Gawain and medieval romance literature

Gawain

The Two Sides of Sir Gawain

Many characters throughout history have been portrayed by different authors in different periods in different lights. For instance, Achilles is portrayed much differently in Homer's Iliad than he is in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida. The same is for the case of Sir Gawain, who is best known for his part in the English Arthurian epic Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In this piece, Sir Gawain has some issues with pride, but is mostly the epitome of what a knight should be. He is humble, and brave; when he sins he is the first to admit it and redeem himself for what he has done. In Thomas Mallory's Le Morte d'Aurthur, however, Sir Gawain is portrayed in a more negative light. Although he is still a Knight of the Round Table and does represent a certain chivalry associate with Arthur's court, Gawain is represented as more devious, foolish, and lustful.

In both Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Le Morte d'Arthur, Sir Gawain is a highly respected knight. He serves his uncle, King Arthur, and is well-known throughout the region. He is portrayed as especially humble in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. When he is praised before the King for his bravery in pursuing the Green Knight, Sir Gawain is first to humble himself before Arthur, "By God, I'd be glad, if it pleased you, to offer you / Some different service, in word or deed / to serve such excellence would be endless delight," (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Part 3, lines 1241-1247). Despite his positive image in the beginning of the work, Sir Gawain still finds faults within his self. It then becomes part of his mission to defeat the negative portion of his own psyche as he defeats external enemies as well. When he falls to temptation, he redeems himself through repentance. On his own accord, he wears the green girdle which caused him to sin, as a sign of his fall and redemption. Even in Mallory's work, Sir Gawain exhibits chivalrous and knightly behavior. When Sir Gareth arrives at Arthur's court unknown to the knights, Sir Gawain repeats his uncle's hospitality. Even though he was politely refused by his brother, whom he did not recognize, Gawain still extended a hand of hospitality to his brother Sir Gareth.

Despite his initial hospitality, Sir Gawain has a much more negative portrayal in Mallory's work. In this story Sir Gawain in transformed into a fool who fails to recognize his own brother on two separate occasions. When Sir Gareth first enters into Arthur's court, Sir Gawain does not recognize his own flesh and blood. Later, Sir Gawain engages in a joust with his own brother, "and there she cried all on high, Sir Gawain, Sir Gawain, leave thy fighting with thy brother Sir Gareth," (Mallory Chapter XXXIII). Later, after gaining his own recognition, Sir Gareth abandons his brother altogether in favor for other knights of Arthur's court. Rather than being the popular knight he was in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, who fights evil as a Christ like figure, Sir Gawain regresses to the position of a foolish knight who happens to be a close kin to Arthur.