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Green: The True Color of the Trickster
The story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight provides an excellent example of Hyde’s trickster figure in the character of Bernlak, also known as Bertilak, Bercilak, or simply as the Green Knight. The tale of Sir Gawain pits him against the daunting and formidable Green Knight; a mystical and intriguing character, who rode into Arthur’s court, brandishing a great axe and clad all in green. He challenges the knights to a game, and only after Arthur concedes to play the Green Knight’s game, does Gawain instead offer to take his place, thus setting in motion the story. In Sir Gawain, the Green Knight displays several key characteristics of Hyde’s trickster such as: crossing boundaries, being contradictory, and questioning
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Hyde gives several definitions of qualities that contribute to the archetype of trickster. It is stated that the trickster, when in the presence of someone who cannot make an honorable choice, “suggests an amoral action, something right/wrong that will get life going again,” (Hyde 7). Additionally, a trickster very well may be troublemakers, leaving mischief strewn across their path, however despite “all their disruptive behavior, tricksters are regularly honored as the creators of culture,” (Hyde 8). The Green Knight tests Gawain’s honor by swaying him to make immoral decisions, and while these actions may cause the knight to falter some in his honor and chivalry, in the end he is stronger for it and grows in character. In the tale, the Green Knight crosses boundaries, offers a sense of contradiction, and allows a space within society to question itself. All these reasons fulfill the requirements of the trickster archetype as laid out by Hyde, and prove that the Green Knight typifies the characteristics of the trickster within the story of Sir Gawain and the Green
Deception is one of mankind’s most versatile and powerful tools and is used nearly every day for both evil and good. Whether it be deceiving an army in battle or using exaggerations and myths to teach a child right from wrong, deceit allows one to advance his selfish or selfless intentions by providing them a source of influence on others. Such deception is evident throughout Sir Gawain and the Green Knight—the host’s wife’s dishonesty in particular—as it helps to spur the plot of the poem. Lady Bertilak’s purposeful deception of Gawain has questionable motives that highlight the theme of human imperfection and susceptibility to temptation.
Games can cause you to lose your idea of reality and create a sense of disillusionment. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, games are immensely significant throughout the story. Mental games tear at a Gawain's perception of what's going on, deceiving him to the truth of his situation. Sir Gawain knows this all too well from his experience with the Green Knight. The Green Knight creates a challenge for someone to cut his head off and in twelve months seeks him out to return the favor. Physical games can be as impacting as mental ones; Lady Bertilak attempting to seduce Sir Gawain. This temptation that generates a rift between what his mind knows and what it wants to do leads to more confusion within him She basically throws herself upon him yet he stays strong to his morals. These games within the novel create copious amounts of irony during Sir Gawain's quest. He gets caught up within all these games only to find out later that it was all a hoax. His year long quest is an ironic journey that was produced entirely by the Green Knight. Games hold tremendous value in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the games cause Sir Gawain to lose his sense of reality. Through the Green Knight's games, Sir Gawain's word is truly tested.
Over the course of the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain faced situations that influenced his character which can be taken and analyzed for a teenager today. A teenager typically faces the issue of blending in and accepting who they are in high school, and by viewing Gawain’s experiences and changes, we can use it to adapt along with our peers in school. Initially, he is seen as a humble and unpopular knight amongst every other at the round table in Camelot. However this changes after engaging in a violent game with the Green Knight. Gawain gained fame over the course of a year, and as a result it had changed his initial outlook on his loyalty to the chivalric code, as well as his values on life.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a fourteenth-century tale written by an anonymous poet, chronicles how Sir Gawain of King Arthur’s Round Table finds his virtue compromised. A noble and truthful knight, Gawain accepts the Green Knight’s challenge at Arthur’s New Years feast. On his way to the Green Chapel, Gawain takes shelter from the cold winter at Lord Bercilak’s castle. The lord makes an agreement with Gawain to exchange what they have one at the end of the day. During the three days that the lord is out hunting, his wife attempts to seduce Gawain. At the end of the story, it is revealed that Morgan le Faye has orchestrated the entire situation to disgrace the Knights of the Round Table by revealing that one of their best, Sir Gawain, is not perfect.
In his struggles to uphold his chivalric duties, Sir Gawain faithfully demonstrates the qualities of chivalry and fidelity until his honor is called into question by an unknown green knight that rides into the castle.
In the final scenes of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain’s encounter with Sir Bertilak allows Gawain to perceive his own flaws, manifested in his acceptance of the Green Girdle. The court’s reaction to his personal guilt highlights the disconnect between him and the other knights of the Round Table. Gawain’s behavior throughout the poem has been most noteworthy; his understanding of his sin, one that many of us would dismiss since it was propelled by his love of life, enhances his stature as a paragon of chivalry.
Through jest of a game the Green knight enlightens Gawain the short sights of chivalry. He comes to realize within himself that the system which bore him values appearance over truth. Ultimately he understands that chivalry provides a valuable set of ideals toward which to strive, but a person must retain consciousness of his or her own mortality and weakness in order to live deeply. While it is chivalrous notions, which kept him, alive throughout the test of the Green Knight, only through acute awareness of the physical world surrounding him was he able to develop himself and understand the Knights message. From the onset of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the author relies intensely upon descriptive language to create ambiance and tonality, but it is only later in the work, upon Sir Gawain’s development, that like Gawain, the reader is able to derive meaning from the descriptive physicality and understand the symbiotic relationship of nature and society.
New York: Garland Publishing, 1988. Stephen Manning, “A Psychological Interpretation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” in Critical Studies of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, eds.
Tragic and hero may not be words that easily reveal a relationship, but throughout literature the two have been linked to create an enthralling read. The emergence of the tragic hero seemed to take shape in ancient Greece where such works as Oedipus and Antigone were popular among all classes of people. Aristotle defined a tragedy as "the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself. It incorporates incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish the catharsis of such emotions." Though Greece may be credited with the creation of tragic heroes, the theme is seen in literary works across many different cultures, including England. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one such English work where the development of the main character, Gawain, follows the pattern of the classical tragic hero. In this paper, we will explore the characteristics of the tragic hero and show how these traits are demonstrated in Gawain.
In the anonymous poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the character of Sir Gawain is portrayed as the imperfect hero. His flaws create interest and intrigue. Such qualities of imperfection cannot be found in the symbol of the pentangle, which he displays on his shield. This contrast between character and symbol is exposed a number of times throughout the poem allowing human qualities to emerge from Gawain’s knightly portrayal. The expectations the pentangle presents proves too much for Gawain as he falls victim to black magic, strays from God, is seduced by an adulterous woman, and ultimately breaks the chivalric code by lying to the Green Knight.
Markman, Alan M. "The Meaning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Modern Language Association 72.4 (1957): 574-86. JSTOR. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written in the fourteenth century by an anonymous poet who was a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer. The story was originally written in a Northern dialect. It tells the story of Sir Gawain's first adventure as a knight.
Of all the themes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the one which stood out the most to me was that of deception. With the Green Knight, the “evil” and Sir Gawain, the “good”, we see both forces partake in deceptive practices to achieve the desired outcome they sought. Throughout the poem, Sir Gawain’s moral compass was constantly being tested with deception being used to gage his level of loyalty, morality, and chivalry. The “game” that the Green Knight was hell bent on playing was not an honest one. He utilized a host of deceptions to gain the results that he sought after—there was little to no room for error with him. First, he presented a challenge in which he alone knew that he would not perish. When he asked for a volunteer to strike him with the ax, the Green Knight
To begin with, the Green Knight, similar to God, bestows a trial to Sir Gawain in order to test his faith and loyalty to his promise. The beheading agreement made between these characters is organized to assess the truth to Sir Gawain’s knightly
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.