Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Analysis

“The 14th century was seen as a time of great concern over idols and idolatry”(141), it almost seemed sinful to have symbols such as the cross, or images of religious beings in the church, which is evidently breaking the first commandment, which forbids to praise or worship of graven images/idols. The poet of Sir Gawain uses a lot of biblical and religious references in the text, but that does not help specify the time period in which the book was written, because religious references throughout the years were and are stated in literature very often, it is not uncommon to do so.So the use of these references does not affect the time of the writing or the text. I suspect that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written in the 14th century; there are three common narrative elements that take place: the beheading, exchanging of winnings and temptation, which were constantly repeated in the 14th century literary world. However, some may argue that these literary elements were repeated in the 18th century as well. If you look at Arthurian literature the beheading, exchanging of winning and temptation are all presented in the texts as well.

Sir Gawain can be seen as one of the best knights individually. He holds to the knights' moral codes and does what others expect him to do and succeeds. When the Green knight arrives in the narrative he is seen as a fantastical and almost god-like individual, who seems able to do the impossible after he gets his head cut off, he claims that he “will come again”, which can resound similar to a certain biblical figure. The poet uses a technique that can be seen in mythology because of the desire that Sir Gawain holds to stay alive. When most people learn that they could die or have their life ended, one tries to survive and Sir Gawain does the expected. However, we see him grow as a character because he pushes aside his spiritual perfection that we have seen throughout the story and replaces it with self-preservation and love, making him into a much more realistic and relatable character to read, which is probably one the reasons why we are still reading this text today. However, not everyone agrees that Sir Gawain is as perfect as he seems.

According to Ross G. Arthur, who wrote “Medieval sign theory and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” , writes that Sir Gawain can be seen as a sinful character. Readers in the 14th century see Sir Gawain as a perfect individual who could do no wrong. However, Sir Gawain makes remarks that are anti-feminist and he chooses to not live up to or speak about scrutiny and it tarnishes the perfect image that we have created of Sir Gawain. However, given the suspected time period of this book, this was often overlooked as women did not have the rights and freedom as they do now and many women would not be able to read in the 14th century. Those that did would be repressed to extremes, therefore not thinking much of it.

The pearl poet writes Gawain with beauty and grace as what poetry should be, each stanza creating meaning. Each of the motifs seem to play off one another and shift as the audience reads the narrative. The author did a perfect job of creating the ideal knight for the 14th century.

References:

(William, Anthony), Davenport W A (William. The Art of the Gawain-Poet. The Athlone Press, 1991.

(Gilbert, Ross Arthur) Canada, Medieval sign Theory and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Toronto University Press, 1987.