Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Literary Elements

alliterative poem

Arthurian England

The poem is narrated by a first-person narrator who will often interject with his own opinions on what he describes. He is not, however, involved in the action of the text.

fantastical, mysterious, enchanting

The protagonist of the poem is Sir Gawain. The antagonist of the poem is the Green Knight, until it is revealed that he and Bertilak are the same person.

The central conflict of the poem is that the Green Knight survives his decapitation at the hands of Gawain, forcing Gawain into another encounter with the Green Knight one year later.

The climax of the text occurs when Gawain meets the Green Knight to receive the blow to his neck.

The castle's description as a near-magical phenomenon foreshadows the role of the supernatural (and the power of Morgan le Faye) in the latter half of the text. The challenges and tests that Gawain faces at Bertilak's castle foreshadow the revelation that Bertilak and the Green Knight are the same person.

Gawain speaks with understatement in many of his interactions with Lady Bertilak, as he is attempting to uphold the chivalric code of virtue and courtesy.

The text makes numerous historical references to ancient Greece and Rome, connecting the founding of England to these major civilizations. It also alludes to various books of the Bible as it portrays Gawain's virtue and morality as fundamental Christian ethics.

Important imagery in the poem includes the color green, hunting, clothing, and the changing of the seasons.

The Green Knight himself is portrayed as a type of paradox: he is both enormous and well-proportioned, as well as fearsome and delicate. He is also dressed lavishly to convey his wealth as a noble knight but carries a holly branch in his hand, associating him with nature.

The hunting escapades at Bertilak's castle parallel the "hunt" of Lady Bertilak back at home: just as Bertilak and his men pursue animals to butcher and eat, so does Lady Bertilak pursue Gawain romantically in a test of his fidelity.

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The text frequently personifies nature with human elements, emphasizing how plants (like people) grow and die with the seasons. This is one of the reasons that the poem has become such an important source for ecocritical research, which studies the relationship between man and nature in English literature.