In the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by J.R.R. Tolkien, Sir Gawain demonstrates many types of chivalry throughout his journey. When Gawain discovers the castle in the forest it is because he felt the need to attend a mass in order to pray, something a chivalrous knight would do. When Bertilak’s wife attempts to seduce Gawain into sexual intercourse Gawain refuses and only gives her a small kiss, showing respect towards his host. Gawain also reveals to the people at his hometown that he cheated the Green Knight by wearing the belt that made him invincible. Gawain’s display of being chivalrous is shown repeatedly throughout the poem through Christian acts, which show the reader how to be considered a knight you must first …show more content…
Even though Gawain is on a journey that is life or death he still makes time to attend mass so he can pray. Gawain exclaims while riding through the woods, “I beseech thee, O Lord,/and Mary, who is the mildest mother most dear,/ for some harbor where with honour I might hear the Mass/ and thy Matins tomorrow” (Tolkien 32). As Gawain heads off on his journey the first thing he thinks of is how he is going to find a mass. This shows that Gawain holds his Christian beliefs in the highest degree. What the author is trying to show the reader is that in order to be a good knight, you must make God the most important thing in life, and always have time to pray to him. Gawain demonstrates this concept perfectly because even though he is on a journey that will save his life he still makes God his main …show more content…
Gawain completes the basic tasks of praying to God everyday, avoiding sinful temptation, and confessing his sins. These three things are considered to be both chivalrous and Christian. The author wants the reader to see that in order to be a good knight like Gawain you must follow Christian beliefs, which in turn will allow you to follow the chivalric code as well. Throughout the poem Gawain shows that he is a good Christian, while also being considered one of the best knights the Round Table had ever seen. In the final lay of the poem the author says, “For that reckoned the distinction of the Round Table, / and honour was his that had it evermore after” (Tolkien 101). Gawain’s Christian actions throughout the poem have given him honor from the Knights of the Round Table forever. This shows that being a good Christian will allow you to also be a good
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.
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).
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.
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.
...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.
In Gordon M. Shedd’s “Knight in Tarnished Armour: The Meaning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, he argues that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is truly about the strength and weaknesses of human nature. One particularly interesting part of his argument asserts that Gawain’s humanity broke medieval romance tradition.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by J.R.R. Tolkien, Gawain, a knight of the round table, expresses love and respect to aid his journey. These forms of love, from the beginning to the end, play key roles in demonstrating and maintaining the dignity of his knighthood. The manifestation of Gawain’s love forms a number of relationships over the course of the poem. Accordingly, these relationships test his true vow of chivalry and sustain his credibility as a true knight of the round table.
In the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Poet Pearl, Sir Gawain, knight of the Round Table, acts chivalrously, yet his intents are insincere and selfish. It is the advent season in Middle Age Camelot, ruled by King Arthur when Poet Pearl begins the story. In this era citizens valued morals and expected them to be demonstrated, especially by the highly respected Knights of the Round Table. As one of Arthur’s knights, Sir Gawain commits to behaving perfectly chivalrous; however, Gawain falls short of this promise. Yes, he acts properly, but he is not genuine. The way one behaves is not enough to categorize him as moral; one must also be sincere in thought. Gawain desires to be valued as
Though God does grant forgiveness, it must be earned at a price. The Lord opens people’s eyes to the severity of one’s sins, which often leaves a person feeling ashamed. Despite having committed a grave sin against the Christian honor, Sir Gawain was forgiven by the Green Knight. He has “confessed . . ., admitted [his] fault, and done honest penance on the edge of [the Green Knight’s] blade” (Winny 4.2391-2392). No one has to continue to live with the guilt, but should at least understand their sin. Sir Gawain realizes that he surrendered to cowardice and learned “to give way to covetousness” (Winny 4.2380). The Green Knight fulfills his role as God by bringing to attention the weakness Sir Gawain possesses as a knight and as a human. The Gawain poet describes the significance of “God’s grace for the forgiveness of sin and the granting of salvation” through the Green Knight’s godly role (Champion
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.
Instead of continuing his faith in God, Gawain places his faith in a worldly object––one that he suspects might prove to be more sufficient than a spiritual being. He wears the girdle “determined to save his neck when he [bends] it towards death.” Mistakenly, Gawain turns his back on God and relies solely on the girdle, illustrating that the amount he values his life is greater than the amount he values his faith in God. The girdle causes his faith to deteriorate, and he strays from the primary source of all of his past success––God. It is often hard to believe and remain faithful in the things that we are unable to physically see; in order to be truly successful, though, maintaining a strong and steadfast faith in the things we believe in will, in the end, be the most rewarding. Gawain is unsuccessful in loving God unconditionally; due to his fear of losing his life, he is not willing to do anything that will put him in harm’s way––not even for God (“Code of Chivalry, 1”). He gives up his faith which provides a clear depiction of his weakness and inability to stand up for his beliefs. The girdle tempts him to take a wrong turn down the path of life, and it guides him away from God. Gawain, as human as the rest of us, is easily distracted by the things of the world; he lets worldly pleasures stand in the way of the important things in life. The things that jerk us away
...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
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 choice and choose me a husband for the noble I know….would I elect before you”.
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.