Literary heroes in Middle English romances Essays - Cephalophores

Literary heroes in Middle English romances Literary heroes in Middle English romances often go on great quests, which can be both internal and external tests. The heroes often face many obstacles before their final tests. In Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain's external quest to find the Green Chapel is complicated by harsh weather and "met with many mishaps and mortal harms" (725): Now with serpents he wars, now with savage wolves, Now with wild men of the woods, that watched from the rocks, Both with bulls and with bears, and with boars besides, And giants that came gibbering from the jagged steeps. (720-723) These obstacles that Gawain faces are not described, which emphasizes the obstacles complicating Gawain's internal quest. The greatest obstacle Gawain faces is a woman, who he will blame for causing his downfall, which results when he fails his internal quest to be a courteous and loyal knight. Gawain begins his internal quest when Bercilak proposes a game, "'Whatever I win in the woods I will give you ate eve, / And all you have earned you must offer to me...'" (1106-1108). This game will test Gawain's morals by challenging his duty as a courteous knight to do as a lady wishes, even though this violates his loyalty to Bercilak. Gawain is tested for three days as the lady of the house attempts to seduce him, while her husband is in the woods hunting. The lady blatantly states: 'My body is here at hand, Your each wish to fulfill; Your servant to command I am, and shall be still'. (1237-1240) While it is clear that the lady wishes to give her body to Gawain, he does not accept her, thus she appeals to his courteous knighthood and asks for a mere kiss. Gawain responds, "'Good lady, I grant it at once! / I shall kiss at your command, as becomes a knight, / And more, lest you mislike, so let be, I pray.'" Gawain happily upholds his knightly duty to do as the lady requests, as well as enjoys listening to her constantly praise him. In his A Reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, J.A. Burrow states, "...the poet makes us aware-though only vaguely as yet-of the moral issues stirring beneath the surface of the dialogue....The knight faces a challenge in the lady's compliments." (83). That night when Bercilak gives Gawain the ribs from the days hunt, Gawain gives Bercilak the kiss that he received from the lady. While it seems that Gawain has past the test, it can be argued that he did not give Bercilak the praise that he received from the lady. Because Gawain does praise the game Bercilak killed, failing to praise Bercilak further may be viewed as a minor mistake, which does not deflect from Gawain's moral character. In both the first and the second temptation scenes, the lady presents sex as her objective. As in the first scene, Gawain resists sexual temptation the second day and merely kisses the lady. As Burrow states, "Notice that there is no question...of Gawain's being wrong to accept the lady's kisses. They are not in themselves adulterous, and-always providing Gawain pays them over at the exchange-they do not, apparently, involve any breach of faith with his host" (85). That night, Gawain kisses Bercilak, but fails to return the praise that he gained. This ethical shortcut does not concern the poet because he writes: 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, Nor evil on either hand, but only bliss they knew. (1149-1153) Once again, an ethical shortcut allowed Gawain to pass the moral test by being courteous to the lady and remaining loyal to the lord. The obstacle becomes more difficult in the third seduction scene when the lady changes her strategy. She no longer offers love or sex, instead she offers life with the green girdle, "'If he bore it on his body, belted about, / There is no hand under heaven that could hew him down, / For he could not be killed by any craft on earth.'" Gawain accepts the girdle and promises the lady that he will not tell the Bercilak about the gift. That night when