Lesson 1.8 · Unit 1 · RL.11-12.2, RL.11-12.5
Romance, and a code tested past what it can hold
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a chivalric romance that sets up the genre's machinery perfectly and then uses it to catch its hero in a failure so small that the poem cannot decide how serious it is.
- The poem survives in one manuscript, Cotton Nero A.x, alongside three other poems by the same unknown author.
- It is written in the alliterative line, revived in the fourteenth century in the north and west of England.
- Each stanza ends with a bob and wheel, a very short line followed by four rhymed ones.
- Chivalric romance puts a knight through a test that proves or disproves a virtue.
- The pentangle on Gawain's shield stands for five sets of five virtues, and the poem explains it at length.
- The exchange of winnings is the second game, and the hunts are interleaved with the bedroom scenes.
- Gawain keeps the green girdle because it is said to preserve life, and conceals it.
- The court laughs and adopts the girdle, which is not the response Gawain has.
Where students lose marks: deciding whether Gawain passed or failed. The poem gives three verdicts, from the Green Knight, from Gawain and from the court, and they do not agree. Write about the disagreement.
The text. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, late fourteenth century, translated by Jessie L. Weston, 1898. Public domain.
And why the pentangle is his, that noble prince's own, I am minded to tell you, though it tarry my tale. It is a sign that Solomon set ere-while, in betokening of truth; by its title it holdeth, for it is a figure that in it hath five points, and each line overlaps and is linked with another, and everywhere it is endless.
For care of thy knock cowardice taught me to accord me with covetousness, and forsake my true kind, that is the largess and loyalty that belong unto knights.
Gawain
Step one: read what the pentangle claims. Endless, interlocked, each line linked to another. It is a figure in which nothing can be removed without the whole shape ceasing to exist.
Step two: state the consequence the poem sets up. If the virtues are interlocked and endless, then a single failure is not a partial failure. The shield is a promise that Gawain can only be wholly good or wholly undone.
Step three: identify what Gawain actually does. He accepts a green girdle from the lady, believing it will save his life, and does not hand it over in the exchange of winnings. He keeps a gift and breaks a game.
Step four: weigh the failure honestly. He refuses the lady three times, he goes to the appointment he could have avoided, and he flinches once at an axe he expects to kill him. The only actual breach is a concealed belt.
Step five: read Gawain's own verdict. He names cowardice and covetousness and says he forsook his true nature. That is the strictest reading available, and it is the one the pentangle demands.
Step six: read the Green Knight's verdict. He nicks Gawain's neck once and tells him he is the most faultless knight alive, because he acted from love of life rather than from greed. That is a lenient verdict from the injured party.
Step seven: read the court's verdict. Camelot laughs and adopts the green girdle as a badge, which converts Gawain's mark of shame into a fashion. They have not understood what he is telling them, or they have decided not to.
Step eight: state the poem's real subject. Not whether Gawain failed but whether a code that admits no partial failure can be lived in by an actual person. The three verdicts are three answers, and the poem ends without choosing among them.
Questions 1 to 5 are recall. Questions 6 to 10 ask for reasoning.
- In what manuscript does the poem survive?
Show the full solution
Cotton Nero A.x, with three other poems by the same author
- What is a bob and wheel?
Show the full solution
A very short line ending a stanza, followed by four rhymed lines
- What does the pentangle stand for?
Show the full solution
Five sets of five virtues, endless and interlocked
- What does Gawain keep and conceal?
Show the full solution
The green girdle, said to preserve his life
- How does the court respond at the end?
Show the full solution
It laughs and adopts the green girdle as a badge
- Why does the pentangle's design matter to the plot?
Show the full solution
Because a figure whose lines are endless and interlocked cannot lose one part and remain itself. The shield is a promise that Gawain can only be wholly good or wholly undone, with no partial credit available. That design is what converts a concealed belt into a total failure by the poem's own stated standard. Interlocked virtues make any single failure a total one
- Weigh Gawain's failure honestly.
Show the full solution
He refuses the lady three times, keeps an appointment he could have avoided at the cost of his life, and flinches once at an axe he expects to kill him. The only actual breach is failing to hand over a belt in a game. Stated plainly, the offense is very small, and the poem's difficulty comes from the gap between its size and its consequences. One concealed belt, after passing every larger test
- Compare Gawain's verdict with the Green Knight's.
Show the full solution
Gawain names cowardice and covetousness and says he forsook his true nature, which is the strictest reading and the one the pentangle demands. The Green Knight nicks his neck once and calls him the most faultless knight alive, since he acted from love of life rather than greed. The injured party is lenient and the offender is merciless. The offender condemns himself; the victim acquits him
- What does the court's laughter accomplish?
Show the full solution
It converts a mark of shame into a fashion. Camelot adopts the green girdle as a badge, which either means it has not understood what Gawain is telling it or has decided not to. Either way the poem's last movement shows a society absorbing a moral crisis by turning it into a style, which is a very modern observation. It turns his shame into a fashion
- State the poem's real subject.
Show the full solution
Not whether Gawain failed but whether a code admitting no partial failure can be lived in by an actual person. Three verdicts are offered, by Gawain, by the Green Knight and by the court, and they do not agree. The poem ends without choosing, so an essay that picks one and ignores the others has removed the difficulty the poem was built around. Whether a code with no partial credit is livable