Paradox In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

While the code of chivalry is intended to reflect concepts created by Christian morality, the real world applications of this code often end up setting the chivalrous at odds with the ideals they seek to uphold. Few stories exemplify this concept more than Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In the beginning of the poem, Sir Gawain is able to act both chivalrously and in accordance with his Christian code of morals. However, as the poem progresses, he is forced to make choices between the code of chivalry, and Christian ideals. Although in the beginning of the poem Gawain is able to satisfy both his chivalric duty and Christian ideals, he is later forced to compromise his Christian values for the sake of chivalry.

Faith as part of the code of chivalry can be seen as a major idea throughout “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” and is explained in more detail in the writing “Grace Versus Merit in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” In “Grace Versus Merit in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” the author is explaining how faith is a huge part of the story of Sir Gawain. He states that the poem “is deeply imbued with Christian moral values…” (Champion 413). Champion goes on to give some examples of how the writer of the poem “‘was thoroughly familiar with the trends of religious concepts’”

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain is described as a perfect embodiment of Solomon’s Pentangle. Before Sir Gawain rides off to receive the Green Knight’s blow, he has the Pentangle painted onto his shield. All five points of the pentangle on Sir GAwain’s shield symbolize a virtue of a perfect knight. They are the Five sense/ witts, the five fingers, the five wounds of Christ, the five joys of Mary, and the 5 virtues. The five virtues are generosity, sociability, courtesy, compassion/piety and purity.

It is so easy to point out the flaws in others, but how difficult and painful it is to address one’s own flawed life. In commentaries on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Grogan addresses the faults within Gawain through Lady Bertilak, and Shoaf acknowledges Gawain’s sin, and Benson emphasises Gawain’s subtle obsession with his identity. Nedra C. Grogan in her essay “Mulier est hominis confusio: The Green Knight’s Lady” approaches the lady in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in a different view than other critics. Grogan points out that many neglect the importance and significance that lady Bertilak serves, and therefore closely analyzes the lady in her personality, abilities, and her purpose in the poem.

Whether it’s done intentionally or not, every work of literature addresses the human condition in some form or another. And the human condition is a complicated matter. It is humanity’s ceaseless internal struggle between what is good and what is evil and the nagging question as to which side humanity is defined by; which side is the mistake and which is the truth. For we are capable of both great evil and great good. According to George Bernard Shaw, a Native American elder once told him, “Inside of me there are two dogs.

Friedrich Nietzsche, a prominent leader in the existentialist and postmodern movement, once stated, “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.” Stereotypically, monsters are viewed as the foil to humanity, devoid of reason, compassion, and the gentle nature of humans. Contrary, humans are often portrayed as valiant and reasonable beings, who protect kin and society from evils. Nevertheless, there is only a small difference between the two sides, and they are brought into continued interaction with each other. In these interactions, by challenging the physical and psychological processes of human nature, “monsters” are able to test conventional understandings of humans, forcing them to choose between keeping

Sir Gawain and the Green knight is one of the oldest and best known Arthurian stories that is thought to date back to the late fourteenth century. A knight is understood to be a warrior and a strong individual who serves a monarch or leader, but what really makes a knight? What qualities and morals are expected of a knight? Are strength and prowess enough or are knights supposed to be chivalrous, courteous, brave, and honorable? If so, did they ever make mistakes or were they perfect?

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the author’s rhetorical purpose is to entertain the reader by telling a story of a knight learning truth and honesty. The author uses color, alliteration, repetition, bob and wheel, and antanaclasis to keep you interested in reading the poem. The first rhetorical device is color. The author uses color to help you picture what the characters look like. The uses sentences like “Splendid that the knight errant stood in a splay of green, and green, too, was the mane of his destrier.”

George Engelhardt’s article, “The Predicament of Gawain”, reflects on the predicaments that Sir Gawain was faced with and how Gawain handled these situations. The predicaments Gawain coped with were not made for knights of zero valor, temperance, and other codes of chivalry. Engelhardt proposes that the pentangle on Sir Gawain’s shield symbolizes Gawain’s reputation, which was without any mistake, and again the quandary he faced tested his reputation. The pentangle also represents the “complete man” which Gawain is thought to be by many people. Engelhart continues to talk about how the society, that Gawain was alive during, rooted from a race of men that loved conflict, “but it was Gawain who especially excelled in valor” (Engelhardt 219).

Even though the author of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is anonymous, the story is an embodiment of an epic heroic story. The story delivers evidence of the type of power that Kings and nobility held in the social culture. When the Green Knight challenges King Arthur, Sir Gawain steps up to represent and defend his king in spite of being weak. Sir Gawain states “I am the weakest…the loss of my life would be least of any; that I have you for uncle is my only praise…this folly befits not a king” (Greenblatt & Abrams, 2006, p. 131, 354-358). The nephew of the King’s offers his own life in order to preserve the King.