Masculinity Perceived Through Careers
Masculinity is commonly misinterpreted in the sense that people assume a static set of qualities can categorize a person as masculine. On the contrary, the masculine qualities are ever-changing. Due to the unique economy, society, and trends of certain time periods, masculine characteristics are altered in accordance to what is needed by a specific place, time, and group of people, (Strickland 19). Therefore, masculine people tend to be some of the vastly important, powerful people within society. However, powerful and important people are assumed to be of the high-class, but all high-class people are not automatically considered masculine just as all masculine people are not always of high-class. Instead, …show more content…
The Pearl Poet nicely illustrates the shift in the expectations of knights. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight an immediate shift in value of the knights is noticed because King Arthur dined with the knights as if they were his friends and were worthy of casual, informal dining with him. Additionally, when the Green Knight appears and challenges the knights to an assumingly fatal game, no one volunteered (202-202). Therefore, the knights were less brave and courageous to stand up to an enemy to substantiate their allegiance to King Arthur. Furthermore, when all the knights, excluding Gawain, were going to let their king partake in the game, they portrayed just how weak and insignificant their protective abilities were. However, considering the fact that Gawain is portrayed as the prominent masculine figure in this story and he does embody the protective qualities, it can be concluded that those qualities are still honorable, but not required. Considering the fact that the Green Knight showed up in the first place in order to test the knight for valor suggests and emphasizes that the lack of valor was prominent during this time. However, that may not have a strictly negative connotation in the story for the reason that it may have been written that way to lay emphasis on the variation in knightly expectations between the Anglo-Norman and Medieval periods. Moreover, the fact that Arthur and other knights praised Gawain before the journey represented that they thought Gawain already accomplished everything that was expected of him. In reality, his actions exceeded expectations in this case since it was not expected to be highly protective at this point in time. The Pearl Poet used Gawain’s praise of the Pentangle to symbolize the new
Masculinity is commonly misinterpreted in the sense that people assume a static set of qualities can categorize a person as masculine. On the contrary, the masculine qualities are ever-changing. Due to the unique economy, society, and trends of certain time periods, masculine characteristics are altered in accordance to what is needed by a specific place, time, and group of people, (Strickland 19). Therefore, masculine people tend to be some of the vastly important, powerful people within society. However, powerful and important people are assumed to be of the high-class, but all high-class people are not automatically considered masculine just as all masculine people are not always of high-class. Instead, …show more content…
The Pearl Poet nicely illustrates the shift in the expectations of knights. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight an immediate shift in value of the knights is noticed because King Arthur dined with the knights as if they were his friends and were worthy of casual, informal dining with him. Additionally, when the Green Knight appears and challenges the knights to an assumingly fatal game, no one volunteered (202-202). Therefore, the knights were less brave and courageous to stand up to an enemy to substantiate their allegiance to King Arthur. Furthermore, when all the knights, excluding Gawain, were going to let their king partake in the game, they portrayed just how weak and insignificant their protective abilities were. However, considering the fact that Gawain is portrayed as the prominent masculine figure in this story and he does embody the protective qualities, it can be concluded that those qualities are still honorable, but not required. Considering the fact that the Green Knight showed up in the first place in order to test the knight for valor suggests and emphasizes that the lack of valor was prominent during this time. However, that may not have a strictly negative connotation in the story for the reason that it may have been written that way to lay emphasis on the variation in knightly expectations between the Anglo-Norman and Medieval periods. Moreover, the fact that Arthur and other knights praised Gawain before the journey represented that they thought Gawain already accomplished everything that was expected of him. In reality, his actions exceeded expectations in this case since it was not expected to be highly protective at this point in time. The Pearl Poet used Gawain’s praise of the Pentangle to symbolize the new