In every great work of literature, archetypes appear throughout the story, playing a key role in helping the audience understand the story. Examples of these archetypes are the boon, the magic weapon, and the refusal of the call. Archetypes like these help us capture what the story seems to really be about. In the story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a knight of Camelot must go on a quest to keep the value of his home, Camelot. During this quest, he seeks a green knight to chop off his head; however after this quest, he discovers that the green knight was not really his enemy but, the one that would change him.
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 self 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 least of any" (Sir Gawain, l. 354-355).
Although the Green Knight basically tricks Gawain, by not telling him about his supernatural capabilities before asking him to agree to his terms, Gawain refuses to withdraw of their agreement. He stands by his commitments, even though it means putting his own life in jeopardy. The poem habitually restates Sir Gawain’s deep fears and apprehensions, but Gawain desires to maintain his own individual integrity at all costs which allows him to master his fears in his quest to seek the Green Chapel. After Gawain arrives at Bertilak’s castle, it is quite obvious that h... ... middle of paper ... ...stops him from sleeping with Bertilak’s wife, only until his finds a way to avoid death does he goes against them. What Gawain learns from the green knight’s challenge is that instinctively he is just a human who is concerned with his own life over anything else.
The author shows that challenges cannot be lefy alone, they must be faced straight on and dealt with. In the Ballad the author also shows that challenges can come from unexpected sources and that these also cannot be ignored. That is shown in the ballad through the example of the challenge that arose from the Green Knight. The challenge is aimed at King Authorm but is spontaneously taken on by Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain has no time to prepare for the challenge and only took it to protect his king.
Sir Gawain, after hearing this challenge, asks the king if he may take his place. This represents that Gawain is very loyal to his king. Sir Gawain is also an honest knight in the text because in a year's time he ventures out in search of the Green Knight to endure a blow with the ax as the rules of the game were stated. He very easily could have not have carried out his end of the bargain by not traveling to the Green Chapel to meet the evil being, but Gawain is an honest knight who is true to his word. Another trait of Gawain that is tested in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is his loyalty.
The confidence possessed by the Green Knight in riding thus into Arthur's court, is later shown to be due to the enchantment put on him by Morgan Le Faye. The Green Knight's confidence and his challenges to the court create a caricature of the bravery of knighthood and excessive pride is indeed the excess that this cautionary tale warns against. Sir Gawain meets the challenge but his actions show that even the bravest knight must not be too proud or sure of himself. The Green Knight's Challenge! The scene begins with the continuing description of the Green Knight as one who had come with "no helm, nor hauberk neither."
King Arthur and his knights represent the pinnacle of bravery, chivalry, and honor. However, when a strange knight, the Green Knight, enters Camelot with a challenge, none of the knights accept it (?). No knights wanted to go blow for blow with the Green Knight for fear of losing their lives. It is not until Arthur rises to face the challenge, to defend the honor of his court, that Gawain steps forward and accepts it. Therefore, the purpose of the Green Knight is to teach Sir Gawain to value his honor and the honor of the king more than his life.
How does Sir Gawain and Arthur’s court pass the test of The Green Knight? This paper will argue that Sir Gawain, despite his mistakes, is the greatest knight because of his repentance and the lesson he learns when he encounters The Green Knight. Knights are held to a higher standard when in comparison to their peers. Morality, self-presentation, knowledge and vows are a few important components to take into consideration when judging a knights character. These
God shows grace to King Arthur and his knights by giving them life. The Green Knight could have challenged the men to a duel or fought to the death but instead challenged their courage and nobility. “ That he dares to stoutly exchange one stroke for another… And I will abide the first blow, bare-neck as I sit” ( The Gawain Poet 67,70.233). The Green Knight was testing the men seeing if all the gossip about how great King Arthur and his men were was true but, no knight took the challenge until King Arthur stepped up. That’s when Sir Gawain politely asked the king if he could take his place.
Beowulf appears to have little morals that he lives by. His pride in himself and loyalty to his country are qualities of a hero, but there is not one line in which he shows inner strength from his heart - only his quest to put another 'notch in his belt.’ Sir Gawain never shows signs of arrogance, only selflessness, hon... ... middle of paper ... ... and the Middle English era). While both the epic poem Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight have similar protagonists, the main character of each poem also has different characteristics that make up the unique identities of each, such as Beowulf’s possession of superhuman abilities that Sir Gawain does not possess naturally, the chivalrous code of Sir Gawain and the heroic code that Beowulf lives by, and the different uses of nature in both poems (such as the embodiment of life and death). The reader can see the differences the two epic poems and their protagonists possess. Germanic Anglo-Saxons spoke Old English, which was the main language of the time period while the Middle English people spoke a variation of Old English with French words.