Christianity Against The Green Knight Analysis

During the High Middle Ages there was an influx of expression through the means of literature, painting, and architecture that encompassed the religious Christian values along with the secular chivalric code. This flowering of the High Middle Ages, during the approximate years 1050-1300, is the direct result of the economic successes from agricultural and commercial advances that greatly benefitted all of the social classes. With such stimulation amongst European economy the feudal and manorial aspects of society became superfluous, and people began to reestablish the bond between the church and the strength of the papacy. Christianity once again facilitated the formation of a society teeming with religious enlightenment. However, the feudal concept of chivalry still coincided with Christianity into the High Middle Ages and is idealized in …show more content…
For the sake of this comparison, it can be hypothesized that the devil is actually guised as the Green Knight. Similar to the manner the serpent deceives Adam and Eve by saying that they “will not die” and they will be “like God, knowing good and evil,” the Green Knight entices Sir Gawain into taking the challenge by degrading the honor of his fellow knights (The New Oxford Annotated Bible 14). Sir Gawain stated he was “the most wanting in wisdom” and was the weakest of the knights marking his lack of knowledge and experience in the world much like Adam and Eve (Stone 37). With his lack of knowledge and experience he decided to metaphorically “eat the forbidden fruit” by taking the Green Knight’s oath which in turn created a series of events that inevitably lead Sir Gawain to