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CRITICAL COMMENTARY
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SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN
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KNIGHT
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LITERATURA IV

LITERATURA IV

2014/2015

CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Gerald Morgan initiates his article, Medieval Misogyny and Gawains Outburst
Against Women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, trying to deny Gawains
misogyny and he states that the main problem is that Gawain need to be evaluated in the
context of Medieval Age and not as a 21st century character.
According to the author, ladies are responsible of knights inspiration and knights
are prepared to die for them. The main function of a medieval knight is to fight for
justice for the weak, for women. The company of ladies is something normal in the life
of courts. A knight is a warrior with a refinement of manners and a respect of the
experienced warrior. Those elements are interlaced in the word chivalry which was
described by Morgan as the practice of knighthood and the prowess of a knight related
with the gracious and honorable manner in the dealing of a man and a woman.
The article claims that the most important chivalric virtues are, on the one hand,
the courage, defined as the midpoint between the vices of rashness and cowardice with
the danger of death. Then, the writer depicts the virtue of gentleness as the moderator of
the passion of anger. When a knight is fighting in a battle, he needs anger but he also
needs to moderate it. On the third place we find humility, a knight does not need to
speak about his great exploits because those ones speak by themselves, he should not be
arrogant. The last one is courtesy, a knight must moderate his way of speaking and
dressing. That virtue has to do with sincerity, friendliness and wittiness; and it is one of
the most important virtues because of its presence in Medieval Literature and later in the
Renaissance. All those virtues are symbolized in Gawains pentacle and that means that
he is a hero because he has all virtues required in a medieval knight.
The poem is built around two games, in both, Gawain is the protagonist and he
plays the games until the end, accomplishing the role that has been allocated to him.
The first one is the Beheading Game, in which he decapitates the Green Knight and,
after a year, he returns to the Green Chapel in order to receive the same hit. The other
one is the Exchange of Winnings, in which he has to remain in Bertilaks castle and
exchange with him, what he has got at the end of the day. The game lasts three days and
Gawain has to face with Lady Bertilak who wants to seduce him, he is continuously
proved by the lady who puts him in an awkward situation which could drive him to
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betray his chivalric virtues. Finally he is successful in the way that he is not seduced by
his sexual instincts but, being afraid of his destiny, he decides to accept an enchanted
girdle for the lady; this girdle has the power to protect the person who wears it. With
that fact Gawain violates his social code, because he is not sincere with Bertilak, so he
is finally persuaded and betrayed by the lady. He has been defeated although he does not
know yet. Gawain thinks that he has been legitimate and honorable with the lady.
Nevertheless, at the end of the third day, he seems overwhelmed, he sees his death near
and he has to be rescue by the habit of piety. He makes a complete confession of his
sins. After that he leaves the castle and goes to the Green Chapel where he discovers
that the Green Knight is Bertilak who has been enchanted by Morgan, and he also
realizes that he know everything about his wife and the girdle. He feels frustrated
because his virtues have contributed to his moral downfall. Thus, at the end, he shows
vulnerable.
That shows the real nature of a knight, the world where he lives; and that does not
mean that he hates womankind. He plays his role as woman plays her own one. The
writer says that the problem of misogyny is a very complicated and states that women
and men are human beings before being females or males. Lords wife must be seen as a
woman who has betrayed a man and not as a representation of her sex, and Gawain
must be seen as a man who is disillusioned because a woman has let down him. He is
one of those excellent men who have been vulnerable to the power of women.
Furthermore, the author rejects the fact that Gawain is a misogynist character
because he makes himself guilty of his actions, he never blames the lady. He accuses
himself of cowardice, infidelity and covetousness. Thus, Morgan concludes saying that
the criticism that has been done against the poet and the hero is unfair.
Reading Morgans article, women are seen as beautiful object created to
accompany men and to be saved in order to knights can show their bravery. But, in my
opinion, women are more than beautiful object in the poem, they are intelligent and in
total control of men since the beginning to the end of Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight.
The secrets to control men have been taken by Morgan through her sexual wiles
and magical skills. She cannot be ruled by them because she does not play their rules,
she can tame everyone and she can govern their lives. She wants to frighten Guinevere
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and bring about her death through the test performed on the Round Table, she provokes
Gawains crisis and she creates a negative interpretation of Arthurian chivalry. After all,
her desire is to prove the pride of those famous knights and debunk the myth. She gets
to push Gawain far beyond his limits and evoked a crisis of chivalry virtues both in the
knight and in Arthurs court.
In a misogynist view, the poem proposes that women control the masculine order,
that is, there is a kind of gynocracy in which males might be playthings manipulated by
women in order to work out their hatreds, feminine jealousies and other negative
desires.
The girdle and the injury on Gawains neck turn into signs related with his faults
and the loss of his masculinity or chivalric virtues incurred by the feminine position of
Lady Bertilak. The moral crisis is produced by his fear to die and he, who supposedly
should be the controller of the situation because he is the hero, he has all virtues that
made a knight proud of himself, becomes in the controlled by womens will. Thus, we
should consider the fact that Gawain is not a courageous hero, because when he sees the
possibility of save his life, he takes it and instead of courage he shows cowardice
because he does not want to confront his destiny.
Morgans article states that Gawain never blames the Lady, but it should be taken
into account that in the scene of the Green Chapel, the blame shakes from Gawain to
Bertilak to the Lady. Furthermore, in the same scene Gawain pronounces an antifeminist
speech, negated by the articles author, in which he says that is better to love women
and not to trust them. So he represents women as object to be loved and in addition he is
afraid of them because he considers woman as evil seductresses. Finally, from the Lady,
the blame shifts to Morgan herself. Gawain only accepts his fault in Arthurs castle
when he confesses his adventures to the court, before that moment, Morgans test is
responsible of his shortcomings.
In one way or another, Morgan is present in the whole poem until it is
demonstrated that women are a threat to men and their chivalric codes and virtues.
When that has been proved, the author of the poem tries to erase that threat
marginalizing Morgan. Her magic skills make clear that even the most noble and
chivalric knight could be manipulated by her. The force of male aristocracy has been
threatened by Morgan.
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To conclude, it can be said that the criticism done against Gawain and the poems
author might be justified because even placing Gawain in his medieval context,
misogyny is used in the poem to exhibit ladies as dangerous and manipulative women
who can disorient men and make them lose their chivalric virtues. Bertilak is showed as
a victim of Morgans magic skills and Gawain as a victim of Lady Bertilaks seductive
game. In addition to that, when the author gets to give the ladies those negative
connotations, they are removed of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in order to
demonstrate that, in spite of everything, men continue being the only ones who can rule
Arthurian Court and have the power in that sexist society; women once again, are
precious object to accompany those brave warriors and make the scene beauty. The
poem itself can be said to be an aggressive attempt to make strong the masculine culture
of Medieval Age.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Gerald, Morgan. Medieval Misogyny and Gawains Outburst

against Women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Trinity
College, Dublin. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3736858?
uid=3737952&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=2110658
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