What kind of weakness can lead to a bad ending, and what can lead to good? Weakness is a common archetype across text types--everyone has weaknesses, it’s unavoidable. A character must have weaknesses to be able to be more human. Weaknesses, or flaws in character, can lead to positive events but at the same time, it could also lead to negative events. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a story written in the late 1400s, Sir Gawain is a great knight who followed the chivalry code, but he has one weakness, a weakness that everyone has, the fear of death. Sometimes weaknesses doesn’t just apply to self but it could come from others, Jack and the Beanstalk, originally known as The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean written in 1734
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The characters react differently when their weakness is revealed, and different things are done. In Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack beanstalk up the tree just thinking to getting food when he met a giant. The female giant gave him food and when the male giant came home he said: “Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.” (Joseph Jacob, 1890 Jack and the Beanstalk rendition) which created Jack’s fear, but when he saw the treasures the giant brought back, Jack was seduced and was also willing to take the treasure back home to his mother and make her happy. When Jack brought the treasure he stole in the night from the giant to his mother, his weakness strengthens and made him more greedy and want more for his family. Jack did the same thing for two more days to fulfill his weakness until he made a mistake. Bluebeard’s small closet was too tempting for simply anyone, that doesn’t exclude the wife of Bluebeard. Her curiosity was strong so “Coming to the closet-door, she made a stop for some time, thinking upon her husband's orders, and considering what unhappiness might attend her if she was disobedient; but the temptation was so strong she could not overcome it.” (SurLaLune, The Annotated Bluebeard). When the door was opened, the dead bodies inside shocked her and made her drop the key, which later on, could not be washed, the wife wonders if she might be murdered like the other women in the closet, the fear stayed with her everyday until the Bluebeard comes back with an answer. From the tale, Sir Gawain’s weakness was so obvious that he secretly kept the girdle which he was told that could “save” his life, and lied to the lord. Gawain then proceeds to the green chapel, meanwhile leaving, he thank the castle and the lord even though he was not honest with them. Weakness lead people to make decisions,
The characters react differently when their weakness is revealed, and different things are done. In Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack beanstalk up the tree just thinking to getting food when he met a giant. The female giant gave him food and when the male giant came home he said: “Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.” (Joseph Jacob, 1890 Jack and the Beanstalk rendition) which created Jack’s fear, but when he saw the treasures the giant brought back, Jack was seduced and was also willing to take the treasure back home to his mother and make her happy. When Jack brought the treasure he stole in the night from the giant to his mother, his weakness strengthens and made him more greedy and want more for his family. Jack did the same thing for two more days to fulfill his weakness until he made a mistake. Bluebeard’s small closet was too tempting for simply anyone, that doesn’t exclude the wife of Bluebeard. Her curiosity was strong so “Coming to the closet-door, she made a stop for some time, thinking upon her husband's orders, and considering what unhappiness might attend her if she was disobedient; but the temptation was so strong she could not overcome it.” (SurLaLune, The Annotated Bluebeard). When the door was opened, the dead bodies inside shocked her and made her drop the key, which later on, could not be washed, the wife wonders if she might be murdered like the other women in the closet, the fear stayed with her everyday until the Bluebeard comes back with an answer. From the tale, Sir Gawain’s weakness was so obvious that he secretly kept the girdle which he was told that could “save” his life, and lied to the lord. Gawain then proceeds to the green chapel, meanwhile leaving, he thank the castle and the lord even though he was not honest with them. Weakness lead people to make decisions,