After receiving The Medal of Honor, Douglas MacArthur said “ Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.” When thinking about honor many may think that honesty is the most important characteristic to obtain. When being honest, people are held to not lie, cheat, or steal. Not only is a honorable person honest, they are fair, and also highly respected. Honor can be found in many people, but is often associated with men. Three works during the British literary period, emphasize on the characteristics of honor, the epic poem Beowulf, the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Mel Gibson’s film Braveheart. In the epic poem Beowulf, honor is shown throughout the …show more content…
The way the Green Knight is explained in the beginning of the poem sets him aside from the other characters, because his character is explained with more details. “In these details the Green Knight is told to be in a splay of green and so was the maine of his mighty destrier, but the knight, his eyes were like lightning, flashed, / and it seemed to many a man, / that any man who clashed/ with him would not long stand” (Gawain 1-24). The Green Knight is put up so high above the other characters and he is made to seem that he can never be stopped and will take anyone down who attempted to clash with the knight. This shows the knight is honored that either he is never clashed with because people are afraid of being killed or that he is so honored by most people that they never return “a twelvemonth and a day”. As the Green Knight comes to King Arthur, he is explaining how he needs someone to go against him to exchange stroke for stroke, and who better to be brave enough to do it than Sir Gawain (Gawain 67-82). Sir Gawain feels honored to take the king’s spot so the king does not get hurt or injured because of the knight’s stroke. Sir Gawain tells how his life would be missed the least and he needs to take his uncles spot and he did not have any honor if he did not do this for the King, his uncle. Sir Gawain is honored by all the men who did not have to go against the knight and on the twelvemonth and a day, Sir Gawain will return to get the stroke of the Green Knight. A twelvemonth and a day in this poem, shows a reflection and change for Sir Gawain. This saying was used in medieval literature and used in many situations. This poem fits into the literary period because of the style and the phrases used in the
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a Middle English romance poem written by an anonymous West Midlands poet. Sir Gawain, survives two tests: the challenge, to behead the fearsome Green Knight and to let him retaliate a year later at the distant Green Chapel; and the temptation to commit adultery with the wife of Lord Bercilak,whose castle he stays in when headed to the chapel. this story of Sir gawain follows closely with Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. The start of the story takes place in King Arthur’s great hall.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written during the high Middle Ages. The characters in this poem include the fabled Knights of the Round Table. From the beginning it is clear that they are young and naïve, not the heroic men saving damsels in distress one often pictures. When a mysterious green knight interrupts the festivities and cajoles the crowd into playing a game, Sir Gawain, a stellar example of knighthood, steps up to the challenge. This challenge results in Gawain going off to have his head chopped of by the mysterious green individual.
Can you imagine being at a table with a king and a stranger comes in and wants to fight what would you do? This happens in the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight a medieval romance written by an unknown pearl poet. Sir Gawain is a brave and modest person that risked his life for everybody else at the king’s table even the king. When the green knight said if one of them tried to cut his neck then he will get a chance to cut one of theirs in a year and a day. Sir Gawain is a dynamic character he changed a lot after he leaves the green chapel.
In Sir Gawain, The Green Knight, the illustration strengthens the idea of the common quest known and seen in other familiar poems. The speaker uses symbols and figures to expand the understanding of the tale, although they aren't reducible to a single statement they range of many possible meanings and interpretations. The mystical, gigantic man who disturbs the feast at Arthur’s court on New Year’s Eve is green from the bottom to the top. We can use other things we know from prior knowledge about the Green Knight and other texts to figure out what the symbolism of the color may be.
In the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the main character that goes on the self- knowledge
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: The Impossible Standards of Chivalry Sir Gawain and the Green Knight emphasizes a knight’s inability to live up to the moral code of chivalry. The poem judges the code of chivalry. Chivalry has many standards that a knight is to live by, yet many of these are impossible to uphold. Thus, the poem mocks chivalry’s ideals through the descriptions of Arthur’s court, Gawain’s ornate armor, and the seduction of Gawain by the lord’s lady.
Thus, Beowulf’s fate serves as a warning to the Anglo- Saxon warrior against excessive indulgence in pride and greed. Even though, he serves his homeland well for 50 years by maintaining peace, his desire for glory and fame override his duties as a leader at the end of his
The poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight focuses on Sir Gawain’s attempt to survive a game brought on by the green knight during Christmas time. This game has Sir Gawain take an axe to the green knight’s head and in return the green knight will come back in a year and return the blow. As time passes by, Sir Gawain realizes he is reaching death because he knows he will not survive the axe as the green knight did; therefore, he decides to find the green knight before the green knight finds him. The author provides the audience with symbolism to show how although Sir Gawain has knightly virtues, he is human and capable of error. The green girdle symbolizes moral truth, which is demonstrated by how the character passes every test except one.
There have been many differing interpretations of the Green Knight’s purpose in the poem and what his green colour is symbolic of. The Green Knight enters Arthur’s court holding a holly-branch “Ȝe may be seker bi þis braunch þat I bere here, / Þat I passe as in pes, and no plyȝt seche” (Barron 265-266). The holly signifies peace but he also carries an axe, which signifies violence. Because of these dualities of his character, the Green Knight symbolic meaning can be interpreted in various ways.
Consider how the theme of courage is treated in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a story that celebrates courage in a positive light in the majority of situations but we see that courage can have a negative impact on some of the characters in the story and it questions knighthood. Courage is an honourable term defined “The ability to do something that frightens one; bravery:” (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/courage) and for Gawain to be called this term defines him as a knight. His actions throughout the story makes it difficult to analyse how courage is treated in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
In fact, the green giant thinks of Sir Gawain as a noble man. However, Sir Gawain gives the armor a symbol of shame, but it is also a symbol of the fact that we humans were designed to be neither perfect nor imperfect. When Gawain returned to the knights at the round table, they too did not look at him with shame, but rather embraced the green girdle. Neither Sir Gawain nor the knights are wrong in shame or embracement, but rather both are right, thus creating a paradox. In fact, the poem closes with a paradox of the thorny crown of Christ, giving a validation of the meanings within the poem.
NAME INSTRUCTOR COURSE DATE The Five Knightly Virtues of Sir Gawain Sir Gawain and The Green Knight is the most known 14th century poem that depicts the Arthurian legend. It has been translated from a Middle English dialect by Simon Armitage; unfortunately, very little is known about the original author. Sir Gawain is the protagonist as he is the major source of conflict when he struggles to decide whether his “knightly virtues” are more important than his own life.
Juan Villa Ms. Willingham British Literature 28 October 2015 Cultural Elements Cultural elements are found in many texts as they resemble or symbolize the events occurring during the time period the text was written in. The definition of a hero has changed with time, today a hero is someone who wears a cape, mask and possess a supernatural power. Culture has much to do with the definition of a word or the way we look at certain situations we read. “The Wife of Baths Tale, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Beowulf” all have common cultural elements found in the text. Elements such as social organization, religion, forms of government, and customs and tradition.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a tale about the imperfections of men. In this case, these imperfections are that men try to prove that they have certain desirable qualities and they try to ensure that they get what they wish for. Presenting a challenge, a Green Knight enters King Arthur’s hall on Christmas. If any knight is brave enough to cut off the Green Knight’s head, he can keep the Green Knight’s ax. Furthermore, the Green Knight will then return a strike to that knight in one year.
Sir Gawain showcases courage as he treads on the unknown path despite being warned by four shepherds. Sir Gawain also could not have fulfilled his desires with the knight’s daughter because of the eminent death from the enchanted sword and showed honourable traits by maintaining self-control. However, the disclosure of such information to his land would cause him dishonor and shame and in this case death if he were to do the opposite. He faced mortal danger but was valiant