The Role of Women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
In the Fourteenth Century, Feudalism and its offspring, chivalry, were in decline due to drastic social and economic changes. In this light, _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_ presents both a nostalgic support of the feudal hierarchies and an implicit criticism of changes, which, if left unchecked will lead to its ultimate destruction. I would suggest that the women in the story are the Gawain poet's primary instruments in this critique and reinforcement of Feudalism. By positioning The Virgin Mary (as the singular female archetype representing spiritual love, obedience, chastity, and life) against Morgan and Bertilak's wife (who represent the traditional female archetypes of courtly love, disobedience, lust and death) the Gawain poet points out the conflict between courtly love and spiritual love which he, and other critics of the time, felt had drastically weakened the religious values behind chivalry. As such, the poem is a warning to its Aristocratic readers that the traditional religious values underlying the feudal system must be upheld in order to avert destruction of their way of life.
It is easy to read _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_ as a romantic celebration of chivalry, but Ruth Hamilton believes that "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight contains a more wide-ranging, more serious criticism of chivalry than has heretofore been noticed" (113). Specifically, she feels that the poet is showing Gawain's reliance on chivalry's outside form and substance at the expense of the original values of the Christian religion from which it sprang. As she shows, "the first order of knights were monastic ones, who took vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity. The first duties th...
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...eties facing Arthur's Camelot--specifically women, magic, adultery, and incest--with Morgan representing a trope for all the ills.
Morgan, Gerald. "The Action of the Hunting and Bedroom Scenes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Medium Aevum 56 (1987): 200-16.
Morgan argues that a moral struggle is suggested by the juxtaposition of the hunt scenes and the bedroom scenes, with the Lady in the role of the hunter and Gawain as the hunted.
Warner, Marina. Alone of all Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1976.
Warner's book details the special importance of the Virgin Mary throughout Christianity and explores her religious and secular meaning. She discusses such things as the Church's attitude toward virginity, the role model of the Virgin martyr, the Virgin's relics, and her role as an intercessor with God.
Barron, W.R.J., trans. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.. New York: Manchester University Press, 1974.
“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.
Long tracking shots are one of the more unique and difficult shots in filmmaking. Film enthusiast Alan Bacchus commented on the difficulty of long tracking shots, “The difficulty arises when the camera is forced to move which complicates the logistics. The things that could be effected are focus Changes, lighting changes, and hiding production equipment.”(P.1, 3) There are some iconic long tracking shots in film history. The opening scene of Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil, Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol.1 and more recently in the HBO Drama True Detective. We cannot mention the famous long tracking shots of all time without mentioning this film. The long tracking shot comes when Henry brings Karen to the Copacabana through the back door while there are countless people waiting to get in. The camera follows Henry and Karen as they make their way downstairs, through the kitchen, and out to their table. This whole shot is taken without any interruption and is truly remarkable. In this scene, Karen is introduced to how well known and respected Henry is throughout the city, almost everyone sitting in the restaurant and even the kitchen staff acknowledges his presence. Robert Warshow, the late author and film critic, writes in his book, The Gangster as Tragic Hero, that the gangster character has to be a man of the city,
Savage, Henry L. "The Significance of the Hunting Scenes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." University of Illinois Press 27.1 (1928): 1-15. JSTOR. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
The use of genetically modified food has caused many to rethink their moral principles. The University of Washington's IMPACT Center conducted a survey aimed at poverty ridden countries such as Mexico, Chile, and India, focusing on the attitude toward GM crops. The survey included both poor and affluent demographics. In Chile and Mexico, 70% of participants said they were willing to purchase GM food if contained vitamins or nutrients, or used fewer pesticides. In India, 88% of participants stated that they would buy GM foods. (Ling, 2013) There is a definite need for food resources but there are concerns about the use of GM foods. These foods may cause antibiotic resistance in people who consume the pesticide containing food, and an increased risk of cancer, gastrointestinal disease and other autoimmune problems. (Wald, 2013) The question needs to be asked, are terminal illnesses worth the risk of consuming GM food? The cons overshadow the benefits of GM foods. In 2006, 97% of the global crops were grown with transgenic genes. The United States grew 53%...
GM food has generated polemic debate amongst: governmental regulators, biotechnology companies, scientists, economic activists, environmentalists and consumers. The main areas of controversy correlated to GM food are the neutrality of scientific examination and publication, the results of GM crops on the environment and health and the role of the crops in feeding the world population.
In the U.S., GM foods have received little public opposition; this is largely due to the fact that food manufacturers are not required to label their products as containing genetically modified ingredients for fear of confusing consumers. Due to the lack of evidence that genetically altered foods are harmful, the Food and Drug Administration considers GM foods to be “generally regarded as safe” (known as GRAS) and no special labeling is required (Falkner 103). In the U.S., genetically modified crops are monitored by t...
Organization is a huge theme in the film. Throughout the film you get a firsthand look at how organized Henry and the mob are. The tracking shots through the restaurant and poker game are metaphor for this. Everyone had a job and they executed it well. Even when they were in prison, everything was smooth and organized. Cooking was a big deal in prison and they had a
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.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Edition, Volume One. General Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: Norton, 1993.
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.
Genetically modified organisms are known to carry many risks along with its benefits. Many studies have shown that eating new genetically modified organisms cause more allergic reactions found in people some of the reason is even if people don’t consume GMO crops. Animals are being fed GMO products such as soy beans, and corn then the animal is consumed by us. Many GMO’s pose great environmental damage by crossbreeding with weeds. This is a threat because most genetically modified crops are made to be herbicide resistance, when cross-breeding happens the weeds also become resistant to herbicides making it easier for them to spread. The time for the genetically modified organisms to grow is generally about the same amount of time as non-genetically modified organisms. One of the biggest cons to GMO is that no one really knows if they are safe for consumption. Studies have been done but in some cases there is a risk of cancer. Also pesticides have been found in some of the genetically modified crops. This leads to more toxins in our bodies which can lead to more cancer diagnosis. With all of these risks the concern of genetically modified organisms is still growing. Figure 2 shows a general idea of consumer’s feelings towards
The demand for non-GMO foods is on a great rise all around the world. "Non-GMO products accounted for $550 billion of the 5 trillion global food And beverage retail market in 2014". Many people, in today's time, are being offset by negative perceptions of GMO products. Numerous consumers have pre-disposition and attitudes when it comes to their intentions of purchasing GMO foods. General consumers believes that "scientifically altered crops could be unethical and unsafe". The U.S. food and drug administration defines the term genetically modified organisms as "used by scientists to denote a living organism, that have been genetically modified, By inserting a gene from an unrelated species". In other words, they describe GMO's as an organism
The American Academy of Environmental Medicine stated that several animal studies indicate serious adverse health risks associated with the consumption of GM food such as infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, faulty insulin regulation and changes in major organs and gastrointestinal systems (Smith, 2007). The production of GM food does have its benefits in the aspect of mass-producing potentially nutritionally beneficial foods but the actual consumption of it is questionably not safe for animal consumption. Labeling needs to be widely accepted and used across North and South America where a majority of GMO foods are produced so people have the ability to know what they are putting into their bodies and the knowledge to act upon this.
The question Thomas Young sought to resolve was whether light was made of a stream of particles or waves. Sir Isaac Newton, a strong proponent of the particle theory, showed that a white light beam passing through angled prisms would split into a spectrum at the first prism and become white light again when passed through the second prism. This proved the particle theory by disproving the wave theory, giving support to Newton’s corpuscular (particle) theory of light. However, Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch mathematician, disagreed with Newton's theory and argued tha...