In the beginning of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, Gawain is not a person one would consider to be fully mature. Early on Gawain is revealed to be the youngest of the Knights of the Round Table, a youth himself, and like many children his age, Gawain looks to others for their opinions on how to live his life. Gawain looks to his respectable uncle, King Arthur, as a role model for his own growth. When the man he so admires is threatened he acts out in a moment of rash judgement typical of one his age. Gawain, in his lack of wisdom, essentially exchanges his own life for King Arthur’s. This poor and hasty decision leads many to mourn the young man prematurely, a judgment formulated through assumptions that this impulsivity would be his own
