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Sunday, February 10, 2019

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Essay -- essays research papers fc

Women, Courtly Love and the Creation invention in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight     Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a great epic written in fourteenth century Europe by the astragal poet, emphasizes the opposition of Christian fill in to Courtly love in the thirteenth century through the dilemma of Sir Gawain, one of the great knights of the Arthurian polish table. By examining the women in the poem, Gawains dilemma becomes a metaphor for the line of products of these dickens distinct types of love. The poem looks upon the Virgin Mary as the representative of apparitional love, obedience, chastity, and life (Warner 9). In contrast, Morgan le Fay and Bertilaks wife appear to be representing cultured love, disobedience, lust and death. This conflict between courtly love and spiritual love demonstrates the drastically weakened religious values behind chivalry. An interesting duplicate to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the story of original sin in th e garden of Eden. Gawains temptation correlates to the temptation of whirl, which is rooted in the sins of the flesh. The women in the story appear to accentuate the down surpass of Gawain, which mirrors the downfall of Arthurs court, as well as mans fall from grace in the garden.      Originally, the first duty of a knight was to be at the service of his church. However, with the rise of courtly love, knights began to give their devotion to their cocotte rather than God. This elevated the churchs mistrust of women and the flesh. The characterization of Bertilaks wife is not contrasted that of Eve, a temptress who would bring both happiness and despair to her man. unrivalled interesting twist to this story is that, like courtly love, possession of index finger seems to be shifted into the hands of the women. The wife of Bertilak operates unassisted against Gawain in the bedroom as the hunter and the aggressor. The great feminine power in the story, however, comes from Morgan le Fay, the wickedness stepsister of Arthur. She is strong enough to move into Bertilaks castle, turn him green and magnitude him to walk and talk with a severed head.      The Virgin Mary also plays a prominent role in the tale. It seems as if Mary and Gawain prolong a relationship based on a special unblemished Christian love. That Gawain is Marys knight is made clear in the scene where he is robed for battle. That all h... ...t. The women in this tale serve as a medium for comparing the spiritual journey of Sir Gawain to the creation myth. With Mary as a symbol of perfection and Lady Bertilak as an Eve-like symbol of temptation, the circumstance that he is torn between them displays his humanness just as Adam was torn between the word of God and the love of Eve. In this case, Morgan le Fay would probably be considered the serpent in the garden, the instigator of the conflict in the story. Because of the story of Eve, women were frequent ly looked upon in medieval times as cunning, fly-by-night and generally evil. Women in the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are looked upon with the virile concept that flesh is evil and will lead to mans downfall, which is highlighted by the contrast of Courtly love to Christian love. Works CitedAbrams, M.H. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York W.W. Norton & amp Company, Inc., 1993. De Roo, Harvey. "Undressing Lady Bertilak Guilt and Denial in Sir Gawain and theGreen Knight." The Chaucer Review 27 (1993) 305-24.Warner, Marina. Alone of all Her Sex The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary. New York Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1976.

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