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Sir Gawain's relationship tips by Hadif Hazriq (193041)




Relationship tips by Sir Gawain and The Green Knight



Sir Gawain and The Green Knight is a late 14-th Century Middle English chivalric romance. It’s one of the most well-known stories during the reign of King Arthur. It is an important example of a chivalric romance which usually involves a hero going on a quest that will test his power and self.
Its author is unknown, just like Beowulf. It’s a story of how Sir Gawain accepts a challenge by a Green Knight who suddenly appears at King Arthur’s Palace one day. The Green Knight challenge any knight of Arthur’s Round Table to strike him with an axe if he will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts and beheaded the Knight. The Green Knight then stands up and picks up his head and remind Gawain about the deal.

A year after Gawain travels to meet the Green Knight at a place called Green Chapel. He stopped by a castle owned by Bertilak de Hautdesert. He was welcomed by the host and his wife Lady Bertilak. The Host made a pact with Gawain on which they had to exchange anything they got for the next three day. On the first day Gawain received a kiss from Lady Bertilak on which he was shocked by the action but remain respectful to the Lady. He then gave his host a kiss as the host gave him a deer he hunted earlier. The next day he got one more kiss by Lady Bertilak and gave a kiss to the host as he receive a hunted boar. The next and final day, Lady Bertilak seduces Gawain but to no avail, Gawain still doesn’t give her what she wanted but instead he receive a green shawl  by Lady Bertilak, she explains that he will be formidable if he wears the green shawl. Later that day , Gawain did not gave his host the green shawl but instead give him another kiss in exchange to the hunted fox.

So on the said day and date, Gawain went to the Green Chapel and met The Green Knight. The Green knight striked Gawains head and he misses the first time and the second. The third time Gawain could feel a hit on the back on his neck but his head is still in-tact. The Green Knight then revealed that he is Bertilak de Hautdesert and that the price exchange was a trial for him. Now Gawain was ashamed as he had lied to his host who had been nothing but nice to him. With a scar on his neck Gawain set off back to Camelot as he had finished his conquest being reminded by The Green Knight to always be honest.

This story particularly attracts me because it is about honesty, promises and being faithful to your code. In term of honesty we can see that how Sir Gawain wasn’t being honest to his host an had lied on the third day when he didn’t give the host the green shawl he received from Lady Bertilak. I believe that everyone should be honest about how they feel even if it hurts. No matter for whatever reason it may be it still doesn’t justify the action of lying to someone. It would be better to just be honest, it was even said that the hurtful truth is better than a comforting lie.
If promises were meant to be broken well let’s not make promises then. Promises are meant to be kept and you should commit to it. Sir Gawain didn’t keep his promise when he didn’t give the green shawl it was kind of sneaky of him because he just gave his host a kiss instead of the green shawl. It really shows how important a promise is as you can see when the reason why Gawain got a scar on his neck was because of him broking his promise.

If someone beautiful or charming was trying to seduce you, would you fall for them? Or would you be like Gawain and said no? Nowadays it is hard to find someone who would be faithful to their partner or even to their own life code especially when it comes to sex. It’s actually a very good example and moral value to the people to show that it’s not good having sex with someone who’s already partnered. Yes I know that Lady Bertilak was doing it for the sake of the trial but for Gawain to reject it but still respect the lady by giving her a kiss is just so gentleman-like.

Finally the other thing I like about Sir Gawain and The Green Knight story is the fact that it has a homo-erotic scene. Even if it’s just a kiss between two man but still representative of homosexual erotic scenes during the Middle English era just shows that Homosexuals Relationship might have existed since way before that and people were okay with it, unlike now. Personally I am a big fan of anything with homo-erotic influence in it because to be quite honest, the LGBTQIAPK+ community need to be represented more just to show that love is love.

All in all, Sir Gawain and The Green Knight was a good story derived from the poem. It’s a very good representative of a chivalric romance. 



By Hadif Hazriq (193041)

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