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Archetypal Roles In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

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In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight there are many archetypal figures influencing Gawain’s growth as a hero. Gawain must deal with many characters throughout his journey, these dealings reveal many sides of his character and tend to his moral growth. He learns many things from different aspects of the journey but he learns the most from the interactions with the characters. A number of characters in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight play key archetypal roles in the perfecting of the hero’s moral development. The temptress’ actions of seduction towards Gawain as the Lady of the castle, take place over three days, and are three trials Gawain must go through to prove his moral standing. The repetition of three could be an allusion to the Bible and …show more content…

At the beginning he is both the herald and the trickster, he is overall the devil figure, in the end he is Gawain’s mentor, ultimately the evil figure that turned good.Though Green Knight’s role as the mentor of Gawain is the most important. The Green Knight turned out to be the host, so he knew if Gawain would stay true to their deal, when Gawain didn’t The Green Knight cut Gawain once. Uncoincidentally, The Green Knight swung at Gawain’s neck three times and only cut him slightly the third time, just like the third time that Gawain didn’t give the girdle to the host when Gawain should have. These three times also tie into the Holy Trinity. The slight cut is representative to Gawain that he should always stay true to his word, and be chivalrous. Arthur, the King of Camelot, considered to be the mentor of Gawain in the beginning of the story. Arthur as the King of Camelot has many knights that must uphold a code of honor, and chivalry. Arthur’s morals are considered to be that of the highest standing. Gawain models his morals after Arthur, so Arthur’s influence and teachings are the foundation of Gawain’s morals. According to the hero’s journey there must be a theme, a message the author is trying to get across through the hero’s trials and experiences. The characters in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight play the largest role in getting this theme across to the reader and to Gawain. The idea that being honest and chivalrous is the best way to lead

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