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Keeping of Sir Gawain's Gallantry

Essay by   •  December 14, 2011  •  Essay  •  589 Words (3 Pages)  •  1,956 Views

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The poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," is a literary piece of work having an obvious explanation about Sir Gawain as the heroic protagonist. The poem promotes the best possible of the chivalric, and shows how men who are are undeniable imperfect and bound to sin can attain them. The chivalric code is a vertiginous array of rules that contradict each other and challenge natural human behavior. In addition, Gawain is an ordinary person, not an epic figure in the poem. He's flaw will eventually determines his fate with the Green Knight. No one in this poem is liable for Gawain's fortune except for himself. It was Gawain decided to accept the challenge that the Green knight proposed. The author did a wonderful job in writing this poem because the ironic elements makes it humorous, the imagery develops the plot, and foreshadowing indicates a warning throughout the poem, therefore it should be taught in the next ENG 205 course the following semester of 2012.

The poem is a clever poem because there are ironic elements in the play where readers cannot refrain from laughing. Such as, Gawain "prays for a church to attend Mass, and instead a huge chapel in which" he curses the ugliness of the place where he thought he might encounter the Devil himself there (Cherokee). In here, this is an example of irony that readers might think this is funny because of the fact that Gawain is praying to attend a mass but when he finally meets the Green Knight he curses his cowardice and greediness and rejecting the green girdle which made him regretful. Another example of irony is that Gawain is easily tempted in a simple things like the green girdle. The green girdle is the item that he capitulate into over sex. Some people knows that when a man is seduce by a woman, man easily gives in anything just for the sake of sex, but Gawain is different. He is tempted to get the green girdle instead to protect his own life. The use of irony in the poem makes it a humorous poem.

Furthermore, the imagery is the presentation of the masculine gender and seasons. For example, the young lady who is one of the hosts tried to seduce Gawain with her flirtatious words. In addition, readers can picture the forward and flirtatious of the lady through the words she uses to try to seduce him. Furthermore, she said that he is a careless sleeper and he let a person to enter his room and she said "Now you are taken in a trice-truce we must make or I shall bind you in your bed, of that assured" (Anonymous 1668). In here, she teases him for a heavy sleeper as a technique of flirting and the readers sees the image of her tying him in his bed in order for him to not escape her and that she would keep him for himself. Moreover, another imagery in the poem is when Gawain is searching for the Green Knight's Chapel. The seasons corresponds to Gawain's emotional state. For instance, when Gawain is searching for the Green Chapel is

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