The author of the book Sir Gawain and the Green Knight teaches the reader many different things about facing challenges such as how they come unexpecteantly and how they must be faced. Throughout the ballad there are numerous refernces to the challenges that Sir Gawain and the different ways that he must deal with them.
The author shows that people have to face a challenge straight on. You cannot run away and hope that the problem will go away. One reason for this is that challenges, unless dealt with, will follow you forever. An expample of this is the challenge that the Green Knight bestows upon Sir Gawain. He must find the Green Knight in a year and a day to have the Green Knight hit him with a weapon of his choosing. The author shows through the description of chivarly that if Sir Gawain were not hold up his end of the deal, the knights and the people of Camalot would be forever shamed by his presence. 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. With a little forethought and knowledge, he might have concluded that the challenge was not woth the risks. There are other examples of unexpected challenges, such as the problems he had during his travel for the court of King Arthur to the Green Chapel. These challenges came up as he was traveling and he had no choice about taking them on, it was that or for him to die. The other main challenge was from the lady of the house. This challenge was totally unexpected; Sir Gawain did not even know that it was a challenge until his talk with the Green Knight right at the end. Sir Gawain did not know that the Green Knight was testing the young knight to see how strong his sense of chivalry really is.
8[8] Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Trans. Marie Borroff. Norton Anthology of British Literature Vol. 1, New York: WW Norton, 1993.
The poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, tells of one knights struggle to uphold the code of chivalry. What makes a knight a noble knight? Why does this social standard force us to hold this individual to higher expectations? What should we think about Sir Gawain when he breaks his vows in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight? 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.
Some readers of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight may think that the challenges Gawain faces are no more than tests to show off his knighthood. I believe that the Green Knight’s challenges do more than try to test a knight’s might, but instead challenges the institution of chivalry and knighthood. At first, the Green Knight’s proposition appears to be nothing more for him than a game, but the challenges that he sets up a part from the original beheading game alludes to a much more serious goal. These goals I believe are to challenge the court of Arthur and their supposed authority over all that is chivalric and masculine. By the decree of the Green Knight, Gawain and the court pass the tests, but in my view they do not “pass” the tests and instead fail to realize that the Green Knight was exploiting their views on knighthood.
When the Green Knight arrives at Camelot, he challenges Arthur’s court, mocking the knights for being afraid of mere words, and suggesting that words and appearances hold too much power with them. 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...
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a test of challenges of a hero’s progression. The novel involves a hero steering his way through obstacles to reach maturity. In order to reach his heroic maturity, Sir Gawain must participate in these games. These games serves as the obstacles that stand between the path. Throughout history there have been many instances in which games stood in between a hero and its end goal. In the novel the Hunger Games, for example a simple game of survival served as the obstacle between the hero and the heroic maturity. The main character of this story played an actual game of fate where they battled survival of the fittest to become the hero of their own game. Sir Gawain in his own way play his own game of fate which determined his heroic maturity in the way he develops. The game is a symbol that represents heroic maturity. Throughout history, it has repeated itself over and over to show that the game is a degree of obstacles that determine the maturity of the hero. The game serves as a challenge of heroic maturity where Sir Gawain must prove how much of a hero he is.
In the opening lines of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Gawain-poet predicates the numerous dualities—which lead the reader through questions of moral seriousness—that exist in the poem. The opening historical recounting, according to Richard Hamilton Green, reminds the reader that “the greatness of the past is marred by reminders of failure” (179). The paradox of triumph and greatness arising out of failure foreshadows Sir Gawain following the same pattern of fate as his predecessors. While the completion of Gawain’s quest reaffirms the historical paradox of greatness, his journey to renown is fraught with situations and symbols that develop the poem’s main concern of moral seriousness. The Gawain-poet skillfully reveals his theme by leading Gawain on a journey in which nothing is what it seems. Sir Gawain and the reader are confronted with several contrasts of characters’ actions and intentions, symbolic meanings, and Christian and secular virtues. Mainly by showing the difference between actions and attitudes while inside in a social situation and outside in a more wild, untamed environment, these contrasts help to emphasize the importance of unbending faith and loyalty.
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). To continue on testing a knight that does not seem worthy certainly will not result in much of a story, or in establishing a theme. Through the use of symbols, the author of Sir Gawain is able to show that Gawain possesses the necessary attributes to make him worthy of being tested. He also uses symbols throughout the tests of each individual attribute, and in revealing where Gawain’s fault lies. The effective use of these symbols enables the author to integrate the test of each individual attribute into a central theme, or rather one overall test, the test of chivalry.
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 Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, our main character is faced with a challenge. A
Though often extensive detail may be condemned as mere flowery language, in understanding Sir Gawain and the Green Knight one must make special emphasis on it. In color and imagery itself, the unknown author paints the very fibers of this work, allowing Sir Gawain to discern the nuances of ritualistic chivalry and truth. His quest after the Green Knight is as simple as ones quest toward himself. Through acute awareness of the physical world he encounters Gawain comes to an understanding of the world beyond chivalry, a connection to G-d, the source of truth. He learns, chivalry, like a machine, will always function properly, but in order to derive meaning from its product he must allow nature to affect him.
Thesis Statement: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight shows the struggle between a good Christian man against the temptations of this world.
Stephen Manning, “A Psychological Interpretation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” in Critical Studies of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, eds. Donald R. Howard and Christian Zacher (Notre Dame: Notre Dame UP, 1968), 279.
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. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume A. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2006. 162-213.
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...