protect King Arthur, but only volunteers to do so at the last second. Sir Gawain also breaks his oath to the Lord of the castle he is staying in. He broke their vow to trade whatever they had earned during the day when he keeps a sash the Lady of the castle gives him because he believes it will protect him during his battle with the Green Knight.

Gawain however will not coward out and will remain loyal to the agreement and shrugs off the warning. He eventually runs into the Green Chapel and calls out for the Green Knight. The Green Knight takes three swings at Gawain purposefully missing the first two, and then nipping the neck of Gawain on the third blow. Gawain, not harmed, arose and requested to fight the Green Knight drawing his sword. The Green Knight says he didn’t want to fight only because Gawain has fulfilled the agreement already. He explains that he spared Gawain the first two times for receiving the kisses back from him but the third blow was for not returning the Green Girdle he received. Gawain was thankful and explained that women were the reason for men’s downfall giving examples. The Green Knight introduces himself as Lord Bertilak and explained the Old lady whose face was covered was his Aunt Morgan Le Fay, Merlin’s apprentice, and that he had a spell cast on him. He says the main reason he came to King Arthur’s court was Morgan Le Fay’s plan to scare Queen Guinevere to death. He asked Gawain to come and stay at his castle because he is loved there but he declines and rides back to Camelot with The Girdle under his left arm to show that he committed fault to enemies back along the way as well as the

Tricked by the Green Knight and Morgan le Faye, Gawain, driven by his sense of duty and honor, must sacrifice his own life for those ideals. I believe that though Gawain is a bit foolish in his quest to lose his head, he did make the correct decision in protecting Arthur. Like King Beowulf, the loss of Arthur would have been very detrimental to the society at the time. Gawain sacrifices himself in order to preserve Order.

On the contrary, this type of modesty would invoke feelings of pity.Regardless of what others were thinking at the time, Gawain is determined to bare the cross of his deed in order to gain high renown among his peers and the devotion of the king. King Arthur's demonstrates his appreciation through his words of praise and the feast celebrating Gawain's courage.This is because he is expected, as a knight, to excel at humility and modesty due to the importance of the Christian state of mind in this epic poem. Gawain is a humble knight with a brave heart and many human flaws. Along with humility, the many traits of a good Christian Knight, such as chastity, are shown through Gawain’s encounter with Lady Bertilak. When speaking to lady Bertilak, Gawain admires her in a respectful and sacred approach. “As myself ever can, however long I may live/ would be absolute folly, noble lady, on my word/ I will carry out your desires with all my power/ as I am in all duty bound, and always will be/ the servant of your wishes” (Fitt 3.1544-1548). He assures her that for as long as he shall live, he will remain her noble servant attending to her every wish. Interestingly, although he has promised her to do as she pleases; he rejects her desire of a sexual encounter. He shows humility towards her for he is “completely unworthy” (Fitt 3.1244) of her seduction. He wants to remain true to his word, but cannot come to terms of allowing himself to

By portraying Gawain as noble and honorable, the poet is able to shock the reader with actions that are uncharacteristic of a chivalrous knight. The first of these conflicting actions is obvious in the temptation of Gawain by his host's lady. This lady, the huntress, seeks to pursue Gawain in order to fool him into actions that contrast the knightly ideal. She will do anything to accomplish these actions in him, even through sexual temptations. With another man's wife pursuing him, Gawain must be courtly to the lady, but at the same time must deny her advances. This unavoidable conflict creates a fear within Gawain. Upon discovering that the lovely lady was approaching him in bed, Gawain lays a sleep, in order to "try her intent" (1199). This action reveals Gawain's fear that his host's lady is pursuing him. This unavoidable fear causes his failure of courtliness, for Gawain would have claimed a kiss from the lady, but did not. The lady ridicules him for this, even though, the situation was unavoidable. Gawain must abide by his morals and abstain from immoral thoughts, while at the same time being a courteous guest. Moreover, Gawain is forced to make a choice between courtesy and adultery, either of which would result in the dishonor of the lady ,his host, or Gawain himself. By choosing to return each of the following kisses received, Gawain is able

Undoubtedly, it won’t be much different to the loathly lady. When King Arthur seeks the loathly lady for help to save his kingdom from Black knight’s challenge, the loathly lady needs to answer a question in order to help him. Then the loathly lady said, “I can answer your question’, she said. ‘There’s no mystery to that!” (Hasting 2). Although King Arthur asked many other woman before he had met the loathly lady, no one was able to give him a satisfying answer, which cause him to give the loathly lady a try. The loathly lady perceives that King Arthur can help her break the curse. Before that, she had no trouble solving Black knight’s question. Eventually King Arthur grants her a wish, and the loathly lady notices that she has the chance to change her future. Through this, her fast thinking skill and quick reaction is demonstrated. According to the loathly lady’s goal, she wants to discard her old appearance. After she gains a wish from King Arthur, she demands, “give me one of your knights to be my husband” (Hasting 2). The plan of the loathly lady is to marry a knight. With regards to this, she sets up the request and strategy to release the spell. According to the loathly lady’s dialogues and action, she is a clever one as being

Women in the story all seem to be described as beautiful, which leads me believe that this was indeed written to attract the attention of knights and make them think that they too could find themselves a gorgeous damsel to marry. Lunete is described as a handsome brunette, very discreet, shrewd, and intelligent. Another example of this is when many of Arthur's knights are joined by "some ninety ladies, each of who are handsome, well-mannered, noble, sophisticated, prudent, and wise, persons of high lineage." So, part of a woman's role in the story is to be an object of love, and representative of the chivalrous ideals, which all Knights

Throughout the story, Gawain expresses a healthy amount of fear for his life and future. His actions sometimes exhibit this fear, a shown when he flinches and dodges away from the Green Knight’s first real blow. This rejects the idea of a “fearless” knight or hero. Gawain also displays a lack of courteous behavior in that he accepts some of the lady’s advances. He prioritizes the lady’s satisfaction over the proper, faithful behavior he owes to the lord of the castle.

As Arthur travels through the forest to face Sir Gromer Somer Joure with his book of answers, he knows his fate is sealed. Death is at his head unless he can find an answer that will save his life. Like the answer to his prayers, the hag sits waiting for him: "She was as ungodly a creature/As evere man sawe witheoute mesure." (page 331, lines 228-229) To Arthur she is such a disgusting sight to see that when she tells him her price for the answer is her marriage to Gawain, he feels too much pity for Gawain to agree instantly. However, like her historical image, the hag gets what she wants when Gawain observes the comitatus and agrees to do whatever it takes to protect Arthur from Sir Gromer.