The Concept Of Perfection In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

The concept of perfection is something that cannot be reached or can be achieved because if you have nothing to redeem then you have nothing to gain. Just as a caterpillar is to a butterfly, redemption is to success. Although they may seem like opposites, they actually are very much alike because you need one to have the other. One must recognize a fault that they have suffered and learn from it to better one’s self and eventually teach it to others. The idea of redemption through failure because perfection will not help one’s worth is evident in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight by Simon Armitage and in modern day society.

In order to greater your own worth, you must accept that faults will happen along your journey and become better by …show more content…
The one thing that can prevent someone from achieving this goal is the idea of perfection. If you believe you are perfect and won’t accept failure or learn from it, then you can’t grow and evolve as a person. The key to better your worth is change and you can’t change if you constantly think you are perfect and everything you do is right. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the author shows how Sir Gawain thinks he’s perfect by using description on his journey and giving background information. He mentions concepts such as chivalry, knight’s honor, and the five virtues represented by the pentangle. All these views are to make sure the knights fit the role of an “ideal knight” which means you can’t make a mistake or else your honor will be broken. Since Sir Gawain is a knight, these ideals were expected from him and he planned to carry out all of them, but he didn’t since he is only human. This can be seen in the book on page 65 when it states, “First he was deemed flawless in his five senses; and …show more content…
It’s something that everyone goes through in life, but the way people deal with it is what separates the successful people from the rest. Some may use failure as an excuse to give up and hold them back from redeeming themselves, but some learn from it and achieve great things as well as teach others. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, you can see his faults through the test he was given and the how the author uses symbolism to show it. In Fitt 3, it introduces the the three test Sir Gawain is faced with. The first way symbolism was used was the animals being hunted and how they represented how the lady would act during each test. For example, with the deer, she was gentle and quiet, but with the wild boar, she was bolder and she was cunning when it was the fox. Armitage also used symbolism to show the values of Sir Gawain within the tests. The gifts that were offered were kisses which represented love, the ring which symbolized wealth, and the “magic” green girdle which represents life. He returned the kisses and refused the ring so he passed the first two, except he kept the girdle. From this, we can see that the author wants us to show us that out of love, wealth, and life, Sir Gawain values life the most. However this shows his fault which was dishonesty and he not only breaks his honor, but also receives a scar after the Green Knight cuts him for partially failing the third test. A similar point of view can be seen in modern literature such as the story The