Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Keleen Walters

Professor Bombard

13 November 2017

MW Class

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

In 2017, Kevin West wrote an essay based upon critics distinguishing the behavior and symbolism of Sir Gawain and his actions. As written in his essay the tokens of sin and badges of honor, he describes the poem as a divine comedy due to Sir Gawain’s dishonorable behavior circulating into a greater good for his society. At beginning of the poem, Sir Gawain and the green knight, Sir Gawain defines himself as one of the lowest of the knights because he lacks some of the physical and mental ability. For him to improve his inner self, he accepts the challenge of the Green knight and serves a blow to the knight’s head. The knight then picks up his head and vanishes into the night, he notifies Sir Gawain about a green chapel that he must go to a year and day from that exact day where the knight will return his blow. The next year, Sir Gawain departs from Camelot and began his journey in search for the green chapel and as he becomes closer to approaching his destination he spots a castle. During this chapter of the poem, he confesses to God for his sins he had committed. This will be discussed more in the essay. Even though Sir Gawain represents the code of chivalry, and is a well-respected knight, he still demonstrates the apathy of human life and only focuses more so on his self-image.

As you may already know the author if this poem is indeed an anonymous author. According to Kevin West, “a reader’s attitude toward Camelot will greatly determine the poem’s reception” (1). For hypercritical readers the poem is viewed with multiple moral failures.

y

Work Cited

West, Kevin R. "Tokens of Sin, Badges of Honor: Julian of Norwich and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature, no. 1, 2017, p. 3. EBSCOhost, proxygsu-flo1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsggo&AN=edsgcl.491201808&site=eds-live&scope=site.