How Does Gawain Use Symbols In The Green Knight

In Sir Gawain, The Green Knight, the illustration strengthens the idea of the common quest known and seen in other familiar poems. The speaker uses symbols and figures to expand the understanding of the tale, although they aren't reducible to a single statement they range of many possible meanings and interpretations.

The mystical, gigantic man who disturbs the feast at Arthur’s court on New Year’s Eve is green from the bottom to the top. We can use other things we know from prior knowledge about the Green Knight and other texts to figure out what the symbolism of the color may be. For example, rather of carrying classic knightly weapons, he carries a holly branch in one hand and a large axe in the other. Both of these articles bond him

When Lady Bertilak presses Gawain to accept it, she presents it as something to remember her by, but happens to mention that it will make the wearer invincible. For Gawain, then, the green girdle represents his survival. Since Gawain fails to exchange the girdle with Bertilak as the terms of the men’s agreement dictate, it also symbolizes to the reader Gawain’s desperate desire to survive at the expense of his code of honor. Only after Gawain "fails" the Green Knight’s test does this meaning become clear to him. Gawain promises himself that he will wear the girdle forever as a symbol of his failure, but also as a reminder of how "a man may hide his misdeed, but never erase it" After all the men in Arthur’s court decide to wear a similar belt, however, the girdle takes on a new meaning – it becomes a symbol of honor. More than any in the poem, then, this girdle is a multi-dimensional object whose meaning depends upon the interpreter and the moment of

This gives him a chance to explore his identity as a knight. Sir Gawain definitely undergoes this exploration. We see this when he negotiates the conflict between his knightly duties and the code of courtesy during the seduction scenes. It’s also shown when he wars with his survival instinct in order to keep his promise to the Green Knight. What’s interesting about the setting of the seduction scenes, however, is that they occur within the oh-so-civilized castle of Sir Bertilak. Of course, as we later learn, Sir Bertilak’s castle is actually controlled by the sorceress Morgan le Fay, whose magic powers align the castle setting with the enchanted wilderness full of magical beasts through which Gawain travels, a marginal space in comparison to Arthur’s court. Sir Bertilak’s castle is also a place where women’s powers are given free rein. Morgan’s is the invisible hand that controls the palace. Also, Lady Bertilak rules the bedroom as she presses Gawain under her thumb (even, at one point, "trapping" him beneath the bedclothes). Bertilak’s palace, then, might represent a sort of parallel universe to Arthur’s, one in which women hold power. The final section of Sir Gawain takes place largely in the wilderness ruled over by the Green Knight. So wild is this place, that even the "chapel" is just a