Other views of Sir Gawain in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight :: Essays Papers

Other views of Sir Gawain in Sir Gawain and The Green KnightBelow are quotations selected from a number of sources which take the character of Sir Gawain --------------------------------------------------------------------------------In the earliest Arthurian stories, Sir Gawain was the greatest of the Knights of the Round Table. He was famed for his prowess at arms and, above all, for his good manners. ... Here Gawain is the perfect cavalry he is so recognized by the various characters in the story and, for all his modesty, implicitly in his view of himself. To the differents his greatest qualities are his knightly courtesy and his success in battle. To Gawain these are important, but he seems to set an even higher value on his courage and integrity, the two central pillars of his manhood. The story is concerned with the conflict between his conception of himself and the reality. He is not quite so brave or so honorable as he thought he was, but he is still very brave, very hono rable. He cannot quite see this, but the reader can. The character of Sir Gawain is relatively fixed by usage he cannot act very differently from the way he does. In consequence, his character is static--is, indeed, less entertaining than that of his adversary, the Green Knight. But it is for other qualities than character interest that Sir Gawain and The Green Knight is valued. (G. B. Pace, 35) FromClark, Donald, et al. English Literature A College Anthology. new-made York The Macmillian Company, 1960. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------We are placed on the side of mortality itself, and can thus, with the Green Knight, forgive Gawain for his unity act of cowardice what he did was done not out of sensual lust but for love of life--the less, then, to blame. In the context of this affectionate sympathy, Gawains own tearing anger at the revelation of his fault must itself be viewed with amusement, as part of his human fallibility. (Marie Borroff, Introduction) FromBorroff, Marie. Sir Gawain and The Green Knight A New Verse Translation. New York W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1967. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Gawain is, naturally, more fully drawn than any other character. Not only do we observe him ourselves, we are told how he impressed other people in the story and how he himself thought and felt. We see him behaving, as all expect him to do, with exquisite courtesy but we also see what is not apparent to the other characters, that such behavior does not always come easily to him.