Honors Theses
Date of Award
2008
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
English
First Advisor
Gregory Heyworth
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
This work focuses on the societal and textual context of the alliterative, 14“ century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Personal preparations for this work included studies in translating the unique dialect of the poem, research in the British Library for the purpose of finding relevant analogs to and critical works on the text, and extensive interaction and discussion with my thesis advisor. Dr. Gregory He)^orth. The primary problem of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight lies in the motivations of its protagonist and antagonist. Because Gawain clings to the formulaic responses of his society and religion, he fails to understand his own logic. Through the various games of the work, the Green Knight successfully strips away Gawain’s cultural identity, the mask of the Pentangle Knight, and leaves Gawain naked both to the world and to himself. He accomplishes this by using tests that are structurally dependant upon earlier works. By analyzing these analogs, the role that the Green Knight should play in the work quickly becomes clear; however, the Green Knight often exceeds or redefines this role. His tests, although similar to those of the analogs, differ in that they are not only tests but also temptations. This bipartite structure is the result of several inwrought sources of tension in the work, which guide the reader to areas of both greater subtlety and confusion. Because of the rhetorical and intellectual tension between Gawain and the Green Knight, issues of rationality, who is sane and who is mad, arise. Having both a shame and a guiltculture background, the ideology of Gawain’s past consumes his present, blinding him to basic truths about the world. Motivated by the desire to change the way in which Gawain views the world rather than the way in which the world views him, the Green Kmght takes a personal interest in Gawain that is lacking in the poem s analogs.
Recommended Citation
Rotkiewicz, Vincent Peter, "The Rationality of the Green Knight: Testing, Tempting, and Culture in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (2008). Honors Theses. 2413.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2413
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