Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written by The Pearl Poet, is a story about temptation, power, and devotion to one's covenant. The main plot of this literary work was that the mysterious Green Knight's enticement towards the lords of the round table. He provoked the "strongest, fearless" knights to engage into a "game of the courts." This game included a wager, that he would allow the most courageous knight to take one strike at him, only if in one year and a day he could return the blow. Throughout this time, Sir Gawain was faced many tribulations on his journey to find the Green Chapel. He was tested three times by "The Lady," in which she was once a bare maiden. This increased the temptress efforts on provoking a physical connection despite her legal union and his verbal covenant. During their exchanges, she bestowed the gift of a green girdle to Sir Gawain in order to protect his life but only if he agreed not to tell anyone she had given it to him. Sir Gawain has plenty of opportunity to not to hold up his end of the covenant. instead, Sir Gawain remained true to his word and allowed the Green Knight to return the blow. It was later revealed that Sir Gawain's loyalty and honor was being tested the entire time. For the most part, Gawain passed his trials and his life was sparred, with a minor nick to his neck for not being honest about the green girdle. In the end, the green girdle became a symbol and a constant reminder for him and everyone else to always remain honest and truthful.
Collectively we all feel like our favorite character of this story is Sir Gawain, and for obvious reasons. One reason would be because, although Gawain chose to participate in the "game" initiated by the Green Knight he also chose to keep his word. This is a lesson we all can take away and apply to our own individual lives; you should always take full responsibility for your actions.Owning your own consequences for your actions may lead you to a place you may not want to be, but in the end you are sure to be a better person because of it. We feel that if more individuals in today's society would respect this chivalrous act, there would be far less crime and confusion among the people as a whole. Overall, the main theme is "you live by a code, you die by code." Meaning loyalty is all that you have in this world. you can either have loyalty to something and be better than a wanderer in life with no cause to call your own.We feel that Gawain exhibited this loyalty to the cove, despite all the trials he faced.
10/31- Group 3--Nix, Bettis, James, Joseph, Williams
Kierha Baker
ReplyDeleteI think that Sir Gawain has learned that although he is a noble knight and practice chivalric qualities he is still human and in the end he made decisions based on his human instincts not his chivalric instincts. An example would be instead of him not taking the green girdle, he did and lied about it. He did what any other human would have done, become more concerned about their life than trying to stay loyal to the chivalric code.