Sir Gawain Literary Analysis

Throughout the early British Literary stories, such as Sir Gawain, Beowulf, Lanval, and the Wife of Bath, there are signs of great heroes who have incredible, almost inhuman attributes. They easily ascend beyond what we consider the human limits, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and morally. Although we put these people on high pedestals as the pinnacle of human evolution for their time and the perfect example as who others should aspire to be, these heroes are still humans who lie and show guilt and remorse because of their actions, as opposed to Beowulf, whose human frailties differ from that of Sir Gawain, Lanval, and the wife of Bath, because Beowulf’s frailties are the physical restraints that come from aging.

Sir Gawain, …show more content…
When the predicament of the Green Knight comes along, Gawain seizes the opportunity to prove his worthiness in front of the king and ends up getting himself into more trouble than he thought. After a year, he sets out to find the Green Knight, and, after a couple of trials and tribulations, eventually comes across a mysterious castle whose host strikes a deal with him asking Gawain to give him whatever Gawain acquires throughout the day at the castle in exchange for what the host acquires while hunting. Up to this point, Gawain is simply accepting his fate of death at the hands of the Green Knight. After a few days, Gawain is given a girdle that prevents him from being harmed. Gawain immediately restrains himself from giving it to the host seeing it as a way out of having to die (lines 1859-18750. Though he was taking a risk, it was still better than giving up totally. He ended up living after the girdle protected him from the giant (who was disguised as the host the whole time) but he still lied. He did not give up the girdle when he made a promise with the host. He did spare his own life but lives with remorse of his lying