Chivalry is a religious, moral, and social code that knights followed; the qualities that an ideal knight was expected to have, such as honor, courage, justice, courtesy, and respectfulness.
Temptation is an action/thing that attracts someone to do something usually wrong/unwise.
These two collide in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to show just how far the high and mighty
Gawain could fall. Gawain is the epitome of knighthood; humble, respectful, handsome, and courteous. He is, in a sense, perfect, but of course nothing is perfect, and Gawain is no exception. “First he was deemed flawless in his five senses;/ and secondly his five fingers were never at fault;/ and thirdly his faith was founded in the five wounds/ Christ received on the …show more content…
This leads to Gawain bending the rules of chivalry to suit his own selfish needs, however justified they may be. The first sign of temptation that Gawain is faced with, and also the first time Gawain shows weakness, is when he’s traveling to the Green Knight’s castle and on his way he confronts many types of beasts, and is subject to hunger and the frigid weather. His desperation grows more and more each day, contemplating if he really needs to face the Green Knight, that maybe he could turn back. Of course being the most gallant knight ever, Gawain instead prays, and lo and behold he sees a castle appear in the distance. This is where all of Gawain’s troubles begin.
After meeting the lord of the castle (Bertilak), he is challenged to another game of sorts: “Here’s a wager: what I win in the woods will be yours,/ and what you gain while I’m gone you will give to me” (ll. 1106-1107). So essentially after the host comes back from hunting every day, he and
Gawain exchange each other’s winnings. This is when Gawain faces temptation a second time, well three times to be exact. The first day while the lord is out hunting deer his wife slips into
Gawain’s bedroom and attempts to seduce him, and ever the chivalrous knight he