SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT

Plot

ExpositionSir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table, accepts a challenge from a mysterious "Green Knight" who challenges any knight to strike him with his axe if he will take a return blow in a year and a day.

Initial IncidentArthur and his knights have gathered at his castle for the Christmas holiday season, but Arthur has a custom of refusing to eat until he has heard a marvelous tale or witnessed a wonder. Suddenly, an enormous, completely green man carrying a giant axe rides in on a completely green horse.

Rising ActionGawain accepts the Green Knight’s covenant and chops off the Green Knight’s head, but he survives the blow. Two months before he is due to meet the knight for his own decapitation, Gawain sets out through the wilderness in search of the Green Chapel. He happens upon a castle, where he stays until he must leave for his challenge. At the castle, Gawain’s courtesy, chastity, and honesty are all tempted. Gawain then journeys to confront the Green Knight at the Green Chapel.

ClimaxGawain encounters the Green Knight at the Green Chapel. After feinting with his axe twice, the Green Knight strikes Gawain on the third swing, but only nicks his neck.

Falling ActionThe Green Knight explains all the mysteries of the story. He and Gawain’s host at the castle are the same man, named Bertilak. Morgan le Faye, the old woman at the castle, is actually behind all the events of the story. Gawain admits his breach of contract in having kept the green girdle and promises to wear the girdle as a banner of his weakness.

ConclusionGawain returns to Arthur’s court and recounts his adventure, explaining that he will wear the green girdle forever as a symbol of his failure and of how his misdeeds can never be erased. The knights of the round table decide to wear a similar belt in honor of Gawain, and it becomes a symbol of honor.

Figurative Languages1. The first rays of morning tiptoed through the meadow. – Personification2. The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor- Metaphor3. Beardless babes about this bench - Alliteration4. Pete was as busy as a bee trying to get ready for the party. - Simile5. Courtesy is in flower in this court - Personification6. Stepped into stirrups of steel and, striding aloft – Alliteration

7. You’re the finest man that ever walked the earth - Hyperbole8. Red arrayed with rich gold studs that glinted and glittered like the glance of the sun –

Simile 9. A tastier plum to pick was the beauty by her side - Personification 10. His clothes were all kindled with a clear light like emeralds - Simile

Symbols1. The Pentangle - Symbol of truth, the star has five points that link and lock with each

other, forming what is called the endless knot.2. The Green Girdle – When Lady Bertilak presses Gawain to accept it, she presents it as

something to remember her by, but happens to mention that it will make the wearer invincible. For Gawain, then, the green girdle represents his survival.

3. The Color Green - People, places, and things in the poem that are green somehow have a significant connection to nature.

4. The Green Knight - He could be a version of the Green Man, a mythological being connected with nature in medieval art, a Christian symbol, or the Devil himself.

5. The Lady's Ring – Protection from harm.6. Numbers - The poet highlights number symbolism to add symmetry and meaning to the

poem.7. Wounds - During the medieval period, the body and the soul were believed to be so

intimately connected that wounds were considered an outward sign of inward sin.8. Fox - Symbolizes cunning and treachery.9. Deer - May stand for fear or shyness.10. Sir Gawain's shield - Another symbol with multiple meanings, offering him both

physical and moral protection.

What is the problem of the story?The major conflict is largely Gawain’s struggle to decide whether his knightly virtues are

more important than his life. Before he knows that the Green Knight has supernatural abilities, Gawain accepts the Green Knight’s challenge to an exchange of blows. Once the Green Knight survives the blow, Gawain has a year and a day before he must seek out the Green Knight to receive the return blow, which will almost surely mean his own death. Once he has found the castle of a host who promises to show him the way to the Green Chapel, he struggles to protect and maintain his knightly virtues while remaining courteous to his host’s wife, and he struggles to keep his pacts with the Green Knight and his host, despite his fear of death.

ThemeThe story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is couched on the themes of the nature of

chivalry and the letter of the law.The world of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is governed by well-defined codes of

behavior. The code of chivalry, in particular, shapes the values and actions of Sir Gawain and other characters in the poem. The ideals of chivalry derive from the Christian concept of morality, and the proponents of chivalry seek to promote spiritual ideals in a spiritually fallen world.

Though the Green Knight refers to his challenge as a “game,” he uses the language of the law to bind Gawain into an agreement with him. He repeatedly uses the word “covenant,” meaning a set of laws, a word that evokes the two covenants represented by the Old and the New Testaments. Throughout most of the poem, the covenant between Gawain and the Green Knight evokes the literal kind of legal enforcement that medieval Europeans might have associated with the Old Testament. The Green Knight seems concerned solely with the letter of the law even though he knows that following the letter of the law means death, is determined to see his agreement through to the end because he sees this as his knightly duty.

Social Implication of the Story in the present society One can read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as simply a rollicking tale of adventure

and magic or, alternatively, as a lesson in moral growth. However, understanding some of the literary and cultural background that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight draws upon can provide modern readers with a fuller view of the poem's meaning.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is not an anti-romance, however, nor is it a parody, despite its lightness and good humor. The poet's conservative and traditional approach to his timeworn material is what allows him to make it so engaging: He understands and thoroughly appreciates the conventions of his genre. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight manages to highlight the weakest points of the chivalric tradition while still appreciating everything that makes chivalry so attractive, especially its uncompromising devotion to the highest ideals, even if those ideals are not necessarily attainable.