Essential #4

Choice 2: Where do we see seduction and lust start to destroy Gawain, our young hero? What is the author trying to tell us?

Honor and nobility define the society in which Gawain lives in. It is evident that Gawain’s actions and choices revolve around such virtues, as we can see when he describes the five knightly virtues by which he lives by: friendship, generosity, courtesy, chastity, and piety. Because Gawain is chivalrous and yearns to uphold these ideals, he takes on the challenge the Green Knight puts forth. After realizing he has been tricked, Gawain remains courageous and is determined to go through with the agreement in order to fulfill his knightly duty. During his journey to the Green Knight’s chapel when staying at the castle, he falls for several temptations failing to uphold his virtues.

Seduction and lust begin to destroy Gawain from when he foolishly accepts the Green Knight's game to when he rejects his chivalric ideals and succumbs to the host’s wife’s allurement. When considering this affair, it leads one to question how Gawain will fulfill the agreement made with the host: “Whatever I win in the woods I will give you at eve, and all you have earned you must offer me” (lines 1106-1107). Gawain is certainly unable to do so. All the tests, games, and agreements included in this poem are the author’s means of shedding light on the importance of applying virtue to personal choice. The author emphasizes the importance of choice; the choice to uphold the virtues embedded into one's character or in a sense, lose everything as a result of discarding these ideals.