Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

1147 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Character of sir gawain different from

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written by an anonymous fourteenth-century poet in Northern dialect, combines two plots: "the beheading contest, in which two parties agree to an exchange of the blows with a sword or ax, and the temptation, an attempted seduction of the hero by a lady" (Norton p.200). The Green Knight, depicted as a green giant with supernatural powers, disrespectfully rides into King Arthur's court and challenges the king to a Christmas game -- a beheading contest. Sir Gawain, a young, brave and loyal knight of the Round Table, acting according to the chivalric code, takes over the challenge his lord has accepted. The contest states that Sir Gawain is to chop off the Green Knight's head, and in one year and a day, the antagonist is to do the same to the hero. The whole poem is constructed in a way that leads the reader through the challenges that Sir Gawain faces -- the tests for honesty, courtesy, truthfulness. Throughout, we see his inner strength to resist the temptations. Lines 566 through 634 portray the hero as he dresses up and gets ready to go to find the Green Knight on November first, almost a year after the beheading contest in the king Arthur's court. Remembering the beheaded Green Knight on the horse with his head under his arm, King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table try to talk Sir Gawain out of going on this dangerous and, possibly last, mission, but the hero, keeping his part of the bargain, acts as the true and honorable knight should act: he goes to find the villain. The first stanza depicts the protagonist who orders his armor to be brought to him. A rare and expensive car... ... middle of paper ... ...im to bear his shame. The passage from lines 566 to 634 brings forth the idea of truth, from which the rest of the poem's action evolves; it remains the central concern of the adventures and of the poem itself. As Sir Gawain leaves Camelot to search for the Green Knight, he sets on the quest to "retain his self-respect as a virtuous and religious knight" (Stone), which gives the poem its "final and only discernible shape" (Stone). Works Cited The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition Volume1. Ed. M.H.Abrams. New York: W.W.Norton and Company, Inc., 1993. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Second Edition. Translated with an introduction by Brian Stone. New York: Penguin Books, 1974. The Middle English text was obtained from the following website.Online Internet. April 9 1999. Available http://library.utoronto.ca/www/utel/rp/poems/sggk.html

Show More
Related

  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Passage Explication (928 -1207)

    1508 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written in the fourteenth century by an anonymous contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer. It is a tale of bravery, adventure, and coming of age. This is the ballad of Sir Gawain, one of King Arthur's knights, who is challenged to seek the green knight whose head he chopped off during the Arthur's Christmas dinner. The Modern English translation by Marie Boroff (1967) makes the poem easier to read and understand. The passage that is explicated is between lines 298 and 1207 in the Modern English translation. In the passage, Gawain, after feasting with the host, finally gets to meet the lady of the Bercilak. He is also introduced to Morgan le Faye, Arthur's evil half-sister, who is disguised as an older woman. Sir Bercilak, the host of the castle tells Gawain that he knows the location of the green chapel, and has Gawain play a game with. All throughout the passage different clues are given that the aforementioned castle has unusual abnormalities, but Gawain choses not to ponder about their significance. If Gawain thought about unusual things that were happening in the castle, he could have avoided his future ebarrasment and cut on the neck.

    Read More

  • Free Essays - Courage and Honesty in Sir Gawain and Green Knight

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    The story begins during the New Year's feast in King Arthur's court. Then a green knight enters asking all of the knights in the court if they would like to play a game. The game is he will allow which ever knight that chooses to challenge him one swing with a battle ax to try and chop off his head, but in order to play the game, the accepting knight must meet the green knight one year later at the green chapel. The brave knight Sir Gawain accepts to the challenge of the green knight. Sir Gawain takes one swing and chops off the head of the green knight. Right after the green knight's head is chopped off he gets up immediately, picks up his head and leaves. Once a year passes, Gawain sets off on a journey to find the Green Chapel. He arrives at a castle in which a lord welcomes him to stay for several days (Gawain only needs to stay there for three). The next morning the lord makes an agreement to share everything he gets during these three days with Gawain, but Gawain must agree to do the same. During days one and two the lord's wife tries hitting on Gawain, but he only allows her to give him a few kisses. At these days Gawain shares what he got to the lord for what he has hunted those days. On the third day, Gawain finally accepts to take a magic girdle from the lord's wife, but he didn't share it with the lord. This magic girdle helped Gawain survive the three fatal swing's of the green giant's ax, only leaving him with a little nick. After Gawain survives these 3 swings at his neck, the green knight then reveals his identity and explains that he is Bercilak, the lord of the castle. He also said that the three blows were taken at him in regards to the three days of their agreement.

    Read More

  • Sir Gawain and Green Knight Essays: Triumph or Failure?

    510 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sir Gawain is presented as a noble knight who is the epitome of chivalry; he is loyal, honest and above all, courteous. He is the perfect knight; he is so recognised by the various characters in the story and, for all his modesty, implicitly in his view of himself. To the others his greatest qualities are his knightly courtesy and his success in battle. To Gawain these are important, but he seems to set an even higher value on his courage and integrity, the two central pillars of his manhood.

    Read More

  • Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Research Paper

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the opening scene Sir Gawain faces his first trial when the Green Knight proposes his “Christmas game.” The room falls silent for “If he astonished them at first, stiller were then/ All that household in hall, the high and low;” (lines 301-302). The Green Knight begins to mock the court; and then boldly, King Arthur accepts h...

    Read More

  • Comparing Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Herman Melville's Bartleby, The Scrivener

    876 Words  | 2 Pages

    When we examine the excerpt by Ralph Ellison, “Invisible Man” and the story “Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” by Herman Melville we see how they both explore isolation, but in different ways. Similarly, they are both solitary characters where Bartleby seems to choose this situation; the Invisible Man has this status thrust on him by society. Where the Invisible Man seems to go from violence to acceptance, the opposite holds true for Bartleby. Their experience and perception of the world though different, seemed to shape them both into solitary figures. We see how the Invisible man was motivated by his circumstance and consciously chooses to use this for his benefit, while Bartleby unconsciously used his situation to his advantage before he succumbs to the pressure of life. Once The Invisible Man accepted his fate he chose life, while Bartleby on the other hand chose death.

    Read More

  • Beowulf: The Selfless Hero

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    Beowulf is an epic poem that describes the heroics of a man with superhuman strength and bravery to go with it. The poem starts with a journey across the sea to defeat an enemy that has plagued the land of Herot for twelve years. The poem ends with Beowulf’s final deed of defeating a dragon that was plaguing his own land, but with the defeat of the dragon also comes the death of Beowulf. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a poem of bravery by one of King Arthur’s knights. Sir Gawain takes up the deed of playing a Christmas game with the challenging Green Knight. The Green Knight takes a blow from an ax at the hand of Sir Gawain, and in one year and one day, the Green Knight is to reciprocate the action to Sir Gawain. While Sir Gawain was heroic in his deed, Beowulf shows a certain selflessness in his bouts makes him a better hero than Sir Gawain.

    Read More

  • Loggerhead Nesting

    955 Words  | 2 Pages

    Loggerhead turtles are becoming endangered more and more often. Not many people understand the dangers that these turtles are in, especially when the females are nesting. Nesting takes an important role in the lives of these turtles and is an amazing process that occurs during the season. Unfortunately, many factors disturb the process of these hatching eggs. This paper explains these factors in depth to educate the audience about the dangers involved in loggerhead nesting. Light pollution, natural disasters, and predators are described and explained as to why they affect the process of nesting. Many organizations are trying to share their knowledge on these loggerhead-nesting dangers with people and are trying to help keep the loggerheads alive.

    Read More

  • Symbolism in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

    1450 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a medieval poem by an unknown author, written in Middle English in the 14th century. This poem is uncanny to most poems about heroism and knightly quests as it doesn’t follow the complete circle seen in other heroism tales. This poem is different to all the rest as it shows human weaknesses as well as strengths which disturbs the myth of the perfect knight, or the faultless hero. The author uses symbolism as a literary device in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to give the plot a deeper and more significant meaning. Symbolism is used to emphasise the difference of this heroism story against others and therefore symbolism is of great importance in this poem. The importance of the following symbols will be discussed in this paper; the pentangle, the colour green, the Green Knight, the exchange of winnings game, the axe and the scar. This paper argues the significance of the use of symbolism as a literary device in the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

    484 Words  | 1 Pages

    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an Arthurian Legend. An Arthurian Legend is a story that involves King Arthur. One theme of this book is honor, honoring your town and your king was very important to the people of this time. A knight named Sir Gawain stands up for the king when the king is embarrassed at a New Year’s Celebration. Sir Gawain is asked to honor two promises, but if he honors one he cannot honor the other. Both promises ended up being broken, but Sir Gawain still tries to honor them and is rewarded by the green Knight. The Green Knight tries to hit Gawain and barely hits him because he cannot hit an honest man: “I promised thee a blow and thou hast it” (Weston 46). After this time period, the knights were no longer around and a play was a common type of

    Read More

  • Sir Gawain Quotes

    1512 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight edited and translated by James Winny is a poem about a knight, Sir Gawain, from King Arthur’s court. In the very beginning Sir Gawain volunteers to take King Arthur’s place upon the Green Knights arrival when he declares that one knight must agree to receive a blow by his axe after having the chance to give a blow to him. Sir Gawain ends up chopping off the Green Knights head and is then declared to meet the Green Knight in one year to accept a blow from the Green Knight and his axe. When the year comes Sir Gawain sets off to find the Green Knight at the green chapel, which where he will receive the blow. On Sir Gawain’s ventures

    Read More

  • Addressing Premature Birth

    1657 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the United States one in eight births are preterm (“Funding for Premature Related Research”).Premature means that the baby is born early, which is any baby born before thirty-seven weeks but health problems are usually only a problem for babies born before thirty-four weeks (“Funding for Premature Related Research”). Premature births are the leading cause for neonatal deaths and half of all premature births have no known causes (Lynch and Dezen). Babies who survive prematurity face multiple health problems including cerebral disease, vision and hearing loss, mental retardation, and lung problems (Lees, Reynolds,andMcCartan). Obviously with so many premature babies being born today, with so many unknown neonatal deaths in premature babies, and with all of the health problems for premature babies, there is a problem that must be addressed.The government needs to further fund research for the care and prevention of premature babies to prevent unnecessary death and health problems, cut costs in the long run, put previous findings into effect and reduce parental stress.

    Read More

  • Of The Knight's Response To The God In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight?

    1307 Words  | 3 Pages

    The novel/poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is the story that begins the Arthurian Courts. During the Christmas festivities, a strange Green Knight enters wanting to play a game with the men personified as the most chivalrous men. Sir Gawain volunteers in the place of King Arthur in this treacherous game. In the game, Gawain beheads the Green Knight but surprisingly the Knight fails to die but instead lives with his head cut off. The Knight places a quest on Gawain that before the New Year he must travel to the Green Chapel to complete the quest.

    Read More

  • Code Of Chivalry In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

    972 Words  | 2 Pages

    A mysterious knight shows up at the king’s castle and calls himself the Green Knight. The Green Knight then challenges one to play a game which he challenges the king to strike him with his axe if he will take a return hit in a year and a day. Sir Gawain steps forward to accept the challenge for his uncle King Arthur when nobody else in the castle would. He took the King’s role in the game to protect him from the Green Knight. He must learn to accept his responsibility as a knight, in accepting his fate.

    Read More

  • The Role of Women in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight

    1606 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Edition, Volume One. General Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: Norton, 1993.

    Read More

  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; A Romance?

    1094 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a poem which tells the tale of a knight who undergoes trials-testing the attributes of knighthood-in order to prove the strength and courage of himself, while representing the Knights of the Round Table. One of King Arthurs most noblest and bravest of knights, Sir Gawain, is taken on an adventure when he steps up to behead a mysterious green visitor on Christmas Day-with the green mans’ permission of course. Many would state that this tale of valor would be within the romance genre. To the modern person this would be a strange category to place the poem in due to the question of ‘where is the actual romance, where is the love and woe?’ However, unlike most romances nowadays, within medieval literature there are many defining features and characteristics of a romance-them rarely ever really involving love itself. Within medieval literature the elements of a romance are usually enshrouded in magic, the fantastic and an adventure. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight follows Sir Gawain over the course of one year, from one New Years to the next, as was the deal he and Bertilak, the green knight, struck.

    Read More

More about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Open Document