Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Internal Struggles of Sir Gawain

night dedicated to the virtues depicted by the pentangle on his shield. The pentangle is a five-

pointed star that the anonymous “poet tells us is a symbol of truth” (Abrams 200). Sir Gawain

lives by five virtues or truths which the pentangle represents: he shall be without fault using his

five senses, he will not use his hands to do wrong, he will be faithful to the price Christ paid on

the cross with his five wounds, he will be reminded “that all his force was founded on the five

joys” (Lawall 2006) of Mary – the annunciation that she will bear the son of God, Christ’s

Nativity, Resurrection, Ascension into Heaven , and that she will eventually join Christ in

Heaven - and that he should follow chivalrous ideals of kindness, charity, brotherly love, pure

mind and manners, and compassion. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the anonymous author

reminds the reader that Sir Gawain endures many internal battles between the virtues represented

by the pentangle on his shield and his natural tendencies as a human being. These natural

tendencies, specifically fear and temptation, have the propensity to overtake any learned ideals a

human being may acquire over his lifetime. Sir Gawain’s inner struggle between his ideals and

natural human instincts is evident throughout the four parts of the poem: the New Year’s

celebration, the journey to Green Chapel, the exchange of winnings and the final encounter with

the Green Knight.

During part one of the poem, the author sets the tale up by giving the reader a short

summary of a few great men such as Aneas, Felix Brutus and Romulus in order to set up a

“marvel of might”(Lawall1993) which is “unmatched among Arthur’s wonders” (Lawall1993).

A grandiose New Year’s feast is under way giving a general jovial attitude fills the banquet hall.

Suddenly, the Green Knight enters the hall with a challenge that Arthur is willing to take but

Gawain, through chivalrous courtesy, volunteers to take the Green Knight’s challenge. The
Green Knight puts the details of the challenge forth and Gawain successfully meets the challenge

by decapitating the Green Knight. Oddly enough, the reader gets a sense as if the “Green Knight

departs from the scene as the victor in a kind of psychological warfare” (Borroff 126). In

addition, the reader is told that Gawain and Arthur laugh, “only after the sound the green horse’s

hoofs have died away” (Borroff 127). This gives the impression that there is a little bit of

apprehensiveness from both Arthur and Gawain. This apprehensiveness is the first small

indication of fear in Gawain realizing that he will have to face this giant, supernatural creature

again. At the end of the first part of the poem, the author warns Gawain “that your courage not

wax cold” (Lawall 2003). This warning might give indication as to the author’s insight to

Gawain’s primal instinct that something is not right and he should be somewhat anxious as to

what his ultimate fate will be.

Part two of Gawain and the Green Knight begins with a brief summary of the feast in part

one along with a somewhat detailed description of the changing of the seasons within the year.

Here, the author is giving the reader insight to the changes in mood of Sir Gawain as the time

approaches for him to seek out the Green Knight. The author goes out of his way to describe

what Gawain is wearing for his journey possibly to dramatize the preparation of an impending

battle. As Gawain travels through the countryside, he battles many beasts and monsters and “met

with many mishaps and mortal harms” (Lawall 2008). This sets the idea of the fact that Gawain

is not in a place that he recognizes, but he is in a foreign environment under rough conditions.

His isolation from the familiar plays on his fears and when he “prays to Christ and Mary for

some lodging where he might hear mass and matins on Christmas morning” (Speirs 90), the

reader is reminded of Gawain’s dependence on his religious beliefs. His prayers are answered in

the form of a castle in which Gawain thanks to Jesus and Saint Julian and he rides to the castle, is
let in and meets the proprietor. During his stay, Gawain experiences quite the opposite of what

he has been enduring in the wilderness. He is fed well, he enjoys the comforts of the castle and

then the reader is introduced to Sir Gawain’s next challenge in the form of the lord of the castle’s

wife.

In part three of the poem, The lord of the castle goes on a hunting expedition and Gawain

stays at the castle to get much needed rest. The lord tells Gawain that he will bring back what he

kills on the hunt and give to Gawain but Gawain must give what he has earned during the day.

This should bring suspicion to the reader because it does not make sense that Gawain would gain

anything sitting around in the castle. The lord of the castle, the Green Knight and Bercilak are

later divulged to be the same person. The purpose of part two of the poem from Bercilak’s point

of view is to get Gawain to let his guard down, relax and forget his knightly virtues. Bercilak is

testing not only the valor and morals of Gawain, he is testing the institution of Arthur’s Round

Table. On three successive days, Bercilak’s wife tempts Gawain while Bercilak is away on the

hunt. On each day, she tries to get him to give in to her wishes for physical pleasure but only gets

away with a kiss. Oddly enough, each time Gawain and Bercilak exchange what they earned for

the day, Bercilak doesn’t question where the kiss came from. It is possible that Bercilak knows

exactly is happening because he wants to tempt Gawain and tarnish King Arthur and his knight’s

reputations.

Up to this point, the reader can forgive Sir Gawain’s impulses of fear and temptation

because outside forces are the stimulus for these impulses. When Gawain makes the conscious

decision to lie and withhold the green sash from Bercilak, the reader then learns Gawain has

deserted his morals and knightly virtue. Gawain is devastated by his decision and has to endure
the guilt and remorse as consequences for his actions. Beyond this event, Gawain is broken in a

sense and has a new burden to carry on his heart.

Part four of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight sees Sir Gawain riding from the castle of

Bercilak to meet with the Green Knight. Gawain’s fear heightens as he ventures forth into the

forest liking for the Green Chapel. When Gawain finally finds the Green Knight, he is

commended for his punctuality and is asked to wait while the Green Knight sharpens his axe.

The reader can feel the tension as Gawain waits for his most certain death at the hands of this

supernatural creature. The Green Knight then asks Gawain to lie his head down so the Green

Knight can chop it off. On the first strike, the Green Knight sees Gawain flinch because Gawain

is fearful. The Green knight mocks Gawain for his fear and reprimands him. Gawain tells the

Green Knight to “strike once more I shall neither flinch or flee; But if my head falls to the floor

there is no mending me” (Lawall 2040). Gawain gives the impression to the reader that he is

giving the Green Knight one last futile effort to save his own life by possibly giving the Green

Knight a guilt trip. Gawain is reminding the Green Knight of his own mortality compared to the

Green Knight’s immortality. By the end of the second axe blow missing its target, Gawain is

obviously losing his cool. This indicates to the reader that Gawain is showing his human side in

spite of his stature as a knight of Arthur’s Round Table. Finally, the Green Knight’s third swing

of the axe barely cuts Gawain’s throat and Gawain leaps up ready for a fight. Gawain has lived

up to his part of the deal and the Green Knight agrees. Here, Gawain is feeling like he has been

given another chance at life and is filled with zeal and excitement. At the same time, he is

showing his knightly valor on the surface in order to hide the sense of relief he feels inside. The

Green Knight tells Gawain of the plot concocted by Morgan Le Fay and himself to test the
Knights of the Round Table. He invites Gawain back to his castle to celebrate but Gawain

refuses.

What a sense of relief Sir Gawain must feel! “Gawain sets out anew; toward the court his

course is bent” (Lawall 2044) but must confess to Arthur and his compatriots of his experience

with Bercilak’s wife and of his failure to the ideals represented by his pentangle and the knightly

virtues. Of course when he tells Arthur and the knights what he did, they not only for give him

but also as a symbol of their bond, the knights adopt the green scarf or baldric to their regular

armor. This serves as a symbol of their bond as Knights of the Round Table and as a symbol that

they will carry the burdens of their brothers.

The poem of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight serves as a reminder to us that no matter

what our stature in life and no matter what ideals we hold, we are all susceptible to our feelings

and impulses. While Gawain faltered from his ideals, he was always cognizant of what he was

doing and was willing to take the blame for his faults. In the end, Sir Gawain is a true servant of

what the symbols on his shield and the knightly virtues represent.
 Works Cited

Unknown Author. Sir Gawain And The Green Knight. The Norton Anthology of World

Literature. Vol. B 2nd Ed. Ed. Sarah Lawall. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002. 1993 –

2045.

Unknown Author. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Norton Anthology of English

Literature. Vol. 1 6th Ed. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993. 200 –

251.

Borroff, Marie. Criticism of Style: The Narrator In The Challenge Episode. Twentieth

Century Interpretations of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight. Ed. Denton Fox. Englewood

Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1968. 125 – 143.

Speirs, John. Sir Gawain And The Green Knight. Twentieth Century Interpretations of

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Ed. Denton Fox. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1968. 79 -

94.