Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Themes

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the greenness of the Green Knight, along with the wildness of his dwelling place, probably represents his connection to the natural world. The wilderness through...

Sir Gawain adheres to a strict code of knightly behavior whereby he always keeps his promises, honors and obeys his liege lord, and engages in feats of arms to demonstrate his bravery and skill. Ye...

The plot of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight revolves around two games Gawain agrees to play, both with very similar rules. The first game involves an exchange of blows from an axe, while the second...

As we might expect in a poem that features the color of one of its characters as part of its title, appearance really does matter in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Knight’s greenness, for e...

The Green Knight comes to Arthur’s court, he claims, because he’s heard of the reputation for bravery of its men, the Knights of the Round Table. He uses the threat of damage to this reputation...

The world of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one in which every aspect of life is bound up with rules and customs. The rituals of celebration and hunting are no exception. The narrator’s focu...

The structure of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is completely governed by time. The story begins on New Year’s Eve, during the Christmas feast at King Arthur’s Court. Gawain must meet the Gree...

The opening passages of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight frame the tale as a "marvellous event," a "prodigious happening among tales about Arthur" (28, 29). As we read the poem, we begin to underst...

When the Green Knight appears in King Arthur’s court, the people there think he may be some sort of magical creature. How else to explain the fact that he’s entirely green? When he picks up his...