The Theme Of Chivalry In 'Sir Gawain And The Green Knight'

The poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight focuses on Sir Gawain’s attempt to survive a game brought on by the green knight during Christmas time. This game has Sir Gawain take an axe to the green knight’s head and in return the green knight will come back in a year and return the blow. As time passes by, Sir Gawain realizes he is reaching death because he knows he will not survive the axe as the green knight did; therefore, he decides to find the green knight before the green knight finds him. The author provides the audience with symbolism to show how although Sir Gawain has knightly virtues, he is human and capable of error. The green girdle symbolizes moral truth, which is demonstrated by how the character passes every test except one.

Chivalry Back in the medieval period, Chivalry was a set of rules that were to be followed by the Knights. The Chivalric Code was made up of many different ideas such as: honesty, forbearance, courtliness, humility, loyalty, sovereignty, and respect for women. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Le Morte d’Arthur, and King Arthur they follow these rules, which has some advantages and disadvantages. In which version do the characters best display chivalry? Which version’s characters are the most admirable and why?

1. The dichotomous Nature of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight The topic of spirituality, divinity and otherworldly phenomena is quite common in medieval literature and there is a multitude of contexts, in which these topics are addressed. The protagonists of those texts find themselves in a balancing act between the secular world and a supernatural world, where they need to overcome struggles to master the difficulties of their worlds’ dualisms. Be it an otherworld of fairies or the christian hereafter, those worlds and the mundane conduct often influence each other reciprocally in the stories of medieval literature.

Romance as a genre has two basic plots: the adventure plot and the love plot. In these plots, there is usually an individual hero who is on a quest. The hero, usually a knight, encounters one or more others. The two most important others are the public other and the private other. The public other competes with the outside worlds, such as: enemies, animals, monsters, strange environments and adverse conditions.

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.

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.

“Lanval” by Marie de France and the Pearl Poet’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight both tell the tales of two knights caught in potentially fatal predicaments. The Medieval works share many similarities within the characters and thematic elements each story contains. Perhaps the most interesting similarity is the depiction of sexuality and seduction that takes place between the knights and the wives of the two kings. Along with the heterosexual exchanges, there are unobscured statements and actions that point toward homosexuality. For instance, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as well as, “Lanval” Gawain and Lanval are repeatedly subjected towards a Queen’s advances of lust and desire, though under different circumstances.

After receiving The Medal of Honor, Douglas MacArthur said “ Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.” When thinking about honor many may think that honesty is the most important characteristic to obtain. When being honest, people are held to not lie, cheat, or steal. Not only is a honorable person honest, they are fair, and also highly respected.

In this world now, people think of chivalry as men behaving courteously towards women; for example, holding the door for them or offering them their jackets when they are cold. However, the story of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight portrays a different aspect of chivalry: that of the medieval times. The chivalry of the medieval times suggests that it is more than just being courteous to women. In the story,Sir Gawain gets challenged by the Green Knight. Sir Gawain then goes to find the Green Knight.

Gamze Ünlütabak Hülya Taflı Düzgün ELIT 201 27 November 2014 SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT Research Questions 1. What is Sir Gawain’s spiritual test? 2. Could Sir Gawain complete his quest and did he have the qualities of chivalry?

In the poem of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” written by the Pearl Poet, there are very prevalent amounts of symbolism. Some of the symbols within the poem are easy to see while other symbols are not so easily found or even understood by the reader. The easy symbols the reader can clearly see in the poem would be the Pentangle, the Girdle, and the color green. The symbols that are harder to see in the poem, is the number three, and certain objects such as the axe and the rose. The symbolism used by the author gives the poem a deeper plot and a more important meaning.

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales contains two comparable tales; “The Knights Tale” and “The Miller’s Tale.” These two tales show contradicting realities of love while exploring how to win someone over. Both stories display more than one man trying to win the attention of a woman. To begin, the love in “The Knights Tale” represents courtly love.

The three Ideas of Chivalry (How Chivalry is connected in the stories?) Have you ever been taught how to treat a lady? Have you ever been told how you should be treated? Today, respect for women is different, but I think it’s the same way for men as well. In the old ways, women had to respect their men, and obey them.

Sir Gawain succeeded in upholding his virtues and the Chivalric Code countless times throughout the story. One of the earliest signs of chivalry Sir Gawain shows can be seen at King Arthur’s court, where the Green Knight first appeared before the Knights and challenged them to a game. Sir Gawain shows courage by bravely accepting the challenge, but he also shows humility by praising the other knights and degrading himself by saying, “I am the weakest, I know, and the feeblest of wit, and to tell the truth, there would be the least loss in my life.” (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl Poet, pg. 8)