Sir Gawain
Was it just me or did it feel like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in comparison to the other things that we have been reading, was incredibly uneventful? The lesson learned by Gawain is really essential to understanding how the knights of the Round Table were supposed to behave. Is it because I’ve read it before that I breezed through this, completely unfascinated by the writing and events? It wasn’t boring, it just wasn’t really great story-telling. So what was the REAL purpose of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight? Why did people need to have this humbling lesson pointed out to them?
Mary wrote:
I agree with the fact that Sir Gawain’s a bit less eventful than other things we’ve read. Most of the book is him hanging out and getting hit on by the knight’s wife while he’s out hunting. I think the real purpose of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is just to show that the knights of the Round Table are great people, but even they can be dishonest and make mistakes. However, admitting their dishonor and mistakes makes the knights of the Round Table even more honorable. That’s a little weird, but I think that’s the point.
Posted 16 Oct 2007 at 2:01 pm ¶
Tessa wrote:
Although Sir Gawain and the Green Knight did not have much in the way of battles and fighting, I did not find it uneventful. The whole seduction plot is interesting because it creates a foil to the Lancelot/Gwenevere adulturous courtly love scandel. Theie love affair is questionable in its right or wrongness (especially considering which text you are reading), while in SGGK the adulturous love affair is quite obviously wrong and would have lead to his death. I also find the story of the beheading quite interesting because it puts keeping one’s promise over keeping one’s life. But, what I found most interesting about SGGK was the language. Trying to read the middle english was quite a challenge, but also really fascinating. English really is a combination of a lot of different languages and words. I don’t know if you can answer what was the REAL purpose of SGGK other than for entertainment. Maybe the nameless author wanted to make it explicit for his audience that adultery was bad or that keeping one’s promises was more important than keeping one’s life. It’s hard to tell without actually talking to the author.
Posted 16 Oct 2007 at 2:12 pm ¶