Three Temptations In Sir Gawain

In the poem Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain becomes a guest at Lord Bertilak’s castle. His stay comes as a brief rest from his journey to meet with the Green Knight. During his time in the castle, Gawain is coaxed into a pact between himself and Lord Bertilak. Throughout three days, Bertilak would go out to hunt and Gawain would stay in the castle, and at the end of each day, the two would exchange whatever they gained. Unbeknownst to him, the pact was a means of testing his true character, and during those three days, Gawain was placed under pressure by the lady of the house. The three hunts and three temptations that simultaneously took place were symbolically parallel to each other. The animals that were hunted during each day are symbolically connected to both Lady Bertilak’s attempts and Gawain’s push against them as they emphasize both the purity and chivalric defense of Gawain as a young knight and his and his ultimate descent from his honest chivalry. During the first day of the hunt, Lord Bertilak and his men set off to hunt deer. As an animal, deer are seen as graceful and non-threatening, and their numbers in the wild are …show more content…
During those three days, three different animals were hunted, and each represented both the advances of Lady Bertilak and the resistance of Gawain and his chivalric code. The deer on the first day showed the grace and caution of Lady Bertilak towards her pursuit of Gawain and Gawain’s own attempt at being as honorable as he could. He stayed true to the pact with Bertilak, reporting everything that was gained. During the second day, both Lady Bertilak and Gawain followed the same strategy; however, both became more aggressive in their attempts. However, by the third day, Lady Bertilak’s attempts, as they were sly and calculated like the fox, were able to entrap Gawain, and his resolve was