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Is Chivalry Worth Dying For? An Assessment of the Judgments |
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Through all its complicated twists, redefinings and renamings, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight consistently develops the theme of chivalry. The author uses Camelot, the epitome of chivalric myth, to ground his story and thus to provide a backdrop for his questioning and probing of the meaning and purpose of the chivalric code. To evaluate the code, the author arranges a challenge in which the code is broken, and then allows three different characters – Arthur, standing for the Camelot Court and representing the “insider,” Gawain, “the insider who went out,” and Bertilak, “the outsider” – to judge Gawain’s offense. Each view is firmly grounded in the psychological and physical proximity of the assessor to the chivalry of Camelot. Though all seem to agree on the basic definition of chivalry, the three have very different views on who deserves to be deemed chivalrous and on the exact requirements of the title. As we examine the characters, their position within the context of the story, and their eventual verdict on Gawain, the author’s own prejudices emerge and lead this reader to side with Bertilak in his final judgment of chivalry.
The first introduction to the concept of chivalry is through the Court of
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Below are additional random excerpts from the paper...
From the start, the Green Knight is an outsider to the Camelot chivalric code, one who not only challenges it, but mocks it as well. In the face of the Green Knight and his challenge, the court, unwilling to accept the challenge, cowers and seems inferior. The Green Knight is “the largest of men” while Arthur and his court are “a little boyish” and mere “beardless children” (141; 86; 280). Considering the importance of manhood and virility to the concept of chivalry, this descriptive disparity is very telling concerning the author’s opinions of the Green Knight and Knights of the Round Table. By the very fact that the Green Knight has traveled to Camelot to present his challenge, he has already participated in the type of quest Arthur only hears stories about. His chivalry is much more pro-active, whereas Arthur’s is reactive and passive. Once we learn that his adventuring-chivalry can be combined with the courtly-chivalry of Bertilak, a fully chivalric character forms. Though he is well acquainted with the type of chivalry expected in a Camelot-esque court, he is also able to extend that past the confines of ornate clothes and fine foods out into the “real world.” In the sense that he understands, but is slightly removed from it, he is perhaps the best judge of the nature of chivalry in the story.
His judgment seems the most levelheaded perhaps because he has the least personally at stake. Gawain and the Court both have their reputations and their self-concepts at stake if the chivalric code they live by is questioned. They adhere to it perfectly in the way it best suits their egos. The Green Knight has no real personal stake in the final judgment on Gawain. If anything, by pronouncing Gawain “polished as a pearl,” the Green Knight is congratulating himself for adding to Gawain’s chivalric and worldly education. Thus even the Green Knight’s motives are above reproach. However, even despite his private intentions, the Green Knight’s pronouncement seems the most reasonable. Gawain is just a man and, when asked to perform supernatural feats (like survive an axe’s blow), he cannot be severely criticized for living up to mere mortal standards.
King Arthur. Likely even more so for the author’s contemporaries than for we moderns, Camelot is th
Some topics in this essay:
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Green Knight’s,
Whereas Aeneas,
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Camelot Court,
King Arthur,
Knight Gawain’s,
Gawain Camelot,
Gawain Court,
Aeneas Romulus,
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gawain green,
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Approximate Word count = 1568
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)  |
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RELATED ESSAYS |
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Chivalry .... The Code of Chivalry consisted of: (1) To live one 's life so that it is worth of respect, and honor by all. (b) Never charge an unhorsed opponent. .... |
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Equality and Chivalry Do Not Mesh .... file for a divorce when one can purchase a million dollars ' worth of insurance for .... Women might still love chivalry, but few men today behave this way because .... |
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Love Or Honor: Deciding Where To Place The Value In .... This makes her realize that it is not worth taking her life and that she should .... he is a knight, and grew up with a strict belief of chivalry, which stresses .... |
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Miguel de Cervantes's, .... us by representing an idea in the outdated morals of chivalry as well .... The distinction between what class and worth representation between a person's class and a .... |
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Loosening Knots In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight .... Although Gawain initially says that his life is of little worth, he places the preservation of his life ahead of chivalry when Lady Bercilak offers him her .... |
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PROFESSIONAL ESSAYS |
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Frailty 245). Sir Gawain is the only knight to step forward to accept the challenge and so show his worth as a true knight. Chivalry and true knightly behavior were |
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Inazo Nitobe's Bushido: The Soul of Japan national spirit of Japan, especially the military spirit, traditional chivalry as of developed a cultural aversion to money as a measure of individual worth. |
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The Renaissance is evident in the final scene and the death of Don Quixote - chivalry is dead The emphasis on the disparity between class and worth was a revolutionary idea at |
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The Renaissance Culture & Writers is evident in the final scene and the death of Don Quixote - chivalry is dead The emphasis on the disparity between class and worth was a revolutionary idea at |
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A Lost Lady To When Joe comes over, Marian opines, Mary "makes it worth his while." It is Captain Forrester believes in chivalry, as his generous manners strongly attest. |
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Humanism Humanism and the Renaissance invol seen in the belief of the Duke that the Lady's love will make him courageous and inspire him to deeds of great chivalry. She thus increases his worth by loving |
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