Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a poem that truly examines our own sinful nature and the way we use social codes to mask them. The poem takes us through a narrative of a knight that is viewed as honorable by his society, but through a series of tests and a complex challenge his deceitfulness is shown and he is forced to acknowledge it. The text could be seen as a highlight of Gawain’s morality, but his one fault of lying to Bertilak of Hautdesert proves otherwise. There is an overwhelming correlation to the way that the Green Knight exposes the faults of the knights code and the way Christ, in Christian tradition, finds fault in the law the Pharisees are obsessed with upholding. The Green Knight is a representation of Christ as the knight’s
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He shows the fault of how even the best of knights can not be perfect and live up to this honorable code that they claim to follow. He also saves Gawain from the fate that he deserves which is death. He extends grace while also acknowledging that this code the knights have put all their hope in can not save them. When he is about to strike Gawain he says “Now may the order of the knighthood given you by Arthur/Preserve you and your neck this time, if it has the power!”(2297-2298). In the end the order is not what has the power to save Gawain, but the green knight himself. Gawain wrongs the knight when he is deceitful about the girdle. The Green Knight responds to this sin by sparing Gawain and stating that the “wrong you did me I consider wiped out”(2390). The Green Knight came to reveal the fault in Arthur’s knights, but also to forgive Gawain when he comes to acknowledge his own evil. Once Gawain confesses his own sin, the Green Knight extends mercy. Gawain keeps the green girdle though to remember. He ends his interaction with the Green Knight by making a statement that sums up humanity's fall that is so crucial to the christian faith "The corruption and frailty of the perverse flesh/How quick it is to pick up blotches of sin./And so, when pride in my knightly valor stirs me,/A glance at this girdle will humble my
He shows the fault of how even the best of knights can not be perfect and live up to this honorable code that they claim to follow. He also saves Gawain from the fate that he deserves which is death. He extends grace while also acknowledging that this code the knights have put all their hope in can not save them. When he is about to strike Gawain he says “Now may the order of the knighthood given you by Arthur/Preserve you and your neck this time, if it has the power!”(2297-2298). In the end the order is not what has the power to save Gawain, but the green knight himself. Gawain wrongs the knight when he is deceitful about the girdle. The Green Knight responds to this sin by sparing Gawain and stating that the “wrong you did me I consider wiped out”(2390). The Green Knight came to reveal the fault in Arthur’s knights, but also to forgive Gawain when he comes to acknowledge his own evil. Once Gawain confesses his own sin, the Green Knight extends mercy. Gawain keeps the green girdle though to remember. He ends his interaction with the Green Knight by making a statement that sums up humanity's fall that is so crucial to the christian faith "The corruption and frailty of the perverse flesh/How quick it is to pick up blotches of sin./And so, when pride in my knightly valor stirs me,/A glance at this girdle will humble my