The Unnamed Wife in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the green knight’s wife plays a pivotal role in the story. Yet, she is never given a name and it is unclear what motivates her actions. She could simply be following her husband’s orders to seduce this visiting knight. She could be under the tutelage of Morgan le Fay. Or she may be acting under her own guidance and using her sexuality to carry out her own desires or gain power. In light of this uncertainty, the unnamed wife’s role in the bedroom scene is also hard to decipher. As a woman she should be submissive, and yet it is Gawain who is forced to defend himself against her advances to which he eventually submits. The multiple readings of the wife’s role also inform the notions of Christian and pagan in the story. Female power and sexuality are aligned with the wife, Morgan le Fay and paganism, while Gawain seeks protection and chastity from Mary and Christianity. Despite the power the wife may gain from pagan traditions, she could also be perceived in a Christian, patriarchal context as a sexual object who is commanded by her husband’s authority. As a result the green knight’s wife represents the duality of Christian and pagan and its prevalence in medieval society.
In the bedroom scenes the wife appears to be playing the role of a submissive woman, but is in fact using her position to dominate Gawain, who is limited by his pledge to the Green Knight. The wife tells Gawain, “My body is here at hand, Your each wish to fulfill; Your servant to command I am, and shall be still.” Here the wife is literally submitting her body to Gawain to use as he desires. Yet, she is making this proposition in order to entice him to...
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...ere her true allegiance lies. On the other hand, her position in this story provides insight into medieval society. Her antics with Gawain in the bedroom scenes reveal that her position as lady of the house is superior to Gawain’s as a knight. This situation further illuminates medieval gender roles especially when examining the lady’s relationship with her husband. Even if he may use her as a sexual pawn, she is able to assert herself thought the tactics she uses to persuade Gawain to break his oath. She is also intrinsically linked with Morgan le Fay and pagan traditions. This bond is balanced by Gawain’s connection with Mary as a figure for guidance. The wife’s position in this story epitomizes the dualities of medieval society. The conflicting social and gender roles and Christian and pagan traditions are somehow able to operate in this complex society.
With this submission Lady Bertilak establishes herself as a catalyst in the story as she pushes the protagonist into a new and uncomfortable situation that challenges his original allegiance to Christianity and courtly love. Her submission to Gawain appears genuine as the protagonist is initially unaware that Lady Bertilak’s as she is stubborn with her flirtatious behavior. Also because the Green Knight is absent from the castle during the encounter, Gawain is deceived to infer that his actions with the lady will lack tangible repercussions. With a false sense of security and genuity in his relationship with Lady Bertilak, Gawain is tempted to stray from his moral obligations. Considering the lady’s passion and forethought seducing Gawain, it is obvious that the host’s wife possesses a desire to defeat Gawain’s allegiance to the Arthurian code. Because Gawain is supposed to be a representation of perfect character, her ability to spur the knight to violate chastity proves human vulnerability to temptation. In this way Gawain’s fall
We first meet her as the ugly old lady that was along side Lady Bertilak in the castle, she is covered head to toe but is described as “repulsive to see and shockingly bleared (Winny 2011: 55).” In the end we find out she is really Morgan le Fay. Though she is not mentioned very much in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but she plays a very significant role. Morgan le Fay is really King Arthur’s half sister and sent the Green Knight, who we also find out is the same person as the Lord Bertilak, to King Arthur’s in the very beginning of the poem. She does so to test King Arthur’s knights as well as to scare Queen Guenevere to death (Winny 2011: 137). “Through the power of Morgan le Fay” she controls Lady Bertilak as well as Lord Bertilak to do the work and test King Arthur’s knight, Sir Gawain (Winny 2011: 137). The whole time Morgan le Fay had power over most of the characters. She was the one that set up the idea that Sir Gawain would have to meet the Lord Bertilak/Green Knight at his chapel and set up the agreement that Sir Gawain and Lord Bertilak/Green Knight to exchange gifts daily. Though Lady Bertilak did go about testing Sir Gawain with her own power, it was Morgan le Fay who made it happen. This whole poem would not have happened if Morgan le Fay did not set up the whole thing. Morgan le Fay had power over everyone and everything throughout the entire
Sir Gawain and The Green Knight has prompted scholars to examine and diversely interpret the medieval narrative. One of the underlying questions that has been proposed embodies the analysis of the relationship between Christian and Pagan ideals and how knightly chivalry is influenced by religion during the Arthurian Romance period. It is no mistake that the two varied religious ideals are intertwined throughout the poem due to the nature of classical antiquity. Amidst the overlap between superstitious rituals and Orthodox- Christian beliefs it is clear that Sir Gawain has a sense of personal integrity guided by a moral compass.
Women were always viewed as weak, dependent, and powerless in the Middle Ages. Not only is it a common view during that time period, but this also is often stereotyped labeled to women today as well. In the romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the hatred of women is portrayed throughout. However, while women are certainly looked down upon, they also are influential to the knights. This romance also portrays how a woman having different characteristics, could change the way she was viewed as well. Although women in the Middle Ages appeared to lack power, the women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight have a hidden influence over the men and actually drive the action of the medieval romance.
...Gawain’s time in the wilderness, living nature, and his acceptance of the lady’s offering of the green girdle teach him that though he may be the most chivalrous knight in the land, he is nevertheless human and capable of error.
“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.
According to Shedd’s “Knight in Tarnished Armour: The Meaning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, Sir Gawain’s conflict is with the duality of human nature, not the Green Knight. His idea that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight breaks the traditions of medieval romance is especially
The Character of Sir Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell
The misogyny towards Bercilak's wife in "Sir Gawain and The Green Knight" is introduced by the speaker's and Gawain's depiction of her appearance. For one, the speaker points out that, "her body and her bearing were beyond praise (ll.944)…her bright throat and bosom fair to behold…"(ll.955), indicating from the beginning that Bercilak's wife is sexually desirable. The speaker then continues describing how fresh and fair the ladies with "the two eyes and the nose, the naked lips" are (ll.962). By using the word "naked" just to illustrate her lips, the speaker is calling unnecessary attention to her sexuality. In addition, Gawain shows that he is aware of Bercilak's wife's sexual qualities admitting that, in comparison to...
When Gawain spurns the lady 's advances, she questions the validity of his reputation: "So good a night as Gawain is rightly reputed / In whom courtesy is so completely embodied / Could not easily have spent so much time with a lady / Without begging a kiss, to comply with politeness / By some hint or suggestion at the end of a remark. " Here we see the first example of Gawain 's values being thrown into opposition: he cannot hope to hold his honor, fellowship, and chastity without calling his chivalry and courtesy into question. Gawain faces a fork in the road in the first bedroom scene, yet it quickly becomes clear that neither road ends with perfection. The perfect, archetypal knight, one who seamlessly, simultaneously embodies all of the qualities so harmoniously unified on Gawain 's shield, cannot exist, as the five points of Gawain 's pentangle cannot fully be kept
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.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain shows qualities of a chivalrous knight. He demonstrates that by showing generosity, courtesy, and loyalty during his travels. 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.He demonstrates goodness at the hand of the Green Knight. He shows courage by accepting what is to come upon him during his voyage. His journey to find the Green Knight is filled with temptations.In the conversation with him and the “Lady”, Sir Gawain showed a Chivalrous code by keeping his loyalty to the king by not kissing his wife. The lady states “if I should exchange at my cho...
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.