British Literature- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

This paper focuses on the symbolism in British Literature- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The world of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is ruled by well-defined ciphers of behavior. The cipher of chivalry, in specific, forms the standards and activities of Sir Gawain and other individual characteristics in the poem. The ideals of chivalry draw from the Christian notion of ethics, and the proponents of chivalry request to encourage religious ideals in a spiritually dropped world.

The ideals of Christian ethics and knightly chivalry are conveyed simultaneously in Gawain's symbolic shield. The pentangle comprises the five virtues of knights: companionship, generosity, chastity, courtesy, and piety. Gawain's adherence to these virtues is checked all through the verse, but the verse examines more than Gawain's individual virtue; it inquires if fantastic virtue can function in a dropped world. What is actually being checked in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight might be the chivalric scheme itself, symbolized by Camelot.

Arthur's court counts very powerfully on the cipher of chivalry, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight softly criticizes the detail that chivalry standards look and emblems over truth. Arthur is presented to us as the “most courteous of all,” showing that persons are graded in this court as asserted by their mastery of a certain cipher of demeanour and good manners. When the Green Knight trials the court, he mocks them for being so aghast of meagre phrases, proposing that phrases and appearances contain too much power over the company. The constituents of the court not ever disclose their factual sentiments, rather than selecting to appear attractive, courteous, and fair-spoken.

The verse does not by any entails propose that the ciphers of chivalry be abandoned. Gawain's adherence to them is what holds him from dozing with his ...