Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

There is a poem called Sir Gawain and the Green Knight with an author who is unknown. The poem goes back to the medieval times where there knights and a lot of chivalry. The green knight mocks the King, so the King grips the green knight's axe. When the King takes the axe Sir Gawain calls out and offers to complete the mission. Sir Gawain swung once and barely touched his neck, bringing the blood to his shoulders. He struck him again twice still not cutting off the head. On the third strike, he…

her acts are solely based on protecting those who are incapable of defending themselves. Such acts are seen in the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by the Pearl poet himself, where Sir Gawain risks his life for King Arthur by playing the Green Knights game. While many…

Sir Gawain’s Shame: the Transformation of a Symbol and the Loss of an Identity In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the title character Gawain faces a personal moral dilemma with very public consequences. His moral downfall takes physical form through the symbolic transformation of the gift Gawain receives from Morgan Le Fay, a green girdle. Initially, the girdle is a symbol of protection; however, when Gawain breaks his contract with the Green Knight, it becomes a symbol of personal shame. Once…

Meaning of `Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” by Alan Markman, it is suggested that the sole purpose of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is to display that a human can be a hero without being a god. The thesis of this paper is that the poem was written to show what a grand person Gawain was despite the difficult test endured. An argument that Markman states is that “in the entire poem there is not a line which ascribes to the hero any superhuman or supernatural quality” (Markman 1). In the poem…

hero and villain in us.” This quote comes to mind when reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Miller’s Tale. Sir Gawain is a noble knight with high morals and very spiritual. He is flawed, like a villain would be, but still maintains his noble and heroeic qualities. The Miller’s Tale on the other hand has no hero. Both the storyteller and the main character in this story come across as low class villains. Both The Green Knight and The Miller’s Tale were written in 14th century Middle…

the poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, there are three good symbols such as the Green Knight that challenges Gawain, the ax that the Green Knight had, and the green sash that the Green Knight’s wife gave to Gawain. First of all, The Green Knight and what he symbolizes. The Green Knight symbolizes having a second chance in life. When Gawain first meets the Green Knight he…

McMillan Professor Kelley World Literature 20 November 2015 Sir Gawain: A Medieval Hero The tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight belongs to the literary genre known as romance. In romance literary pieces, courtly love and chivalry are two idealized standards of behavior. Loyalty, courage, integrity, purity, and courtesy are all attributes of a knight that displays chivalry (Shmoop Editorial Team). Sir Gawain, King Arthur’s nephew and a knight of the Round Table can be seen as an epitome of…

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight defies many conventions of traditional heroic tales. Interactions between Gawain and his protagonist the Green Knight differ substantially from the typical interactions of protagonists and antagonists in heroic tales, and the Green Knight is not simplistically evil like most antagonists in heroic tales. There is less physical conflict than in most heroic tales, and more social conflict, tests which challenge Gawain’s loyalty to his chivalric moral code. These…

The jeweler in The Pearl gains faith while Gawain loses his in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In Pearl, the jeweler gains faith after his self-knowledge is tested. Gawain loses his when his faith is tested. What separates the two works is what is done with the newly acquired knowledge of self. The jeweler feels at peace within himself while Gawain uses the lesson to remind himself just how unfaithful he truly is. The jeweler of Pearl is between accepting what he knows and what is true…

Literary critic Cindy Vitto expands the idea that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, can be interpreted as adolescent literature. Vitto asserts that the moral and cultural lessons expressed in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight were meant to teach noble adolescent males important values that would help them in their passage into adulthood. In order to support her argument Vitto alludes to the work of other literary critics and expands on the significance of events in the poem. The interesting…