...Lady Bertilak The lady of the house she was one of the most important characters in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Although her name was not mentioned in the poem, she was the wife of Lord Bertilak (Master of the castle). Lady Bertilak- beautiful, skilled conversationalist, young with a seductress mannerism played the role of the temptress in order to break Gawain’s Christian faith. During the fourteenth century, religion played such an important part in everyone’s life that the women were compared to the Virgin Mary- someone who represents love, obedience, honor, and life. Lady Bertilak was the opposite of the Virgin Mary. To characterize Lady Bertilak, she had a demeanor that personifies lust, someone who will not think twice about deception and will use any weapon (body) to get what she wants. I chose Lady Bertilak because of her unique way of getting what she wants: her smarts, her articulate yet deceptive mannerism she has developed throughout the poem. Per her husband and Morgan le Fay’s request while her husband was out hunting on early morning trips, Lady Bertilak is to entertain and break Gawain’s faith. Morgan le Fay an elderly matron who resides with Lord Bertilak and his wife is one whom they hold great honor toward has organized a challenge for to see if one of King Arthur’s knight were brave enough to strike off the Green Knight's head and may keep the Green Knight's ax, but that man must accept a return stroke in one year.The challenge or Christmas...
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...Reversing the Roles of Medieval Women Throughout the Medieval period women were forced to take background roles in society. They were considered inferior to men and reduced to roles that were limited to motherly figures and skilled work. Unlike men, they were not allowed to take arms and once married their ownership was passed on to men. In Beowulf, whose author is unknown, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Geoffrey Chaucer, women took more active roles in the lives of them than society allowed them. In Beowulf, Grendel’s mother is portrayed as a monstrous woman who attacks men to avenge the death of her son Grendel. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Lady Bertilak and Morgan le Faye diminish the roles of men proving them to be cowards that don’t live up to the standards of powerful men. These women proved to be exceptions to the ideal medieval woman who were ultimately separate from men. Women play a minor role Beowulf, Grendel’s mother plays a significant role as she is known as just that, Grendel’s mother. She is not given a name as other women in the poem although she comes in direct contact with the poem’s main character, Beowulf. As a descendent of Cain, she invades Heorot to avenge the death of her son Grendel, who is killed by Beowulf to save their civilization. Throughout medieval literature women play background roles as mothers, caregivers, and peacemakers; they were not allowed to take arms but were reduced to their roles as women. The role that Grendel’s...
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...Truth Behind the Knight: The Presence of Archetypes in Sir Gawain & the Green Knight In the medieval story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, we are introduced to a young man, who, like many of young men, is trying to discover himself and travel through his rite of passage. He is trying to figure out who he is in life, and while in his journey, passes through many phases that mold him into one of the great Knights of the Round Table that old King Arthur wanted to serve with him. These phases affect everyone at some point in their lives. Whether it causes someone to take an iconoclastic stand against a certain more or folkway or if it enables a person to give serious thought to what life could mean, archetypes enable any protagonist in any story to take a journey to find the treasure of their true self. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain was willing to take on the heroic quest and say yes to himself and, in doing so, became more fully alive and more effective to the knightly community and, inadvertently, the literary world. The purpose of the heroic quest is to find the gift retrieved from the journey and give the gift to help transform the kingdom, and in the process, the hero himself. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, three archetypes are present that displays the qualities of a heroic quest that leads Gawain to become a true knight in shining armor. The Innocent Hero Archetype, the Seeker Archetype, and the Lover Archetype forms the mold that Sir Gawain conforms to...
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...paganism, between virtue and sin, between light and utter darkness. An Era portraying a country trying to adapt to drastic changes brought on by the Norman Conquest of 1066, a country fighting to establish its own history in order to gain independence. A Period of knights and ladies, of valour and good faith, which gives life to some of the highest ideals mankind has ever known. It has introduced us to concepts such as chivalry and courtly love, pure expressions of spiritual essence. Of these ideals poets and authors wrote with lively passion, embroidering them in poems such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, or The Wife of Bath. Although its poet remains unknown, the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight remains instilled in our minds as one of the prime examples of chivalry, Gawain representing the chivalrous ideal of the period. His story begins at New Year, in a court filled with joy and happiness, during a banquet thrown by the legendary King Arthur. In the midst of the merriment, the King expresses his desire to behold a marvel, refusing to eat until he had done so. His desire is soon to be fulfilled, as a mysterious creature of the purest green strides in the castle atop his steed, which was also green. This creature exudes of beauty and power, inspiring...
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