Bhatt 2
Harsh Bhatt
Kathryn Wardell
EN-211
6th May 2018
Chivalric code in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Sir Gawain and Green knight takes place due to the strive to achieve something between integrity and desire. In the story, Sir Gawain’s compliance to his worthy things and the chivalric code is tested again and again, but in the end he appears to be a authentic excellency for the knightly desire. As such the book can be inherited as the celebration of the victory over the society that defines the chivalric code, offering Gawain’s story as the defining to the values of chivalry.
The reader is presented by a Gawain “as good as the purest gold” (633) a paragon of valor and ability are symbolized as the link between the Virgin Mary and his link to the “endless Knot”(630) of the pentagle, which shows his never ending, unfailing loyalty to the five main principles of the chivalry: Courtesy, Honesty, Valor, Honor and Generosity. Thus when he fails to resist himself as a symbol to the integrity he aspires to be with the Lady’s girdle, that is when the code and culture fails too. The story does not end here, Bertilak who is the Green knight teaches Gawain to see the loose ends and makes him tie the loose ends. “ I am found to be flawed and false, / through treachery and untruth I have totally failed” (2382-3) leaves Gawain in sorrow. Taking it immediately to “bear the blame” (2386) and the determination to have the girdle upon him as a “symbol of sin”(2506) making him remember never to let go of the code of chivalry and the craving of desires of “cowardice and covetousness” (2508). He comes back to Camelot all prepared to convey the message to the other knights- a lesson they will keep in mind through the green belts which will constantly make them remember of the duty till they last.
Have they yet understood that? Gawain does make sure to bestow the lesson he learned to the other fellow knights, but did they really understand that? “the whole of the court” made sure to wear the green belt “as they laugh in lovely accord”(2514). By displaying their laughter they are making this whole episode as one big joke. The green belt that he chose to wear was not because of the sin that happened or due to the green girdle but “for the sake of this man” (2518). Poet does not say that by wearing the green belt is going to increase the recognition between the knights, but whoever wore that “was honored ever after”(2520). The detail has rather something big inside of it, it is not for the examining of the chivalric code...
