Sir Gawain is an extremely humble man, one that is in complete submission to his lord King Arthur in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. While many characters in literature, such as Achilles, are a fireball of rage and testosterone, Sir Gawain is calm, cool, and always in complete control of himself. Gawain is humble as well, describing himself as the “weakest of [King Arthur’s] warriors”, one that is barely fit to sit at the King’s royal table (Armitage: Fitt 1: 734). Sir Gawain, according to Confucius in Analects, would be considered a gentleman, “straight as an arrow” in the noble’s court and on the battlefield (Confucius: Book XV: 15.7). He is extremely courteous, a man of his word, and performs the role of a knight adamantly. While Sir Gawain’s humbleness and self-deprecation is evident throughout the story, it is not justified or reasonable because Gawain is overstating his courtesy to put himself in the limelight.
There are two types of pride in a man, low pride and high pride. High pride is the type of pride that Achilles in The Iliad exhibits,
…show more content…
When accepting the Green Knight’s challenge, he states “were I not [King Arthur’s] nephew my life would mean nothing”, emphasizing his unimportance (Armitage: Fitt 1: 734). This is the proper way to act in front of the King and his court, and the attitude of self-deprecation is only fitting for a knight such as him. In a way he is correct, because in the Feudal System, knights are only a step above the freeman and serfs, therefore extremely unimportant compared to the King and his royal company. In this sense, he should ask to “politely take love of [his] place at the table” to accept the Green Knights challenge, because he is only a guest in the royal court (Armitage: Fitt 1: 734). However, since he is of royal blood, and because he is related to the king, this humbleness seems eerily similar to low pride in the eyes of the
To be Humble or to be Honest It’s better to be hated for what you are then to be loved for something you're not, a quote by Andre Gide that symbolizes the relationship of all the characters. Those who rather sell themselves then to be loyal are people whom we can’t rely on. To be coward is to be someone who doesn’t accept reality.
Chivalry has many features that shape a knight, however the virtues that Sir Gawain presents the most are courage and honesty. One time when Gawain showed honesty and courage is when he went to fulfill his deal with the Green Knight. The guide leading Gawain to the Green Chapel told Gawain that he should run and that no one would know about his Failure to keep his promise. But Gawain said he must fulfill his deal: “But however heedfully thou hid it, if I here departed,/ faith in fear now to flee, in fashion thou speakest,/ I should a knight coward be, I Could not be excused./ Noy, I’ll fare to the chapel, whatever chance may befall” (85.13-16).
Sir Gawain is the story of a Knight whose quest was to kill the Green Knight. He made a vow of celibacy and throughout his story he is faced with challenges to
After Gawain had been challenged, he had a year and a day to wait for the fight. He had plenty of time to abandon the task to save himself, but his courage and honor held him at his word. As a Knight, he had to honor his word, himself, and his King and seek to find the Green Knight. Although it must have been hard for Gawain to stay, considering natural human instincts is to flee from danger. This shows courage not only in his status as a Knight, but in Gawain himself.
Knightly chivalry is a code of behavior. It creates and names the values of the knights, and they try to follow the code of chivalry in everything they do. Many of the values covered in the code are derived from Christian morality ideas. The code includes friendship, generosity, chastity, courtesy, and piety. The code of chivalry applies to Sir Gawain because Arthur’s castle and court live by the code, or at least try to.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late fourteenth century Arthurian Romance Poem. During the time of Sir Gawain, society was dominated by males with women receiving little power. Women were treated with chivalry, but not respected as beings of their own rights. Knights were prided in having the code of chivalry yet were under the assumption woman could not attain much for themselves.
The main theme of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the journey to maturity of Gawain, the hero. During the passage, Gawain goes through three tests on his development. First, Gawain shows courage and resourcefulness when he volunteers to take the Green Knight’s challenge instead of Arthur doing so. Second, Gawain shows authority, self-restraint, and integrity when he denies the sexual endeavours of the lady of the house. Lastly, Gawain shows bravery when he faces death by keeping his meeting with the Green
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, whose author is unknown, is an Arthurian Romance/Epic that holds a degree of Christian symbolism. These Christian symbols are intermixed with Britannic Pagan traditions and themes in order to appeal more to the common British people at the time of the early Christianization of Britain. This can be supported by the stories of kings being created in the earlier centuries throughout history. In this particular story, this symbolism is important since all the knights of King Arthur’s Court were supposed to follow a certain chivalrous code of conduct, whether present in the courts or away on some other venture. The chivalric code being the embodiment of Christian virtue and valor, which was expected to be personified
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight In the Pearl Poet’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, an epic story emerges to reveal a man’s journey of honor, honesty, valor, and loyalty. Throughout Gawain’s adventures in the poem, he discovers and demonstrates his own chivalric qualities. Although he makes a few mistakes along the way he strives to be an honorable man.
The ideals of Christian morality and knightly qualities are represented by Gawain’s gold, star-shaped pentangle. The five knightly virtues that Sir Gawain expresses are: generosity, chastity, friendship, piety, and courtesy. From the beginning of the poem, Sir Gawain portrays his generosity by agreeing to cut the Green Knight’s head with an axe. He makes this decision after King Arthur fails to do so (Cathell, 2014).
Not all heroes are perfect, but some are nobler than others. In the story of Sir Gawain, we find out that even legends, such as Sir Gawain made mistakes. In today’s time, most heroes are thought of as militaristic accomplishments, such as badges, wars won, and saving lives. Sir Gawain was a hero, not because of great accomplishments but because he was driven by his bravery, nobility, and virtue.
“All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.” A man named Sophocles once said this in the play, Antigone. Pride is where a person has a very high and mighty opinion of their own selves. This may lead to turmoil in lives of their self or others.
Gawain is courteous to no end, even asking for permission to “abandon [his] bench and stand by [Arthur]” (Pearl Poet l. 344) so he may risk his own life instead of his kings to abide by the Green Knights game. He even humbly states that he “[is] the weakest” (l. 354) and that it would be the least lost of he was to parish which is untrue. Gawain is also extremely courteous when he is denying the wife’s attempts to seduce him saying he is “a knight unworthy” (l.1245). He plays a game of wits as he must not offend her advances but at the same time must not let the wife win the “game” because then he would have to lay with her and that would be uncourteous to his host, Lord Bertilak. The only time Gawain faults in his courteousness is when he refuses to acknowledge the agreement he made with Lord Bertilak which was “whatever [Lord Bertilak] win[s] in the wood shall at once be [Gawain’s] and whatever gain [Gawain] may get [he] shall give in exchange” (ll. 1107-08).
Sir Gawain is the main character in the story and is seen as a good knight even though he does not think so highly of himself. He puts himself in the way of danger to protect his king, and this selfless act earns him the title of the greatest of all knights. “Should
In Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, the characteristics of the ideal knight is represented by King Arthur’s court. However, it will be challenged by The Green Knight as well as Bertilak’s court. Sir Gawain would reach a new understanding that ideals would eventually remain as ideals and that he is human, therefore it is perfectly fine to feel weak. The clashes between religion and chivalry that defines the ideal knight in King Arthur’s court.