Fit 4

1. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight can be seen as a journey from life to death then back to life again. I see life-death-life as Camelot-Castle-Camelot. Life at Camelot was easy, joyful, and full of fun and games. Gawain here was free from dishonoring his lord and was a respectful knight. After his travel to the castle, he has spiritually died. He is tempted and tested and ends up breaking his code of honor. Then Gawain returns home and comes back to life. King Arthur is welcoming and shows his respect by wearing green belts of silk.

2. Sir Gawain is reborn both physically and spiritually at the end of the book how? Sir Gawain is reborn spiritually after he gives up faith in God from saving him from the Green Knight by accepting the magical girdle. Gawain is reborn physically after he survives the nick of the axe. He realizes that his life has been saved.

3. Whose point of view is at the end of the book? Why? I think the story is told from Gawain's point of view at the end of the book. You see that Gawain is being very humble. Perhaps the author wanted it to be his point of view so we could see how much it means to be a loyal and honorable knight. The author may have been telling us something about his time period. This is very similar to today. If a soldier was told to never leave the battle field and a bomb flew his way, he would probably run because he would think his life is more valuable. I think the author is trying to tell us that human nature will never change.

4. I think Sir Gawain is ruined as a knight forever. He is now mentally unstable. The fact that he has dishonored his king and the lord will live with him forever. You can see this as soon as he respectfully refuses to go back with the Green Knight and have a feast after the Green Knight forgives him. He is so emotionally distraught that he will not be able to move on with his life. He left out on this journey to prove himself a great knight and gain respect and fame just like Beowulf. Only Beowulf gets through his first quest and proves to be successful therefore giving him more motivation and drive for the next task while Gawain fails his first task and loses all inspiration to try again.

5. In my opinion I think that it is the lady who is in control. It was her who chose to play the game and seduce Sir Gawain. She did not have to do this. If she chose not to then the lord would not have been able to set up the game. In other words, there would have been no game without her.