Carolyn Dinshaw, in her study “A Kiss is Just a Kiss: Heterosexuality and its Consolations in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, writes, “When, after all, is a kiss ever just a kiss?” (223). This quote roughly sums up the work Dinshaw does in the article revolving around the tale of the famous Sir Gawain and the kisses he shares not just with the lady, but with his host Bertilak. Dinshaw believes that the interactions between Gawain and this lord and lady consolidate Christian heterosexual norms, even if they may allow for the possibility of homosexuality or impair Gawain’s masculine identity. Indeed, the poem briefly allows for the possibility of this harmful homosexuality, but immediately suppresses it. This suppression allows the poem to
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This hunt or seduction by the lady disrupts and reverses established court procedures. Indeed, “Her gaze fixes him, she names him, she offers herself as his servant …” (Dinshaw 212). This role reversal “game” done by the lady challenges Gawain’s identity, a chivalric identity which relies on action to prove its validity. This spurs Gawain to kiss Morgan, which reaffirms his rightful place in courtly affairs. This kiss, however, also causes him to have to kiss Bertilak, which threatens Gawain’s newly reestablished masculinity. Dinshaw again mentions the hunting scenes in relation to Gawain and suggests that the slaughter of the animals after each hunt parallel heterosexuality being ripped apart by this homosexual encounter. The poem then must consider the “normative masculine" to be dependent on the harmony of both gender and desire. Specifically, heterosexual gender and desire allow the different parts of the body to be ordered into an intelligible whole, an indivisible …show more content…
She first starts with Cleanness, which uses the sinful homosexuality present in Sodom and Gomorrah to reestablish heterosexuality as the original and nature form of sex. If this trend in Cleanness is used in the context of SGGK, Dinshaw argues that it is “… explicit that such normative heterosexuality contains homosexual relations…” (218). An example of this would be the kisses that take place between Gawain and Bertilak, which are a consequence of Lady Bertilak and Gawain’s heterosexual courtly love games. These courtly love games are the “play of paramorez” spoken of in Cleanness by God which lead to straight sex. It would appear then that heterosexuality and homosexuality operate in this poem in a dangerous symbiosis. Even the girdle which reaffirmed Gawain’s masculinity also symbolize the threat homosexuality presents to heterosexuality, which Gawain himself notes in lines 2433-36. Just as both Cleanness and SGGK mention the homosexual only to strengthen the heterosexual, the feminine is used to legitimize masculinity. Indeed, SGGK’s plot is orchestrated by Morgan le Fey who wants to terrify Guinevere. The poem gives the feminine power in this respect but then condemns it through Gawain's antifeminism in lines
This hunt or seduction by the lady disrupts and reverses established court procedures. Indeed, “Her gaze fixes him, she names him, she offers herself as his servant …” (Dinshaw 212). This role reversal “game” done by the lady challenges Gawain’s identity, a chivalric identity which relies on action to prove its validity. This spurs Gawain to kiss Morgan, which reaffirms his rightful place in courtly affairs. This kiss, however, also causes him to have to kiss Bertilak, which threatens Gawain’s newly reestablished masculinity. Dinshaw again mentions the hunting scenes in relation to Gawain and suggests that the slaughter of the animals after each hunt parallel heterosexuality being ripped apart by this homosexual encounter. The poem then must consider the “normative masculine" to be dependent on the harmony of both gender and desire. Specifically, heterosexual gender and desire allow the different parts of the body to be ordered into an intelligible whole, an indivisible …show more content…
She first starts with Cleanness, which uses the sinful homosexuality present in Sodom and Gomorrah to reestablish heterosexuality as the original and nature form of sex. If this trend in Cleanness is used in the context of SGGK, Dinshaw argues that it is “… explicit that such normative heterosexuality contains homosexual relations…” (218). An example of this would be the kisses that take place between Gawain and Bertilak, which are a consequence of Lady Bertilak and Gawain’s heterosexual courtly love games. These courtly love games are the “play of paramorez” spoken of in Cleanness by God which lead to straight sex. It would appear then that heterosexuality and homosexuality operate in this poem in a dangerous symbiosis. Even the girdle which reaffirmed Gawain’s masculinity also symbolize the threat homosexuality presents to heterosexuality, which Gawain himself notes in lines 2433-36. Just as both Cleanness and SGGK mention the homosexual only to strengthen the heterosexual, the feminine is used to legitimize masculinity. Indeed, SGGK’s plot is orchestrated by Morgan le Fey who wants to terrify Guinevere. The poem gives the feminine power in this respect but then condemns it through Gawain's antifeminism in lines