Sir Gawain and Green Knight Essays: Allegory :: Sir Gawain Green Knight Essays

Allegory in Sir Gawain and the ballpark dub Discuss the allegorical significance of the following words of the Green Knight, You atomic number 18 so fully confessed, your failings made known,/ And bear the plain penance of the dit of my blade,/ I hold you polished as a pearl, as everlasting(a) and as bright/ As you had lived free of fault since first you were natural. These words are uttered by the Green Knight to the highest degree immediately after he delivered the third blow on Gawains neck (l 2391-2394). They should be understood as referring to hithertots which began with Gawains arrival at the Lords castle. The words confessed and penance appearing in the Green Knights utterance may lead one to tie them not only with events of the narrative, but also with the Christian idea of sin. harmonize to Christian ideology all human beings are sinners, though- owing to gods grace and kindness- sins may be forgiven. But before this happens in that respect is need for excuse and penance. Absolution is the final stage which may be reached only by those who pass the former ones. When Sir Gawain is looked at closely, the events of the story change course to the sequence temptation -sin - confession - penance - absolution. The sin committed by Gawain was not being loyal to the lord by concealing the viridity girdle. This weakness of character resulted from the love of life - the girdle was to protect anyone who wore it. What happens at the Green Chapel are the later parts of the cycle confession - penance - absolution. The penance is the fight with the Green Knight during which Gawain receives a baseball swing on the neck and absolution (granted by the Green Knight) is attained through blood, which makes it even more meaningful. On the other hand, a nick on the neck is not an extremely painful experience (although the way in which it was attained was definitely very stressful) and shows that Gawains sin was only a minor one. He did not sin against chas tity as he did not give in to the ladys wishes. But still, in this interpretation Gawains character turned out to be faulty. on that point is a different possibility of interpretation - one which broadens the allegory even more. It may be said that Gawains primary fault was sin against courtesy. If courtesy was in reality what he had been tested on, Gawain did not tin a chance of passing this test.