Universität zu Köln
Englisches Seminar
Medieval English Literature

Essay

The inter-relationship between external descriptions and the internal psychology of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Bianca Singer

There have been many discussions, essays or psychological interpretations about the aristocratic romance of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, which was written at about 1400 by an unknown author. The romance embodies chivalric ideas of the English ruling class in the mid-fourteenth century. The central focus is set on Gawain, an honourable and courteous knight belonging to Arthur’s Round Table. Gawain is the only one between all the famous knights like Lancelot or Galahad who stands up for his king when a Green Knight rides into the hall on Christmas Day and wants to challenge Arthur in a beheading game. He showes to have more honor and courage than the rest of Arthur′s Court by coming forward and accepting the challenge in Arthur’s place. The quest is that the knight has to cut off the Green Knight’s head and in one year and a day has to go out and find the Green Knight and allow him to chop off the head of Gawain. The Arthurian knight, who helds his virtues high, has to realize that not even he is perfect but that he is human like every other man in the world. After he has partly failed his quest, he is his main criticist who blames himself for not being perfect. In the eyes of King Artur’s court and even of the Green Knight he is still seen as “þe fautlest freke at euer on fote зede”. In this romance Gawain represents a knight who does not accomplish anything materialistic or rescue a beautiful woman. His achievements and his failure are only personal. He does not want to loose his honourful state as a knight and has to keep his word to Arthur’s court and to himself. His main quest is not about fighting but about the struggle with his innerself. It is said that Gawain has to go through many adventures and that he has to struggle but it is nothing told about these numerous adventures because it is not important for his quest. The reader already knows that Gawain is a famous character but what makes him a human? Throughout the poem Gawain shows that he is also capable to deal with precarious or even embarrassing situations which might call for discretion and tact.

Gawain, in being a strong knight represents physical perfection and he has the strength and the stamina to complete the strenuous journey to the Green Chapel. But besides all this he also represents the perfect gentleman.

In this essay I will show that Sir Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a character with many virtues and that his outer appearance stands in close relationship to his internal psychology. Every character is characerized through what he or she thinks about him or herself, how others think and feel about the character and through the actions of the character as well. Gawain is characterized through his armour which directly leads to his internal psychology. His actions are very characteristic for him and it is also very important what others think about him and how that differs from his own view of himself.

After Gawain has taken on the challenge of the Green Knight and has beheaded him, he has one year’s time before he has to go and seek for the knight, who rode away with his head in his hands. When it is time for Gawain to fulfill his quest, he leaves Camelot in full armor. With him he has a “schelde, þat was of schyr gouleз/ wyth þe pentangel depaynt of pure golde hweз”(619-20). The pentangle on his shield represents perfection. It is also called the endless knot because it goes on forever. It symbolizes natural perfection and for Gawain that means moral perfection. The poet tells us that the pentangle used to be an emblem of Solomon as a token of truth. For the people in the Middle Ages Solomon was a figure of Christ. He resembled perfection. This is what the poet tells us about the symbolic device of the pentangle. In the Bible Solomon is depicted as an imperfect figure who, in the end is guilty of some follies through which he looses his kingdom. And even Gawain, when he is blewn by the Green Knight, laments that he has been trapped by women like Solomon or David had been and that he is weak like they were.

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