Sir Gawain Fit 4

1) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight can be viewed as a journey from life to death and back to life. Discuss how this works.

Towards the beginning of the story Sir Gawain is totally dedicated to the lord. When he goes off to look for the Green Giant he takes refuge in his Shield that represents his faith and loyalty to the lord through the pentagram and the picture of the Virgin Mary. At his point in time Gawain is pictured as a nearly perfect man who puts his full faith in the lord being the life before death part. When Gawain finds the castle he goes into a world that tempts his faith and causes him to start loosing spirit. Gawain ends up taking a Girdle that will protect him form teh green giant which shows he has lost faith in the lord for his protection. This symbolizes his spiritual death as he has shunned the lord and replaced him with a worthless piece of cloth. Gawain fights the Giant where he realizes the girdle was a sham and his faith is restored. He realizes that the lord did protect him and was testing him. He then is born again as he will never make the mistake to give up on the lord when the girdle is tied around him. The idea that the castle was his death is interesting here because when the only time Gawain is considered spiritually dead is when he is in the castle or the fairy land. The land that the castle is in is more of a pagan influenced place than a christian place as there is magic in it and Bertilacs wife is a prostitute. Making the pagan relations in the castle be a sign of the destruction of faith. 

2) Sir Gawain is reborn both physically and spiritually at the end of the book how?

You learn a lot more from failing than you do succeeding. At the end Gawain realizes that he has lost faith in God but even though he did God still allowed him not to die. The green Giant was a test and because Gawain failed slightly he will learn from it and never fail again. This is the idea that he has learned from his failure and become a new and better knight. This can be looked at from two views in my perspective. The first one would be that of Gawains, the idea that people dont understand the little things and are hypocritical. While Gawain was being very respectful and passed the test of not doing anything with the Lady, he failed the real test which was his total overall faith in the lord. The other view is that of Bertylac and Aurthor. Their view is that he went and faced the Green Giant and it doesnt matter that he used a Girdle. 

3) Whose Point of View are we suppose to exact at the end of the book? Why?

I believe that the author is trying to make it seem like we are supposed to be looking at the story from a point of view such as Arthur's or the Green Knight's. The view that the whole test was passed by Gawain and he should be happy. I think we are really supposed to be looking at it from Gawain's though. Everybody else seems to be a imperfect and poor religious ideas. They all see Gawain as a great knight because he faced his fear and passed the test so he is worthy of God. However they dont take into the idea that Gawain did not do his deed through the strength of God that is so played upon in the beginning especially with the description of the Pentagram and the Virgin Mary. I believe that if we weren't supposed to look at the story from Gawains point of view there would not be very deep and descriptive things like the shield. 

4) Is Gawain ruined as a knight or will we see great deeds from him again?

Gawain will be a doer of great deeds from now on! He has failed miserably and judging my the giant hissy fit he through he will never never make that same mistake twice. If he truly felt that bad about what he did then the reminder of the green girdle around him keep him from ever forgetting the lord and believing in a little peace of fabric. However, if he has been to the Pagan world that had magic, then will his faith be bestowed in god as much if he knows there are other forms? This is a very interesting idea because the idea of magic was made out to be fake because the green girdle was a sham. However just because the magic in that was fake doesnt mean there is no magic. Bertilac himself says that morgana changed him into the green giant through magic. So is there actually magic, and does it have as much power as god?

5) In your opinion who is really in control?

I believe that when you equip a very large man with a very large axe, they gain control over pretty much everybody. I also believe that when you equip that man with an evil woman with magical powers, the make a pretty good team in terms of being in charge. I know that you are supposed to look into this deeply but his is really what i feel. If you go and look at all the warriors who are very large and have a huge weapon along with magical ability. You'll realize that they destroy everybody which normally means there in control. The magic that is associated with Bertylac and the Green Giant makes them seem to be almost like god. The crone and Bertylac test Gawain faith almost as if they are God themselves.