The Hero In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

What makes someone a true hero? Is it their physical or mental strength? Or maybe even their courage? For decades, there have been tales of the Arthurian heroes. In an era where Britain was out of control without a king; before King Arthur became king, it was clear there needed to be a leader. King Arthur has many character traits of a classical hero and a modern hero. As proven in the stories of “Sir Gawain and The Green Knight”, from “Morte d’ Arthur”, and “Excalibur”, Arthur, was of royal birth and said to be a hero that had many great feats. He went into extremely dangerous situations, that he ended up losing most of his men in. A classical hero is one who is on royal birth and takes on extraordinary feats, such as King Arthur did. King …show more content…
A classical hero must take on the extraordinary feats to be considered a hero. With that being said, often enough the challenges the hero has to take on and what it does to them physically and mentally isn’t really considered. Arthur had demonstrated this as he takes on Sir Lancelot even though he knew that Sir Lancelot had been extraordinarily strong and beat all of his men. It’s an extraordinary feat because who would've thought Arthur could beat Lancelot if no one else could. This act was remarkable on King Arthur’s part for taking on an extreme risk, not knowing if he could beat Lancelot or not. It was in this scene King Arthur was called to question on his strength, a test to see if he could beat Lancelot. In addition, in “Morte D’Arthur”, King Arthur had been warned by Sir Gawain that his battle with Mordred could cost him his life; however, he still took on the challenge and went to fight. This was extraordinary because he knows the battle could take his life, but he still does it, a true heroic act. Also, it is an extraordinary feat because he had to fight his own flesh and blood, probably a confusing situation, but he did it anyway. Arthur's battles are extraordinary for the manner in that, that they take place because each time he is risking his life for something bigger than himself. However, although he is able to do these extraordinary feats that put his life …show more content…
When the Green Knight comes and wants to have a challenge none of King Arthur's men stand up to accept. Therefore, Arthur has to stand up and take on the Green knight’s challenge. Arthur did this because he had to stand up for the reputation of his own name and the knights of the round table. If he didn’t do this he wouldn’t be following his liege lord's principles he set forth, of standing up and protecting the land and its honor. King Arthur wasn’t going to let someone come in and challenge their honor and not stand up and fight for it. In addition, King Arthur goes on to battle Mordred, his son. As part of the liege lords principle, anyone or anything that threatens the sake of the land and its people must be taken care of. Although it seems cruel, his son had demanded the land to rule as king in an unorderly way and that was not the way to go about taking his turn at the throne. In following with the principles Arthur killed his son in honor of all his men and to protect the land. So it is safe to infer that the war was no longer for a land grab or to avenge honor, however, it was to protect the land and honor. Therefore, one characteristic that makes King Arthur a medieval hero is his act of waging war on behalf of the liege lords