The Three Glimpses of Sir Gawain
The Three Glimpses of Sir Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green KnightsSir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance describing an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur'sRound Table. In the tale, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green, from his clothes and hair to his beard and skin. The "Green Knight" offers to allow anyone to strike him with his axe if the challenger will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts, and beheads him in one blow, only to have the Green Knight stand up, pick up his head, and remind Gawain to meet him at the appointed time. The story of Gawain’s struggle to meet the appointment and his adventures along the way demonstrate the spirit of chivalry and loyalty.
The understanding of sir Gawain is an important clue to understand the whole content.
1. The first glimpse of Sir Gawain
Our first glimpse of Gawain in sir Gawain and the Green Knight occurs when the Green Knight suddenly appears at the New Year's celebration at Camelot. He offers a challenge for anyone to come forward and strike him with his ax. Twelve months and a day later, he will return the blow. No one steps forward to accept the dare. Embarrassed by his knights' lack of response, King Arthur accepts the challenge himself. At the fateful moment when Arthur is about to strike the blow, Gawain jumps up and says:
Would you grant me the grace,
To be gone from this bench and stand by you there,
If I without discourtesy might quit this board...
I am the weakest, well I know, and of wit feeblest;
And the loss of my life would be least of any…
In this first meeting, through Gawain's own words, we begin to see him as the noble knight he is. Gawain has cleverly chosen his most courteous words to release Arthur from this predicament and restore the reputation of the knights of the Round Table. We cannot imagine a more courageous action than Gawain offering his life for his king nor a more polite offer to take the game.
2. The second glimpse of Sir Gawain
Our next chance to understand Gawain occurs at Bercilak's castle where the household is overjoyed that the holiday guest is Gawain of King Arthur's court. They whisper to each other that Gawain has "courage ever-constant, and customs pure," he is "the father of fine manners," and his "displays of deportment" will dazzle their eyes. Through these words we see that Gawain is generally well respected for these characteristics; it is not just his fellow knights who feel this way. At this castle Gawain undergoes many tests of character, yet he is unaware that he is being tested. An unknown test is perhaps the best test there is, since the individual cannot prepare for it.
Bercilak's wife tries to seduce Gawain, but he is able to dodge her advances with clever defenses. On the first day after being told she would marry him if she could he says, "You are bound to a better man, yet I prize the praise you have proffered me here." On the second day, the author tells us "Thus she tested his temper and tried many a time, whatever her true intent, to entice him to sin, but so fair was his defense that no fault appeared." As the days progress, we see how increasingly difficult it becomes for Sir Gawain. We read:
So uncommonly kind and complaisant was she,
With sweet stolen glances, that stirred his stout heart,
That he was at his wits' end, and wondrous vexed;
But he could not rebuff her, for courtesy forbade.
Throughout these tests, the author allows us to glimpse what Gawain is thinking, and we see that he sometimes works hard at being courteous and loyal. These scenes give us insight into how hard he tries to be as perfect as possible. A lesser man would have easily given in, yet Gawain holds himself to a higher standard.
One the third day of the bargain, Gawain does not fare so well. He is successful at avoiding her continuing advances. However, Gawain is concentrating so hard on being courteous and remaining true to Bercilak that he is tricked into taking a girdle of green silk from her and thus betraying Bercilak. She persuades him to accept the girdle and keep it a secret by telling him that if he wears the girdle "he could not be killed by any craft on earth." That night he does not tell Bercilak of the gift. With this simple omission, he has betrayed his host, lied to him, and compromised his own standards.
On the way to the Green Chapel, there is yet another test, and Gawain passes it easily. His guide offers him a last chance to avoid his meeting with the Green Knight. Gawain answers that if he were a coward, he could not be excused. He must go to the Chapel to test his luck for "The Lord is strong to save: his servants trust in him." It is this never-ending quest to do what is right that enables us still to feel good about Gawain even after we know he has been untrue.
3. The third glimpse of Sir Gawain
Finally Gawain arrives at the Green Chapel and faces the Green Knight for the return blow. The Green Knight explains that he is Bercilak, and he has been testing Gawain all along. Gawain is embarrassed and reacts uncharacteristically brusquely. The Green Knight says, "She made trial of a man most faultless by far of all that ever walked over the wide earth" and "Yet you lacked, sir, a little in loyalty there, but the cause was not cunning, nor courtship either, but that you loved your own life; the less, then, to blame". It doesn't matter to Gawain that the Green Knight forgives him or understands why he did what he did. In his own eyes, he has failed.
So, what is Sir Gawain’s true personality like? We can find that Sir Gawain has two sides to his personality. The first side to Sir Gawain’s personality is the way in which everyone else expects him to be: being chivalrous, courageous, loyal, honest, and courteous. Everyone believes Sir Gawain to be the perfect epitome of the knights. The second side to Sir Gawain’s personality is the way that he is actually proven to be. When Sir Gawain is tested by fate he reveals that he is just as human as anyone else for his concealing from his host the magical green girdle that the host's wife gives him.
However, he voluntarily wears the girdle as a symbol of his sin. Therefore, despite all that has happened, through the three glimpses, Sir Gawain is still a loyal, noble, honest and courteous knight. This is what Sir Gawain and the Green Knights intends to convey.
ancient meeting places
the sturdy, good-natured lord of the castle where Gawain spends Christmas. We only learn Bertilack's name at the end of Sir gawain and the Green Knights
after the Green Knight reveals his identity as the host, Gawain curses the girdle as representing cowardice and an excessive love of mortal life
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