The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle Essays

Arcite and Palamon, friends and foes, both fighting for the hand of the same woman. Love, true love, is that not one of the most popular themes in any type of media? The most common portrayal of love is a forbidden love, but after that is rivaled love. Two people fighting for the love of a single person. In “The Knight’s Tale,” Chaucer gives us this exact same theme. Arcite and Palamon, cousins, both attempting to earn the hand of the beautiful Emily. When looking closer at them, we can see some

de France, Bisclavret’s wife betrays him both by taking away his humanity and by taking a lover, and for that, she is disfigured as her punishment. The inverse occurs in The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle: Ragnelle, disfigured by her stepmother, manipulates both Arthur and Gawain to secure her marriage with Gawain, and she is rewarded with beauty. These women are ultimately judged not by their manipulative actions but how

One of the most important and prominent supporting figures in Arthurian literature is Sir Gawain, who seems to be somewhat of a prevailing figure within most stories about King Arthur and the glorious Camelot. The character of Gawain goes back to the beginnings of Arthurian legend, as he is mentioned in some of the earliest Welsh sources. Following the writings about Sir Gawain from these earlier legends on down to more modern ones, Gawain’s character clearly gets more developed and colorful. He