Motifs And Symbols In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

In this paper I will discuss the ideas, cultures, characteristics of the Middle Ages are referenced and how their presence interlocks in the work. Sir Gawain’s quest covers his obligation to have success on the test of becoming a Green Knight. This would help have return blow for the following Christmas. Because the Green Knight proposed a challenge, Gawain was required to follow the terms of the agreement. The journey to find the Green Knight is a sequence of temptations. He lodges at the Castle Bertilak, and completed bargains with his host. Gawain will exchange anything he gambles on with the Bertilak catches on the hunt.

In many works of literature, many archetypes (or symbols) are used to help the reader understand the story of a hero’s quest. In the Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, the hero has to go on a fatal journey to uphold the reputation of Camelot. While enduring that journey, Gawain has to conquer many trails. Gawain’s succession of trials leaves the hero, like Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, a “sadder but wiser man.” With all the trials that Gawins intakes, many archetypal characters contribute to the theme of the story.

Archetypes act as universal symbols in literature to represent fundamental human motifs. In the medieval romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the hero must undergo archetypal situations to succeed in his quest to redeem the honor of Camelot. Gawain embodies the transcendent hero as he further goes into “The Zone of Magnified Power” (Campbell 71) then faces conflict resulting from the threat placed on the society. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dramatically demonstrate how a single character can play many archetypal roles.

Near the end of the battle, when Roland realizes his uncle Ganelon has betrayed them and is helping the enemy, he begins to get more and more injured. Even while continuing to fight like a true warrior, Roland understands that they will lose and finally sounds his olifant to alert Charlemagne. In this moment, “his pain is great, and from his mouth the bright blood comes leaping out, and the temple bursts in his forehead” (Roland 258). In the aftermath of the battle, the sheer force of this blow is enough to kill him. As a near representation of this powerful horn, I used shell-shaped noodles, which resemble the horn. While an olifant looks more like an elephant tusk than the conch shape of the noodles, the similarity to a horn is still clear. The Kalamata olives, which add a necessary salty bite to the dish, also sound similar to olifant and Oliver, who also dies a warrior’s death in the battle. While this dish is simple and light on symbolism, it was one of my favorites to eat.

With any story, characters are an essential part of understanding the growth and development of a hero while also allowing the reader to better understand the overall message of a piece of literature. That being said, the poem entitled Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is no different as the knight, Sir Gawain, serves as its hero while other characters help fulfill the various archetypes within “the idea of the monomyth that Campbell defines”. (Campbell lviii) Throughout the poem, Gawain finds himself interacting with the aforementioned archetypal characters and becoming a more honorable knight in the process. Two characters in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight play key archetypal roles in the perfecting of the hero’s moral development.

In his book The Discarded Image C.S. Lewis states that “the Middle Ages depended predominantly on books…reading was one way of the total culture.” To illustrate, imagine a young heroic knight, holding his sword in one hand and his shield in another. Standing in confidence, with a determined look upon his face before confronting his next challenge. Bravery is found in many interesting stories throughout the medieval ages. It is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as “courageous behavior or character” (Oxford Dictionaries). The use of bravery in medieval times can be determined as a sort of motivation for the people during Protestant movement in Britain. Bravery was also used as an example to people of a moral standard. Below, quotes by C.S. Lewis and from the poems of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Beowulf, and Judith predominantly showcase the theme of bravery in medieval concepts.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance about the adventure of Sir Gawain, King Arthur's Knight of the Round Table. This great verse is praised not only for its complex plot and rich language, but also for its sophisticated use of symbolism. Symbolism is a technique used in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to give a significance to the plot. The Green Knight, the Green Sash, and Sir Gawain's Shield are three of the most prominent symbols given to us in this verse.

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.

Sir Gawain is relevant to readers today because it brings up some important points in being courageous, sticking to your word, acceptance of inevitable human error, trying to live up to societal standards and your reputation. These are all important things to address today.

A close reading of the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight reveals a very antifeminist view. The poem, told in four parts, tells of common medieval folklore. The stories seem to be of different plotlines, but start to intersect in interesting ways – that is, the character of Morgan Le Fay begins to frame the stories together. The half-sister of King Arthur, she holds intense hatred for her half-brother and his court. It is her thirst for the downfall of Camelot that makes this character infamous, and, surprisingly, her success and the strength of her ability that give a bad name to women. Through the examination of Morgan Le Fay’s character, it is clear that a successful woman is always an illusion.

An archetypal analysis of Gawain’s quest reveals some significant changes that occur in the hero’s character. We will analyze the progress of the hero, Gawain, as he ventures out to complete his quest. By analyzing the works of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight along with The Hero With A Thousand Faces, and how it completes the Hero’s Journey.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a medieval poem by an unknown author, written in Middle English in the 14th century. This poem is uncanny to most poems about heroism and knightly quests as it doesn’t follow the complete circle seen in other heroism tales. This poem is different to all the rest as it shows human weaknesses as well as strengths which disturbs the myth of the perfect knight, or the faultless hero. The author uses symbolism as a literary device in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to give the plot a deeper and more significant meaning. Symbolism is used to emphasise the difference of this heroism story against others and therefore symbolism is of great importance in this poem. The importance of the following symbols will be

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an Arthurian poem; an enchanting story of chivalry, romance and heroism. With its intricately woven details, parallels and symbols, the reader will often easily overlook these facets in a story of this caliber. Undoubtedly, the author would not have spent time on details that do not add to the meaning of the overall telling of the story. The three hunting scenes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and in parallel, the three temptations, monopolize a considerable portion of the story. In a comparison of the three hunts and their corresponding temptations, we will see how the poet parallels these circumstances to emphasize the meaning of its symbolism.

What I noticed at first while reading the story is that, the story is focused mainly only on Gawain’s point of view. Another thing that comes out of the story is that there is some sort of conflict between a civilized world and a natural world. The civilized world is the one ruled by codes of love. On the other side, the natural world is a more chaotic one, where the “animal instinct” dominates. The major conflict that we see, besides the one between Gawain and The Green Knight, is the one that Gawain has with itself, which is the struggle to decide whether his virtues are more important than his life. We also see, another huge theme treated in the story, which is the one that talks about “reputation”; reputation has a big impact in Gawain

The characteristics of heroism, magical elements, and the supernatural, just to name a few, are all shown in the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. First, we see the supernatural when the Green Knight speaks even though he has been beheaded. Next, we see magic and larger than life characters when the Green Knight reveals he is both Lord Bertilak and the giant knight. Lastly, heroism is shown when Sir Gawain stands up for his King and takes his place in battle. It is these characteristics that place Sir Gawain and the Green Knight into the genre of medieval