Christian Symbolism and Chivalric Ideals in Sir Gawain and...

Upon first Reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, I noticed that it comes off as a romantic normative poem about chivalric ideals and traditions of the ruling class with covertly Christian Images. The protagonist character Sir Gawain stands out as the role model of the chivalric ideals of the 14th century while displaying Christian images on his armor. The combination of Gawain’s armor and actions throughout the poem exemplify his characteristics of Christian perfection and chivalric ideals. The very first scene with Bertilak of Hautdesert known as the Green Knight begins to mold your perception of how chivalrous Sir Gawain is by portraying him as valiant, humble, and virtuous knight to Arthur. I felt that the interruption of Arthur†¦show more content†¦Even the armor without the pentangle had a religious importance in medieval literature because to be adorned in armor was to â€Å"be strengthened in the lord, in the might of his power †¦ [and with] the armor of God that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil† (Green 126), which comes into play when Bertilak’s wife tries to seduce Gawain. In this instance Bertilak is representative of the devil and he is using his wife to test Gawain to see if he would commit sodomy and break his religious and knightly code. This scene is extremely important since he has been â€Å"divested of his armor, relived of his helmet, horse and his coat† (Ashton 60), basically everything physical that reminds him of his faith. However, even without his armor being a constant reminder of his faith and honor he proves he is truly faithful and chivalrous by turning down Bertilak’s wife. To get a better understanding of the meaning and importance of the pentangle we must analyze the author’s description of the meaning of it or lack thereof. The author does give examples of the meanings of the symbol being explained as Gawain being faithful in five ways which he describes. However, the author doesn’t tell us what â€Å"he means when he talks about the things we call meaning† (Arthur 221), this gives the assumption that either at the time readers would have already known the meaning in the time period it wasShow MoreRelatedThe Canterbury Tales, written by Chaucer, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written by an1600 Words   |  7 Pageswritten by Chaucer, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written by an anonymous author, are both sophisticated fourteenth-century examples of medieval romance. 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