Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Essay Example

Literature Table of Contents Introduction 3 The Journey 4 Conclusion 6 References 7 Bibliography 8 Introduction ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’ is regarded as the alliterative romance of Middle English and the composition of the piece is expected to date back in the late years of 14th century. The real poet or poets of this famous poem of the romantic genre could not be traced and presently the manuscript of the poem is kept at the British Library after it was Robert Cotton from the Library of Henry Savile of Bank in Yorkshire (Pearl, “Introduction”). The poem revolves around the youngest knight of King Arthur’s Round Table and a mysterious warrior who looks completely green and rightly regarded as the ‘Green Knight’. It is found in the poem, ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, that the hero i.e. Sir Gawain, has entered into a sort of deal with the unidentified warrior (the Green Knight) as the hero accepted his challenge and had stroked the Green Knight and so he should meet the warrior exactly after one year at a Green Chapel so that the Green Knight could return the strike to the hero of the literary piece. The essay identifies the various happenings and the problems that the hero faces as he set out to meet the Green Knight after one year at the stipulated venue. The essay also thrusts upon the moral and personal affects that Sir Gawain faces during his voyage to complete the challenge of the Green Knight. The Journey The Green Knight had come to the King’s place on a New Year day and had challenged the court if any one of the courtyards had the courage to strike him. The term of the challenge further specified that the Green Knight would get the opportunity to strike the charge back upon the person who charges him, after one year. The youngest knight of the court, also a near relative of the King, Sir Gawain accepted the challenge. With his one strike, the Green Knight was beheaded but to the sheer amazement of the court and that of Sir Gawain, it was witnessed that the beheaded Green Knight, stands up and picks up his head. He reminds Sir Gawain to meet after one year at Green Chapel and disappears. As the next New Year day approaches, Sir Gawain voyages out for the Green Chapel and on his way he finds a castle owned by Bertilak de Hautdesert and his beautiful wife. The family gets overwhelmed to host such a renowned guest and Sir Gawain stays there for three days as the Green Chapel was only two miles away from the castle. The owner of the castle enters into an agreement with Sir Gawain and it states that during his stay at the castle, they Bertilak de Hautdesert and Sir Gawain would exchange whatever they would earn during the daytime. In the first day, as Bertilak de Hautdesert goes out for hunting, the lady of the castle seduces Sir Gawain though the knight tries to maintain his calm. They just kiss once. When the lord of the castle returns from hunt, he offers Sir Gawain a deer and Sir Gawain returns him the kiss though not disclosing the source. On the second day, the hunt was a boar and there were two kisses in return from Sir Gawain (as he had received from Mrs. Bertilak de Hautdesert’s seduction during the day). On the third and the final day, Sir Gawain was presented with a girdle (that was supposed to save him for all dangers) and three kisses by the lady where as Bertilak de Hautdesert returns with a fox. Sir Gawain returns the three kisses but not the girdle and sets for the chapel. Reaching the chapel, he finds that the Green Knight is sharpening his axe. The Green Knight softly hits him twice which result just a cut on Sir Gawain’s neck that astonishes the hero. The Green Knight reveals himself to be Bertilak as he says it is just a game arranged upon the request of King’s sister. Sir Gawain feels ashamed of himself as he could not keep his word and follow the rules of the game in the truest sense and returns to the capital with the girdle. The experts felt that the poem had lot many tests and obstacles for the hero. The behavior that the lady of the castle presented toward Sir Gawain was no doubt too tempting, yet the hero overcome the obstacle most probably unknowingly just because of his ‘instinctive courtesy’ (Kittredge, “A Study of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”). The another such happening where the hero is again put to test is that when Sir Gawain accepts the terms of agreement where it states that he has to return his day’s earnings and also he accepts the girdle presented by the lady. Being a knight, it is his code of honour that he has to accept the gifts and terms from his subjects. But Sir Gawain keeps the girdle in fear of death and when it is unveiled that the lord of the castles and the Green Knight is one and same person, the youngest knight of the King’s thinks court he has lost his honour as he did not maintain the rule of the game (Burrow, “A Reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”). Many of the critics have compared the abrupt arrival of the Green Knight at the court of the King Arthur with that of the behaviour of the nature. The experts felt as the hero keeps the girdle with him and do not submit it to the lord of the castle even though he had successfully fought the lust for the lady, can be compared with the nature. It is so because it is the nature that never allows a man to be perfect as per the norms of the chivalry which is represented by the girdle in the poem (Woods, “Nature and the Inner Man in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”). From the above analysis, it is pretty clear that the hero or Sir Gawain was a man of virtue and tried his best to overcome all the obstacles and the hindrances that he faced. He was indeed courageous as Sir Gawain was the only person who accepted the challenge presented by the Green Knight. Even though he successfully, overcome the seduction of the lady of the castle, his love for own life made him feel ashamed as he understood that he violated the terms of the game which was not expected from a knight of his order. Conclusion The path of Sir Gawain was not free from hassles and obstacles. At the outset, he beheads the Green Knight but fails to kill him. Latter in the poem; he was seduced by the wife of his host at the castle though he could resist the most part of it. But his love for his own life was too much as he accepted the girdle for the lady and did not divulge it to the man of the family which he was supposed to do as per the agreement. It is observed at the epilogue that the hero feels ashamed of his own behaviour and feels he has lost the game. But still it cannot be denied that he was a courageous knight at the King’s court and had self – composure and other expected virtues. References Burrow, J.A. A Reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Kegan Paul Ltd., 1965. Kittredge, George Lyman. A Study of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Harvard University Press, 1960. Pearl, “Introduction”, March 22, 2010. Medieval Institute Publications, 2001. Woods, William F. “Nature and the Inner Man in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”. The Chaucer Review, 2002. Bibliography Armitage, Simon. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: a new verse translation. W.W. Norton, 2007. Berger, Sidney E. Gawains Departure from the Peregrinatio. West Virginia University Press, 1985. Hahn, T. G. Sir Gawain: eleven romances and tales. Medieval Institute Publications, 1995. Luminarium, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, March 22, 2010. Anthology of English Literature. No Date. Lasater, Alice E. Spain to England: A Comparative Study of Arabic, European, and English Literature of the Middle Ages. University Press of Mississippi, 1974. Merwin, William, S. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: a new verse translation. Knopf, 2002. Mosley, C. S. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, March 22, 2010. Michigan State University. Ho Date. PACE University. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, March 22, 2010. Welcome to the Sir Gawain Room. No Date. Stone, Brian. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Penguin Classics, 1974. Stanford University. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, March 22, 2010. Arthurian Literature. No Date. Weston, Jessie L. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Courier Dover Publications, 2003. Read More