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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