|
April 15, 2004 Gothic, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight |
||
|
The Arthurian age was an age inspired by chivalry and God; both chivalry and God play main themes in Sir Gawain’s dealings with the Green Knight. As the Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain reveals, no man—including the good Sir Gawain—can be compared to the perfect Christ. As Gardner contends, “the dramatic tension in Gawain…is the conflict between human selfishness and the ideal of selfless courtesy” (70). At the outset of the story, “Gawain…comes as close as any man can to being Christ-like” (72). “Like purified gold, Sir Gawain was known for his goodness” by everyone. The pentangle, ‘the endless knot’ (249), sown onto his veil by the women testifies his well-known heroic characteristics of franchise, fellowship, cleanness, courtesy, and charity. Of all the Roundtable Knights, he was the most chivalrous of them all. However, as the events with the Green Knight reveal, he, as natural of a human, is not free from blemish. In the day before his doomed day in meeting the Green Knight, Sir Gawain’s values fail him. Sir Gawain had promised the King that he would present all that he was given, but on the last day of trial, he fails to report the green sash given to
|
him by the wife. The wife promised, that “‘as long as he keeps [the green sash] looped around him,/ No man under Heaven can hurt [the sash bearer]’” (297). Out of selfishness, Sir Gawain accepts the sash in hopes that it will save his life when it comes time to suffer his blow. Herein he suffers from man’s fault and sins, and here is where he differs from the faultless Christ. Christ dies “of selfless courtesy” (70) for the sins of men and dies without doubts. Gardner sums the comparison between Christ and Gawain: “The chivalric ideal of courtesy may directly reflect the ideal order of God, but it discounts Nature. No man of flesh and blood since Christ can be perfectly chivalrous, for at last the desire to save one’s own neck is overwhelming” (81). When Sir Gawain is revealed of fault, he dejectedly acknowledges, “It’s no great marvel that a man is made a fool/ And through the wiles of woman won to sorrow;/ Thus one of them fooled Adam, here on earth” (320). Once again, the age old tale of Eve and the consequential fall of Adam and man is portrayed. Sir Gawain admits his failure to fulfill the codes of chivalry in part because of the Green Knight’s wife. The wife, instructed to tempt Sir Gawain, succeeds in given Sir Gawain her green sash which symbolizes Sir Gawain’s failure to refuse temptation. Gardner goes on to suggest that “[Gawain] is womanly … in that he has allowed himself to be ruled, like Eve, by perverse appetite and irascibility” (79). Yes, like Eve, Gawain revels and consumes day in and day out while a guest at the King’s palace. He even indulges himself in the company of the King’s wife: it was said “play like theirs no other fencing sport compares” (20). However, at the end of the story, Gawain redeems a bit of his honor in abstaining from further revelry and gluttony: When the King asks Gawain to stay a day more to feast and dance, Gawain resolutely answers, “no, not by any means” (20).
Gardner, John.
The Complete Works of the Gawain-Poet. Chicago, London: |
|
