In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the men and women appear to have different roles in the society. The men attempt to live a more noble life while emasculating the power of the women. Throughout the poem, women display hints of their potential through manipulation and trickery, traits that are uneasily recognized by men as growing power. Morgan la Fay manipulates the Lord Bercilak to assume the role of the Green Knight, and she uses him for revenge against Queen Guenevere. She engineered a plan in which she hoped “to cow…Queen Guenevere, [and] kill her with dread” (2460). In other words, she intended to frighten the queen by forcing her to witness Sir Gawain severe the head of a green man, while the man remains alive and proceeds to pick …show more content…
For example, Sir Gawain admits that he was outsmarted by Morgan la Fay and Lady Bercilak, “Both [Lady Bercilak] and that other, my honorable ladies,/ Who so neatly entangled their knight in their nets,/ It’s no marvel a man can be made to look foolish,/ Be wrecked and disgraced by such womanish wiles…” (2412-2415). But these women were more than just clever players in the plot of the poem. They use their abilities, namely manipulation and wiles, and desires to fuel the events of the story. The two exemplify how women can possess freedom and control even within the highly constraining, patriarchal structure of medieval times. Through the characters of Morgan la Fay and Lady Bercilak, one can witness the true power of women to achieve their ends via the manipulation of men even in the patriarchal society of Camelot. Sir Gawain’s speech to Lord Bercilak reinforces that women are the driving force of action in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Sir Gawain, having been fooled, agrees that the trickery in which the women employed worked quite well on him, as it compelled him to fail in honoring his own chief virtues. Lady Bercilak appealed to his sense of chivalry when attempting to seduce him. He succumbed to temptation when he accepted the green sash from the Lady Bercilak. Once again, women exercise their power through manipulation and artifices to attain their …show more content…
Granted, the Green Knight claims that he sent his wife, the Lady Bercilak, to seduce Sir Gawain (2361-2362). However, he is instructed to do so by Morgan la Fay. It originally seems that the Green Knight is the schemer because he executes most of the actions that comprise this grand plan, but he plainly admits to Sir Gawain later in the poem that “she [Morgan la Fay] sent [him] in this semblance to search out [King Arthur’s] hall” (2456). This information is astonishing as it transfers all of the credit the Green Knight has earned by causing distraught to Morgan la Fay. The author indicates that power is not so much based on strength in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight so much as it is centered on nobility and religion. Lady Bercilak services both in order to manipulate Sir Gawain. “Thus the lady assayed him and sounded him steadily/ To move him to mischief, and more if she might./ But his defense was so fair and faultless indeed/ That neither trespassed… (1549-1553). The test on the battlefield now becomes the test of remaining chaste. Finding that Sir Gawain can too easily resist sexual advances by clinging to his religious background, Lady Bercilak attempts to cause fault in his nobility. Here, the knight caves by accepting a gift and not returning the favor to Lord Bercilak in the evening because he desires that “his soul…be saved when
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
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. The passage begins with Lord Bercilak returning from his first hunting trip. As has been agreed, he hands over the wild boar he has killed to Gawain. In turn, Gawain gives the Lord a kiss. The lord gives Gawain a chance to admit that he has been intimate with Lady Bercilak when he says, “it might be [the kiss] all the better, would you but say where you won this same award” (Norton 187).
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.
Morgan le Fay is the single most important character in SGGK. Even though she is an absolutely vital character, she is named exactly once. It is at the end of the poem that the Green Knight (Lord Bertilak) reveals to Sir Gawain that everything in the poem, from the main challenge to the smaller tests, was Morgan’s idea and should be credited to her ingenuity and magic (SGGK, l. 2445-2470). Part of
Since the Green Knight, a father authority is under the disguise of Bertilak, we can assume that his mistress becomes the mother figure. While the Green Knight is out there hunting, Sir Gawain has to decide whether to put aside his fear of castration and give in the sexual seduction or to repress his own desire.
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
Men exemplify heroic qualities in both Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, however, women are depicted differently in the two stories. In Beowulf, women are not necessary to the epic, where as in Green Knight, women not only play a vital role in the plot, but they also directly control the situations that arise. Men are acknowledged for their heroic achievement in both stories, while the women's importance in each story differ. However, women are being equally degraded in both Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Another trait of Gawain that is tested in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is his loyalty. While in search of the Green Chapel where he must face the Green Knight, Sir Gawain is tested by the lady of the castle he is lodging at. The lady tries to seduce Gawain, but he does not fall into her trap by sleeping with her. Instead, Sir Gawain remains loyal to the lord of the castle whom he has promised to be honest with, and the lady describes him as the "noblest knight alive.
After reading through the piece of literature Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one will realize there are many elements present throughout that could be analyzed such as humility, chastity, and courage. It could be interpreted that the author meant for the main theme of the writing to be a theme of chastity. Although the element of chastity is present in that Sir Gawain is tested by many sexual temptations, the element of humility is one that is prominent and changing throughout the piece. Humility is apparent throughout the story in the way Sir Gawain displays false humility at the beginning, the way he keeps his humility during his stay at the castle, and the way he is truly learns humility after his challenges with the Green Knight are over.
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.
This all starts with the bargain that Bercilak makes with Sir Gawain. "That whatever I win in the woods be yours, and any achievement you chance on here, you exchange for it" (pg. 62). This is what sets the stage for the coming scenes of Bercilak's hunts in the woods, Gawain's temptations by the Lady of Bercilak, and the three blows exchanged by the Green Knight. Unknown to Gawain is that Bercilak's three hunts and the three temptations of the Lady is what decides the fate of the outcome of his meeting with the Green Knight.
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.