Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

The Green Knight tests Gawain in many ways. The first, and most obvious, is the simple challenge he presents of the blow-for-blow exchange with Gawain. When Gawain beheads the Green Knight, he must...

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight predominantly features the supernatural in the character of the Green Knight himself. The Green Knight is able to survive having his head cut off and uses magic to...

The Green Knight ultimately approves of Sir Gawain and invites him to celebrate with a feast in his hall. Toward the end of the story, the Green Knight reveals that he knows about Gawain taking the...

On his journey to the Green Chapel, it mentions briefly that he has to fight foes all along the way, along with every type of beast imaginable, even dragons and giants. He suffered from sleet and...

The identity of the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is lost to history. Some historians and literary critics specializing in medieval literature have made a strong case for the claim that...

Gawain's quest is to fulfill the terms of the challenge he accepted from the Green Knight. At the start of the poem, the Green Knight visit's Arthur's court and challenges Arthur to deal him a...

The first agreement occurs between the Green Knight and Sir Gawain with neither character disguised. At the start of the poem, the Green Knight bursts into Camelot's court during Christmastime. He...

The three temptations in the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are represented by the three days of the game that Gawain plays at the behest of his holiday host. The game that they play is a...

The temptations Gawain faces are more multifaceted than they may seem at first, particularly given the modern light through which we view the story. It is not clear what game Bertilak's wife is...

When the lord's wife, Lady Bertilak, comes to visit Sir Gawain in his bedchamber, she is on a mission to seduce him, but Gawain is not as easily swayed as she expected. He will not sleep with her,...

When the Green Knight issues his challenge, everybody in King Arthur's court at Camelot hangs back. The Green Knight begins to mock the court, causing Arthur himself to step forward, ax in hand. At...

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight begins with a short recap of the Trojan War because the author desires to put the grand reign of King Arthur in historical context. Within thirty short lines, the...

The Green Knight is a very ambiguous character. When he shows up at Arthur's hall, he is a forbidding figure. His size, strength, and obvious wealth are a challenge to Arthur's prestige. His...

When Sir Gawain encounters the Green Knight, the Green Knight reveals himself to be Gawain's host from the mysterious castle nearby, where he has stayed the past three days. The Green Knight was...

The anonymous chivalric poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is one of the best-known medieval Arthurian romances. King Arthur assembles the entirety of his court at Camelot for the fifteen days...

Hector was the Prince of Troy, a great warrior from Homer's epic poem the Iliad. The poet makes a reference to the great classical hero to drive home the point of just how big a challenge it is for...

During his stay in Lord Bertilak's castle, Sir Gawain agrees that, at the end of each day, he and his host will give each other whatever gifts they have received that day. On the third day, Lady...

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the sense of honor displayed by the characters is chivalric and idealistic. The honor displayed is unrealistically demanding, which is appropriate for a...

To get started on this assignment about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, you will first need to review Propp's functions and then consider which character from the poem you want to compose your own...

In the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the character trait of piety is one that is listed among the five qualities that every knight should possess. It is one of the "fives" represented by...

Sir Gawain has a great number of virtues and strengths that the author spends considerable time detailing. One of Gawain's greatest strengths is his reputation; it precedes and acclaims him...

Let's examine the outcome of the challenge between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In one sense, the Green Knight absolutely is the winner. Not only does he withstand the blow from Gawain,...

Gawain is noted for being a chaste gentleman; however, his time with Lord and Lady Bertilak challenges his honor. Since courtly love is part of the knighthood tradition, Gawain must walk a fine...

The figure to whom Gawain shows perhaps the most loyalty is his God. Although he has a deep sense of loyalty to Arthur, his king, the Green Knight, his foe, as well as to Lord Bertilak, his host,...

Sir Gawain doesn't have many weaknesses; in fact, he's widely considered to be one of the bravest, most honorable, and most charming knights of the round table, even though he himself doesn't seem...

After Gawain discovers that the Green Knight, whom he has spent the last year fearing, is actually Lord Bertilak, his sense of relief must be hard to compare. Instead of getting a blow from the...

If you read the beginning of the preface to Gawain's tale, you will note that the narrator begins his story in the past, laying the ground work of events that transpire before Arthur's time. Not...

No, I don't think that the Green Knight was intended to represent evil. He doesn't function as a figure of evil in the poem. On the contrary, anything that happens to Gawain is ultimately a result...

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain travels to meet the Green Knight so that the other may take his turn at beheading Gawain, as they had agreed a year prior. Gawain arrives at his...

The famous medieval poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight seems to have a number of related purposes, including the following: To remind its readers that earthly life is mutable – that nothing...

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain shows nobility in a variety of ways: he takes Arthur's place in the Green Knight's deadly game, and resists the advances of Lady Bertilak on...

The main reason is that King Arthur doesn't want to look weak in front of his guests. He's not just the king; he's also a brave warrior, the protector of his people. So when the Green Knight throws...

The challenge presented in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of honor. When the Green Knight entered King Arthur's dining hall, he threw down the gauntlet, challenging the bravest among them...

This is a great question, as it wrestles with a fundamental problem in the text. In the fourth part of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Green Knight spares Gawain's life, although he chooses to...

On a basic level, Gawain can be said to represent society in that he embodies all the weaknesses of society, and the difficult choices one sometimes has to make as a member of society. As a Knight...

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is only one of many stories written down in the medieval period about Sir Gawain, who was a mainstay of household miscellanies and other collections of popular...

The generosity in this poem is more generally held to be on the part of the Green Knight, Bertilak, who takes Gawain into his home, forgives him his errors, and helps him understand the reasons for...

Both Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, although composed about four to five hundred years apart, include heroes who must confront and overcome nature in one form or another. In Beowulf,...

Gawain finds the Green Knight at the Green Chapel, sharpening his ax. It is their appointed day, and Gawain must submit to a blow from the Green Knight. Even though he is wearing the green girdle...

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the challenge posed by the Green knight presents a challenge to the honor of King Arthur's court. Notice that the challenge is important and fussed over before...

The events in Fitt IV can't really be called a conflict in martial terms. It is more apt to say "contest." The winner of the contest is, of course, the Green Knight, who wins for several reasons:...

As a guest in his home, Sir Gawain agrees to give Lord Bertilak every gift he receives while staying at the lord's castle. He does this up to a point, yet he withholds the girdle he received from...

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain holds to his vows of chastity when Lady Bertilak tries to seduce him. In Book III, section 49, Lady Bertilak makes her first move on Gawain. I have...

Having read several translations of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," I cannot agree that Gawain's kisses delivered to Berilak are anything BUT perfunctory. Gawain delivers the kisses to Berilak...

As he continues on his merry way to track down the Green Knight Gawain stops off at a castle where he enjoys the hospitality of the noble lord Bertilak and his wife. During his stay, he's presented...

Gawain’s speech comes after the Green Knight has arrived at Arthur’s hall and extended a challenge: he dares any man present to deal him a blow—as long as a year later, the Green Knight gets to...