Character Analysis Of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

​In the beginning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain is introduced as a courtly knight with a sense of perfection. The author does this to compare it to his failures, which are later displayed through Gawain’s acts at Morgan le Fay’s castle. Gawain is portrayed to be a chivalrous knight with honor and courage. Gawain is presented with a challenge: accept the game to cut off the Green Knight’s head, and in a test of courage and honor, set out to allow the Green Knight to return the favor to him in a year and a day. This initially shows the knightly characteristics of Gawain which presents him as noble and honorable, which allows the author to shock the audience when Gawain falls under pressure to actions that contradict the chivalrous code. The first of these actions taken by Gawain in opposition to his morals is the temptation

    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a tale that takes place in the medieval period. During this time period, knights were considered very common and were expected to follow one main code of law, chivalry. This code mainly stated that a knight must be loyal to his king, honest, modest, and brave. Chivalry is practiced in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in the form of tests that are given to Gawain to reveal his true character, and what is valued most to him. Throughout these tests, Sir Gawain proves that he values his honor over his life and will not fall to temptations displayed to him.

Even in the middle ages of literature, a story such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight had many aspects of Joseph Campbell’s view of the hero’s journey. In the story of our character Sir Gawain accepts a “Call to adventure” (Campbell 45) and goes on a quest that will go through many of the archetypes. Likewise, there lies one character, The Green Knight, that can be many of the archetypal characters in the cycle of the hero’s journey. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dramatically demonstrates how a single character can play many archetypal roles.

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by an unknown author referred to as the “Pearl Poet,” we are introduced to Sir Gawain. Gawain is a knight of the Round Table and he is also the nephew of King Arthur. As a knight, Gawain is expected to possess and abide by many chivalrous facets. Throughout the poem he portrays many of the qualities a knight should possess, such as bravery, courtesy, and honor among others. Because of his ability to possess these virtues even when tempted to stray away from them, Sir Gawain is a true knight.

Gawain's interactions with the Green Knight distinguish him from his fellow knights, in that he is the only one brave enough to step to the plate and confront the giant. Faced with the specter of battle with the Green Knight, Gawain rises above all to defend the honor of his good king.  "Then Gawain at Guinevere's side/ bowed and spoke his design: / 'Before all, King, confide/ this fight to me. May it be mine."(Gawain 336-339) In this scene, Gawain reveals himself to be a pillar of virtue. He is subservient to King Arthur, a loyal and devoted servant. He is so moved by the threat to his lord's life that he is willing to put his own life on the line. D.S.

Heroic stories and epic poems have existed since before written record, being spread orally through storytellers. In Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, Sir Gawain is our hero in the poem titled with his name. Just like most other heroes he is known as a man of great physical strength and deeds, however there are a few differences.

Sir Gawain was a great knight in Arthur’s court; in many cases, he showed examples of being heroic. This allows people who read Sir Gawain and The Green Knight to remember him because of the ways he portrayed heroism. One example of Gawain being heroic is when he takes on the task by the green knight: “I am the weakest, well I know, and of wit feeblest; and the loss of my life would be least of any; That I have you for uncle is my only praise; My body, but for your blood, is barren of worth” (Borroff, 12). Sir Gawain shows that he is heroic and someone to be remembered because of how he took on the task presented by The Green Knight instead of letting Arthur go. His heroism is also explained in The Hero and His Adventure: “ He is presented in traditional heroic situations such as being equipped in armour and

At the conclusion of the narrative, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain’s identity is left undecided. The Green Knight restores Gawain’s knightly virtues of the pentangle and continues to praise Gawain for his virtue. But Gawain, unsatisfied with his restoration, returns home only to find his court full of admiration for his return home and victory, even though he now wears the green lace (4.2489-505). The physical journey of Gawain to the Green Knight demonstrates his outward courage and devotion, but leaves the question: what is truly going on in his heart? Gawain’s moral character is at stake, because he must decide between his valued pentangle or his gifted green lace as his moral identity. During his encounter with the Green Knight, Sir Gawain faces the reality of his nature to find that he is not wholly what his armor displays. Sir Gawain tarnishes his perfection and his virtuous pentangle and instead, he exemplifies his fallibility by the wearing the lace.

Throughout the history of fictional writing, cultural values of certain time periods have been expressed and implemented through the depiction of the heroes’ experiences on their journeys and the knowledge they gain by the quest’s end. For example, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a chivalric romance written in the Late Middle Ages, Gawain epitomizes a knight with the characteristics that knights from the Late Middle Ages were expected to possess according to the requirements outlined in the rules of chivalry, such as honor and valor. Likewise, Beowulf, the hero of the folk epic Beowulf, embodies the qualities of an exemplary hero as well as king. Therefore, in both stories, the reader encounters a heroic character that is presented with traits that Anglo-Saxons and the Middle English valued in their culture through their stories’ monomyths, a concept of similar and structural sequences that can be applied to many stories, created by Joseph Campbell. Some of these values are carried from the Early to Late Middle Ages and can be seen through the works of both Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Beowulf.

After reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain’s identity is left undecided. At the conclusion of the narrative, the Green Knight restores Gawain’s knightly virtues of the pentangle and continues to praise Gawain for his virtue. But Gawain returns home unsatisfied with his restoration only to find his court full of admiration for his return home and victory, even though he now wears the green lace (4.2489-505). The physical journey Gawain to the Green Knight demonstrates his outward courage and devotion, but what is truly going on in his heart? Gawain’s moral character is at stake because he must decide between his valued pentangle or his gifted green lace as his true identity. During his encounter with the Green Knight, Sir

Throughout the Arthurian legends, Sir Gawain seems to be the epitome of a noble knight. He is always putting his king before himself, repeatedly sacrificing his own life in some way for King Arthur. He is an honorable knight that lives up to his word. This is evident in both Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell." In these stories, Gawain lives up to the expectations of a knight belonging to the legendary Round Table.

The tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight sets the bar for all stories involving chivalry. When the Green Knight crashes King Arthur’s party and begins to challenge any who is willing, it is then that Sir Gawain accepts this challenge. It is his companion's lack of response that throws Gawain into a rage and the eventual acceptance of the challenge. Gawain says, “What! Is this Arthur’s house that is famous through so many realms?!” (line 117). It is evident right away that Gawain has courage, and the strength to serve as Arthur’s knight.. As the story progresses, Gawain’s honesty is put to

According to Christopher Reeve, “a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” In today’s culture, the hero is frequently depicted as a knight in shining armor, an image that originates from age-old literature such as the fourteenth-century Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In such literary works, the heroic knight has several virtuosic character traits: friendship, chastity, generosity, courtesy, and piety; however, he must also endure a quest in which his virtues are tested. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, three obstacles challenge the hero Gawain’s morals, including the Green Knight, the seductress, and the threat of death, leading to a further maturity of

When talking about a morally ambiguous character, many ideas may float to mind. Perhaps a Dr. Jekyll type of person will pop up in your mind, or maybe just simply a person who doesn’t let morality get in the way of their ambitions. For a character to have a sense of evil present in them, it is not necessary for them to walk around with an ominous laugh, or anything comical in those lines. Similarly, for a character to have a sense of good, it does not mean they have to be perfectly correct either. In order to put the morally ambiguity into perspective, it is necessary to analyze the presence of both good and evil into a real character, and how it affects the story as a whole. From the Pearl Poet’s chivalric romance, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, Sir Gawain is an excellent example of a morally ambiguous character. In the poem, Gawain’s purely good image was shattered when he cut off the Green Knight’s head, since he took the game as a challenge. That event could be considered as the event that set the plot into action, as the following events are all resulting from Gawain’s action. However, Gawain symbolizes good by initially embracing the knight's moral code in accepting the challenge and then, agreeing to the terms of the Green Knight. Gawain still symbolizes goodness by demonstrating proper knightly actions at times. The Pearl Poet uses Gawain as a morally ambiguous character to set up the plot. He firstly sets up Gawain as a good character, then uses a series of

When you think of a knight what do you picture? Do you picture a fragile, cowardly, dishonorable man? Of course not, you picture a strong man who is willing to give up his life for the kingdom. In “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” retold by Susan Thompson, a legend is told of, Sir Gawain on his quest to protect his king and fellow knights’ honor. After the Green Knight had challenged them and embarrassed King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Sir Gawain took up the challenge in an act of true chivalry. In this legend about a battle of knighthood between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain is the better knight. He is a true romantic hero and follows the Knight’s Code of Chivalry, by serving the liege lord, King Arthur, in valor