by Alexander Howard

Created on: June 09, 2009

The brilliance of the poem, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," is it's use of the theme of humanity's lack of perfection. Conventional wisdom is that before the advent of the modern novel, most characters that appeared in narratives were flat, one-dimensional vehicles for furthering plot. Oftentimes, they could be characterized with one single trait such as "brave" or "comedic relief" and so forth.

So, it might come as some surprise to find that the Gawain poet, who wrote in the 14th century, devotes a whole epic poem to examining the flaws of character that make the protagonist of the poem, Sir Gawain, a living, breathing, human being.

The Gawain poet's apparent fascination with the subject is distinct for his time. While the poem is contemporary to Geoffrey Chaucer, who might be considered as being concerned with nothing but humanity, unlike Chaucer, the Gawain poet examines his protagonist in-depth, in a way so as not to bias the reader for or against his main character, whereas Chaucer constantly criticizes the more bawdy of his characters, as well as sometimes directs readers to move past certain tales for their racy contents.

The story of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"concerns the constant testing of the moral mettle of its protagonist, Sir Gawain. On New Year's, a knight clad entirely in green bursts into the court and demands that one among the company deal him a blow with an ax, if in exchange that same person will receive a matching blow from the Green Knight one year and one day hence.

Initially, Arthur accepts the task. Arthur is here presented as far more human than in earlier text, such as those of Chretien de Troyes or Marie de France. Here he mocks the task, calling it foolish and then, when no knight accepts the task (perhaps because they recognize the trick where Arthur doesn't: when a man offers to let you kill him, he's not being honest), Arthur's wounded pride forces him to take the task upon himself. Here Gawain intervenes, to save his monarch from experiencing any embarrassment that might occur. Gawain promptly lops off the Knight's head, at which point, the Knight's body stands up, collects his head, and then charges Gawain to fulfill his end of the bargain by meeting the Knight at the Green Chapel.

Because the game is clearly rigged against him, Gawain spends most of the next year putting off the task at hand. Gawain does not immediately to go questing, which is the perceived nature of knights that earlier

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