Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

This study will examine Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, focusing on the poem's Christian irony that mercy and joy are generated endlessly out of severity and grief, and vice versa. The poem shows the protagonist's heroic quest as spiritual as well as physical, so that every celebration and every challenge in the work can be viewed on at least those two levels. The obstacles set in Gawain's path, from the temptation of the host's wife to the Green Knight himself, are designed to test the physical and mental valor of the hero and to require him to fulfill his spiritual potential. His enlightenment as an evolving Christian, in other words, is an important part of his overall quest.

The quest would not be worthwhile were it not for the rewards. Gawain is not a monk dedicated to the ascetic life. He is shown to enjoy his relationships with others, both men and women. However, the principles of the Christian life, as well as the ideals of the Romance, a genre to which the work also belongs, demand that the enjoyment of life be defined by strictly applied rules of conduct and manners. In the Christian reality as portrayed in the poem, one does not enjoy life without paying a price, but neither does one suffer without winning some reward. One can view this as irony or simply as a system of spiritual checks and balances designed to keep the chivalrous knight on the right path, challenging him when his soul needs to be tested, and rewarding him when he proves equal to the task.

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the poem on Christian principles: Ever faithful in five things, . . . Gawain was reputed good . . . , devoid of all villainy, every virtue displaying in the field. . . . All his trust on earth was in the five wounds/ Which came to Christ on the Cross (45). In the midst of the human dread he feels as he prepares to leave, however, Gawain is connected by the poet to "the five pure Joys/ That the holy Queen of Heaven had of her Child" (45). In other words, Gawain feels joy--a spiritual joy--in being able to do battle as a knight in the name of Christ. Gawain may feel joy, but his fellows are already suffering the grief they are sure will come from his likely death at the hands of the Green Knight: "By Christ, it is evil/ That yon lord should be lost, who lives so nobly" (46). Gawain endures a terrible journey on his way to the Green Chapel, but he maintains his thoughts of and faithfulness to God and Christ with ongoing prayer. The journey is followed by his arrival at the castle of a lord who welcomes him and provides him with all the comfort of which he had been deprived on the long and arduous journey. The castle, in turn, is near the Green Chapel where Gawain will do battle with, and perhaps meet his death at the hand

Category: Literature - S