Symmetry In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

In the poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, parallels are persistent. The poet often has two or more completely different ideas in order to be able to contrast. Some things that are often contrasted in the poem are symbols. What the certain symbols represent has been highly debated throughout the years by many greats of literature. Such is the case with Donald R. Howard. Howard has his own set of ideas on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and demonstrates them in his article, “Structure and Symmetry in `Sir Gawain'”. Not much differently than most, Howard deciphers the meaning of the symbols in the poem in his own way.
Howard argues that the most important parallel in the poem are the shield and the girdle. He is able to support this claim by explaining what each symbol represents throughout different parts of the poem. For instance at the beginning he believes the girdle represents a shield that will protect Gawain from an attack. While he believes the actual shield represents the value of a knight. Later on he believes the girdle represents Gawain’s faults. Later he describes the girdle as a representation of life and the shield as a representation of Christian and moral values. Howard believes …show more content…
This is interesting as typically a girdle is associated with being a knightly possession, however here howard suggests it is more than that and that is symbolizes life. This is also interesting as Howard mentions that the girdle here was not used to represent wealth or status as it usually done. In this case it used for the sole purpose of life. To further support this claim he compares it to the shield which he claims shows more worldly ideas and Christian beliefs. Once again this also shows his belief that the comparison of the shield to the girdle is the most important parallelisms in the