The Middle Ages is a period best characterized with the feudal system¬-vassals serve their feudal lords in exchange for land. While the men fight for land and wealth, the women manage the manor. A chivalrous knight in shining armor is the image that comes to mind when one thinks of the Medieval ages regardless of the fact that women upheld the Manor System. Women of the Medieval Era were never seen; they often worked behind the scenes while the men were praised. In the romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Gawain-poet seamlessly shifts the poem from a male-dominated story to a female-orchestrated narrative over the course of a minimal bob-and-wheel; In doing so, the poet comically criticizes the norm by making men appear to be pawns …show more content…
While Lord Bertilak, who is the Green Knight, explains the ploy to Gawain, he claims that “it was all [his] scheme,” but he soon after contradicts himself by adding that “she made a trial” (Sir Gawain 4.2361,2) of Gawain. Lord Bertilak’s explanation of the ruse makes it appear as if he acted of his own volition. However, the Gawain-poet reveals Morgan Le Fey’s dominant role in the narrative while Lord Bertilak attempts to assert his dominance. This further supports the argument that Medieval women’s roles are overlooked by those of their male counterparts. The Green Knight pardons Gawain’s shortcomings and claims that Gawain is “polished as a pearl” (Sir Gawain 4.2393) even though Gawain’s faults are not his to forgive. His casual gift of mercy is meant to overlook Morgan’s role as the moderator of the “Beheading Game” (Heng 9). This once again validates the claim that men, often times unwittingly, make light of women’s efforts in the Middle …show more content…
Throughout the poem, it is suggested that the women’s main roles are to “serve the masculine narrative” (Heng 3). Before Morgan Le Fey’s introduction to the story, one would not thoroughly examine the purpose of any of the women – The Virgin Mary, Guenevere, and Lady Bertilak – not in relation to their male correspondent. After understanding that Morgan’s motive for the “Beheading Game” is to target Guenevere, one could argue that the men are used to serve the feminine narrative. over the course of the play, the reader can oftentimes find himself questioning certain aspects of the story. In the most puzzling part of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight “[appears] the sedimentations of feminine desire” (Heng 3). As the Green Knight explains the hoax to Sir Gawain, one might question the Green Knight’s motive or desire to target King Arthur. At the mention of Morgan Le Fey, the story comes full circle, giving the reader complete insight. After the scheme is revealed to Sir Gawain he goes on an antifeminist diatribe. In the attempt to defend himself, Gawain “attributes all responsibility and power to women” (Heng 3). In his monologue, Gawain cites multiple men whose lives “were ruined by [women’s] wiles” (Sir Gawain 4.2420). Gawain’s pursuit to advocate for his actions asserts that time and time again women dominate male narratives. The Gawain-poet draws attention to
All throughout the poem titled Sir Gawain and the Green Knight it simply seems as if it is full of male power and masculinity. Sir Gawain, a knight from King Arthur’s court who steps up and agrees to take the blow from the Green Knight’s axe when he interrupts the holiday feast. The obvious male power of King Arthur, the power and masculinity of the Green Knight to come in and demand that one knight must receive a blow from his axe, and masculinity of Sir Gawain to step up and not only agree to take the blow but to cut off the Green Knight’s head first. The male power and masculinity shining through all three of these male characters mentioned is very prominent. We later meet Lord Bertilak who also shows male power and masculinity through his
In the early fourteenth century, knighthood represented respect and success for brave young men, and chivalry’s codes were necessary for those young men to uphold. In the book Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the author constructs the young Sir Gawain by testing his character. These trials, given by the Green Knight, challenge Sir Gawain 's loyalty and bravery to people’s astonishment Sir Gawain 's achievement is muddled. During the test he breaks his promise and takes away the green girdle that he supposes to exchange with Bertilak just likes his bargain.
...stops him from sleeping with Bertilak’s wife, only until his finds a way to avoid death does he goes against them. What Gawain learns from the green knight’s challenge is that instinctively he is just a human who is concerned with his own life over anything else. Chivalry does provide a valuable set of rules and ideals toward which one to strive for, but a person must remain aware of their own mortality and weaknesses. Sir Gawain’s flinching at the green knight’s swinging ax, his time in the woods using animal nature requiring him to seek shelter to survive and his finally accepting the wife’s gift of the girdle teaches him that though he may be the most chivalrous knight in the land, he is nevertheless human and capable of error.
In a the story, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain is faced with many challenges. Many of the challenges have to do with him trying to maintain his chivalry. Part of him maintaining his chivalry is to stay loyal; he should not give in to Lady Bertilak, who is constantly pursuing him, but should also listen to what she tells him to do. During Gawain 's stay at Bertilak’s castle, Lord Bertilak suggests they play a game in which they will have to exchange the winnings they gained that day. In the end, the story tells us that Lady Bertilak had been following the instructions her husband had given her to try to trick Gawain into not staying true to his word during the game they played. However, Lady Bertilak did many unnecessary and sexual
In the Fourteenth Century, Feudalism and its offspring, chivalry, were in decline due to drastic social and economic changes. In this light, _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_ presents both a nostalgic support of the feudal hierarchies and an implicit criticism of changes, which, if left unchecked will lead to its ultimate destruction. I would suggest that the women in the story are the Gawain poet's primary instruments in this critique and reinforcement of Feudalism. By positioning The Virgin Mary (as the singular female archetype representing spiritual love, obedience, chastity, and life) against Morgan and Bertilak's wife (who represent the traditional female archetypes of courtly love, disobedience, lust and death) the Gawain poet points out the conflict between courtly love and spiritual love which he, and other critics of the time, felt had drastically weakened the religious values behind chivalry. As such, the poem is a warning to its Aristocratic readers that the traditional religious values underlying the feudal system must be upheld in order to avert destruction of their way of life.
As the poems of Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight show, women have always had power, yet not as overt a power as wielded by their masculine counterparts. The only dynamic of women’s power that has changed in the later centuries is that the confines and conditions in which women have wielded their power has become more lax, thus yielding to women more freedom in the expression of their power. The structure, imagery, and theme in the excerpts from Beowulf (lines 744-71) and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (lines 2309-30) support the concept of more power in the later centuries, by contrasting the restriction of Wealhtheow and the power she practices in Beowulf with the Lady’s more direct assertion of power in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight five centuries later.
Morgan, Gerald. "Medieval misogyny and Gawain's outburst against women in 'Sir Gawain and the green Knight'." The Modern Language Review 97.2 (2002): 265+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – A Test of Chivalry Essay with Outline: Loyalty, courage, honor, purity, and courtesy are all attributes of a knight that displays chivalry. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is truly a story of the test of these attributes. In order to have a true test of these attributes, there must first be a knight worthy of being tested, meaning that the knight must possess chivalric attributes to begin with. Sir Gawain is admittedly not the best knight around. He says "I am the weakest, well I know, and of wit feeblest; / and the loss of my life [will] be the least of any" (Sir Gawain, l. 354-355).
“Culture does not make people. People make culture” said Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian writer and educator, in a presentation on feminism in a TedTalk. The culture in which Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written was misogynistic and it shows in the writing of the poem. Medieval cultural misogyny manifests itself in multiple ways in SGGK. This paper will examine the negative relationships between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and gender by discussing: the representation of female characters, gendered violence, and Christianity in the Middle Ages.
He politely refuses her intended actions, upholding the chivalric code of being courteous towards women. He attempts to offer her another service of word or deed, stating that it “would be an endless delight.” This shows that Gawain is able to maneuver his way around the wife’s flatteries and overcome temptation with ease. Consequently, “...Gawain is in trouble because his feelings are engaged, and they pull him towards her at the same time as his sense of propriety holds him back. The lady shamelessly plays on his reputation for courtesy, which gives him another problem: how does he refuse her while still maintaining his reputation?...” (Anderson, 346-347). The author shows that although Gawain’s “feelings are engaged”, his sense of morality holds him back from Lord Bertilak’s wife. Bertilak’s wife complements Gawain for his ability to be chivalric, which makes it difficult for him. Additionally, this shows that Gawain is able to listen to his conscience and uphold his morality. Similarly, Martin claims that Gawain is “urged by Bertilak to postpone his departure, sleep late, and relax indoors while his host hunts.” As a result of this matter, “Gawain had been rendered vulnerable to the lady of the house’s daily more insistent claims on the gallant guest’s reputation for lovemaking. These he manages to resist. Deflecting her flatteries…, Gawain keeps his word as a true knight should”
The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight revolves around the knights and their chivalry as well as their romance through courtly love. The era in which this story takes place is male-dominated, where the men are supposed to be brave and honorable. On the other hand, the knight is also to court a lady and to follow her commands. Sir Gawain comes to conflict when he finds himself needing to balance the two by being honorable to chivalry as well as respectful to courtly love.
...rtesy toward females are all tested in the poem. Sir Gawain who is supposed to embody these principles is tested by the Green knight and the lady and he fails to uphold the chivalric code. The failure leaves Gawain scarred for life but it also reflects a change in attitude towards capital violence and the role that it should play in the knights’ life. Gawain makes clear that there is a limit to how loyal and strict a knight can be when he is following the chivalric code and that the demands of the code are so immense that eventually a knight will fail to uphold the code. But this failure to uphold the code and not adhering to capital violence does not show cowardice and is in reality just human mistakes that are expected and are justified
Sir Gawain and The Green Knight is an example of medieval misogyny. Throughout Medieval literature, specifically Arthurian legends like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the female characters, Guinevere, the Lady, and Morgan leFay are not portrayed as individuals but social constructs of what a woman should be. Guinevere plays a passive woman, a mere token of Arthur. The Lady is also a tool, but has an added role of temptress and adulteress. Morgan leFay is the ultimate conniving, manipulating, woman. While the three women in this legend have a much more active role than in earlier texts, this role is not a positive one; they are not individuals but are symbols of how men of this time perceive women as passive tokens, adulteresses, and manipulators.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight fit in with the concept of a romance; it has all the elements that would make one consider the text as so. The tale holds adventure, magic, a quest and an unexpected reality check that even those who are considered “perfect” are also just humans. The author used this story as a way of revealing faults in some of the aspects of knighthood through the use of intertwining chivalric duty with natural human acts; thus showing to be perfectly chivalrous would be inhuman.
In the Middle Ages, the roles of women became less restricted and confined and women became more opinionated and vocal. Sir Gawain and The Green Knight presents Lady Bertilak, the wife of Sir Bertilak, as a woman who seems to possess some supernatural powers who seduces Sir Gawain, and Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath Prologue and Tale, present women who are determined to have power and gain sovereignty over the men in their lives. The female characters are very openly sensual and honest about their wants and desires. It is true that it is Morgan the Fay who is pulling the strings in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; nevertheless the Gawain poet still gives her a role that empowers her. Alison in The Wife if Bath Prologue represents the voice of feminism and paves the way for a discourse in the relationships between husbands and wives and the role of the woman in society.