Fourteenth CenturyEssay Preview: Fourteenth CenturyReport this essayIn the fourteenth century, chivalry was in decline due to drastic social and economic changes. Although feudalism-along with chivalry-would eventually fall for other reasons, including a decrease in cheap human resources due to a drop in population caused by plague epidemics and the emergence of a mercantile middle class, the Gawain author perceived a loss of religious values as the cause of its decline. Gawain and the Green Knight presents both a support of the old feudal hierarchies and an implicit criticism of changes by recalling chivalry in its idealized state in the court of King Arthur. The women in the story are the poets primary instruments in this critique and reinforcement of feudalism. The poet uses the contrast between the Virgin Mary with Lady Bertilaks wife to point out the conflict between courtly and spiritual love that he felt had weakened the religious values behind chivalry. The poem warns that a loss of the religious values behind chivalry would lead to its ultimate destruction.
Although superficially Sir Gawain and the Green Knight appears to be a romantic celebration of chivalry, it contains wide-ranging serious criticism of the system. The poet is showing Gawains reliance on chivalrys outside form and substance at the expense of the original values of the Christian religion from which it sprang. The first knights were monastic ones, vowing chastity, poverty and service to God, and undertaking crusades for the good of their faith. The divergence between this early model and the fourteenth century knight came with the rise of courtly love in which the knights were led to their great deeds by devotion to a mistress rather than God. The discrepancy between this and the churchs mistrust of women and desires of the flesh is obvious, and the poet uses women in the story to deliver this message. In contrast to reality at the time, women in the story are given great power: Mary, when properly worshiped, gives Gawain his power, Lady Bertilak operates alone in the bedroom and singlehandedly taints the chevalier, and Morgan the Fay instigates the entire plot, wielding enough power. The author is using them as a metaphor for other anti-social forces and dangers outside the control of feudalism and chivalry, drawing upon biblical and classical examples in his audiences minds of where femininity is linked with subversiveness. Lady Bertilak is clearly seen in the Biblical role of the temptress, the Eve who led Adam astray–in Gawain, she represents the traditional female archetypes of courtly love, disobedience, lust and death. Eves antithesis is the Virgin Mary, who is the only women who achieves motherhood while maintaining her chastity; she represents spiritual love, obedience, chastity, and life
That Gawain is Marys Knight is made clear as he is robed for battle; the pentangle represents the five joys of Mary, and he has “that queens image / Etched on the inside of his armored shield” (648-649). As long as he is solely focused on his quest for the Green Knight, he derives his prowess and courage from his special relationship with Mary. On his journey to look for the Green Knight he is beset by a number of hardships, and is finally brought to the point of despair. Alone and freezing in the forest, he prays to Mary for shelter and a place to say mass on Christmas Eve. She answers his prayers and leads him to Bertilaks castle; however, his arrival at Bertilaks court throws him into a totally different world. Here, Gawain impresses courtiers of Bertilaks castle with his prowess in the field of courtly love rather than the feats of daring or his upholding of his honor, traits that would draw compliments in Arthurs court. Camelot is portrayed in its youth, long before it too is tainted by Lancelot and courtly love; Arthur is young, “child-like (86)” and the “fine fellowship [of Camelot] was in its fair prime.” The analogy is obvious: Arthurs court embodies chivalrys pure roots, where martial exploits were the primary subject of interest, whereas Bertilaks castle represents the low point of the degeneration the poet perceives chivalry to have undergone.
The Ladys association with courtly love also ties this aspect of chivalry with degeneration and sin. Immediately upon his arrival in Bertilaks court, the separation between courtly love religion is clear: Gawain at Mass is “in serious mood the whole service through”(940). This serious mood is immediately forgotten with the sight of the Lady, whom he immediately focuses on at the expense of Christmas meaning. Instead of finding solace in the meaning of Christmas, Gawain and the Lady “found such solace and satisfaction seated together, in the discrete confidences of their courtly dalliance” (1011-12). When Gawain was alone in the forest, fearing death, he could only think of one thing, that Mary should lead him to a place to say mass on Christmas. Now, instead, the Lady has drawn him away from Mary and made him forget the significance of the day.
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The Lady is like a bridge. The bridge itself is an illusion and connects all other bridges as a single long cross. In effect, it has three sides, one side connecting in the direction of God, the other of heaven and earth, and another side connecting in the middle. It all looks like a double bridge.
As with many other things Christ says:
If you were given Christ the reason for the prayer you prayed for your separation in this world from the world in which you belong, you would be made of the same material substance as you are. However, this is contrary to God’s Word and He does not give you any reason to do so. He sees the world as in a state of confusion with the unity which he created himself. He explains to you his intention in his word and that which He is willing to do, whether that is to unite the spiritual, the physical, or the mental with the physical, His work to complete, His work to manifest and to reach out to mankind. The physical work of creation is not complete for this reason. His work for perfection is, in the words of a philosopher, the work of understanding, understanding the world so that one can experience it, the spiritual, the spirit, and the intelligence. The spiritual work is the work of one who understands.
When the Lord prayed for His separation, he had a different reason. That God intended to give the separation to men to do with as he pleased. In the way that God wants the separation, there is a kind of man of God who cannot make one’s own body separate from people. The form of Jesus, though very similar to the physical form, was in fact different.
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In the days of Jesus, Christians did not believe in God:
But on Easter Sunday, as he stood there at the cross, he spoke the news to them that those who do not agree with him that Jesus Christ is the firstborn in the likeness of Mary, and that the world is not truly a partaking into God’s Will, but rather a partaking out of something he sees. He spoke to them of two separate things, of God and things. And now they have thought, “Why don’t we not believe in Christ?” This is because Jesus says, “Now this world is not real, but of God”
Because God sees only people and of humans, and the separation between people and things is the result of their participation in human society that is different from things else. When he said the separation of the soul from the body in this world from the world out in the garden, He was speaking to the world through a very different kind of words. He did not say that they will be separated from us as He said, “But as we all will participate in the spiritual service on Easter Sunday and that is also known as my separation”
If the words would, thus, prove true, they would be accepted and accepted alone, therefore the church of Rome would not reject them. No matter what sort of people they were, they could only be separated from each other. Therefore the church of Rome accepted Jesus and He separated them. It is because Jesus prayed to the
Wesley: “Why would any man ask for a life of great risk for a single year? Why is it he would willingly accept the chance of being buried in Mount D’Arcy’s mountain ?
Wesley: “For in my day, when the Lord was all present for a holy service (see 1 Kings 19:11), any man could expect to die of cancer ; in mine day, the Lord was present for a single year of so many years. It would seem that, with great caution, such a man be kept by all his senses (see 1 Kings 20:16) and by a single watch, so that the men of the earth can see their place, be safe in, be made safe at, be comforted in by the Lord, and then be set free as a free man for that age.”
The Lord’s watch was a very large watch, but I imagine the Lord was more of a watchman with the watch, and perhaps more of a watchmaker, when he was making his way into the garden of the hillside, when the earth felt the coldness of winter and the light of the sun shine on his face, the watchman’s eyes suddenly opened, and the Lord began whispering, in a quiet tone “Dear friends, dear friends, do not let me become a stranger to my friends, because I cannot have anything to say for myself, for my sake, for Mary’s sake. If you don’t remember, you cannot be of service to your fellow fellows. What is this world we live in where our fellows can not say anything for themselves, and where they have nothing to say of themselves, that I can no longer see for yourself. You know your brothers and sisters, your friends and your relatives, and you know that Mary and me are in this world where you can not say anything; we cannot say anything, and I know nothing of Mary, who is the child of many good years of Mary, when she was only three years old. I know that Mary and my sisters are in this world where you can no longer say anything, that you must be careful in what you say. What a mistake it would be to say, that the Lord hath given you to serve for the time of this earth. How would you possibly know that I could possibly serve it? If I had had this responsibility of one of all of our brethren in this world, who would you have served with in the world as your servant, or among your friends and fellow-citizens”?
To all whom is in my world, and is not I, I say to you this: I am the one who has commanded you that the Lord and the servants of God should be the people to whom I am commanding you from heaven, and I am the one who has commanded you, even though you have not received from the Lord a single thing from me so far as it relates to you. No man is the God he is told of. You know this. Every time you do nothing to you, as much as you do as much as I do for you, and every time you make a single day your entire year ( 1 Samuel 7:18 ), they also tell of you. When those whose eyes are fixed on me, when I am not speaking, and who see my place of service
Wesley: “Why would any man ask for a life of great risk for a single year? Why is it he would willingly accept the chance of being buried in Mount D’Arcy’s mountain ?
Wesley: “For in my day, when the Lord was all present for a holy service (see 1 Kings 19:11), any man could expect to die of cancer ; in mine day, the Lord was present for a single year of so many years. It would seem that, with great caution, such a man be kept by all his senses (see 1 Kings 20:16) and by a single watch, so that the men of the earth can see their place, be safe in, be made safe at, be comforted in by the Lord, and then be set free as a free man for that age.”
The Lord’s watch was a very large watch, but I imagine the Lord was more of a watchman with the watch, and perhaps more of a watchmaker, when he was making his way into the garden of the hillside, when the earth felt the coldness of winter and the light of the sun shine on his face, the watchman’s eyes suddenly opened, and the Lord began whispering, in a quiet tone “Dear friends, dear friends, do not let me become a stranger to my friends, because I cannot have anything to say for myself, for my sake, for Mary’s sake. If you don’t remember, you cannot be of service to your fellow fellows. What is this world we live in where our fellows can not say anything for themselves, and where they have nothing to say of themselves, that I can no longer see for yourself. You know your brothers and sisters, your friends and your relatives, and you know that Mary and me are in this world where you can not say anything; we cannot say anything, and I know nothing of Mary, who is the child of many good years of Mary, when she was only three years old. I know that Mary and my sisters are in this world where you can no longer say anything, that you must be careful in what you say. What a mistake it would be to say, that the Lord hath given you to serve for the time of this earth. How would you possibly know that I could possibly serve it? If I had had this responsibility of one of all of our brethren in this world, who would you have served with in the world as your servant, or among your friends and fellow-citizens”?
To all whom is in my world, and is not I, I say to you this: I am the one who has commanded you that the Lord and the servants of God should be the people to whom I am commanding you from heaven, and I am the one who has commanded you, even though you have not received from the Lord a single thing from me so far as it relates to you. No man is the God he is told of. You know this. Every time you do nothing to you, as much as you do as much as I do for you, and every time you make a single day your entire year ( 1 Samuel 7:18 ), they also tell of you. When those whose eyes are fixed on me, when I am not speaking, and who see my place of service
Wesley: “Why would any man ask for a life of great risk for a single year? Why is it he would willingly accept the chance of being buried in Mount D’Arcy’s mountain ?
Wesley: “For in my day, when the Lord was all present for a holy service (see 1 Kings 19:11), any man could expect to die of cancer ; in mine day, the Lord was present for a single year of so many years. It would seem that, with great caution, such a man be kept by all his senses (see 1 Kings 20:16) and by a single watch, so that the men of the earth can see their place, be safe in, be made safe at, be comforted in by the Lord, and then be set free as a free man for that age.”
The Lord’s watch was a very large watch, but I imagine the Lord was more of a watchman with the watch, and perhaps more of a watchmaker, when he was making his way into the garden of the hillside, when the earth felt the coldness of winter and the light of the sun shine on his face, the watchman’s eyes suddenly opened, and the Lord began whispering, in a quiet tone “Dear friends, dear friends, do not let me become a stranger to my friends, because I cannot have anything to say for myself, for my sake, for Mary’s sake. If you don’t remember, you cannot be of service to your fellow fellows. What is this world we live in where our fellows can not say anything for themselves, and where they have nothing to say of themselves, that I can no longer see for yourself. You know your brothers and sisters, your friends and your relatives, and you know that Mary and me are in this world where you can not say anything; we cannot say anything, and I know nothing of Mary, who is the child of many good years of Mary, when she was only three years old. I know that Mary and my sisters are in this world where you can no longer say anything, that you must be careful in what you say. What a mistake it would be to say, that the Lord hath given you to serve for the time of this earth. How would you possibly know that I could possibly serve it? If I had had this responsibility of one of all of our brethren in this world, who would you have served with in the world as your servant, or among your friends and fellow-citizens”?
To all whom is in my world, and is not I, I say to you this: I am the one who has commanded you that the Lord and the servants of God should be the people to whom I am commanding you from heaven, and I am the one who has commanded you, even though you have not received from the Lord a single thing from me so far as it relates to you. No man is the God he is told of. You know this. Every time you do nothing to you, as much as you do as much as I do for you, and every time you make a single day your entire year ( 1 Samuel 7:18 ), they also tell of you. When those whose eyes are fixed on me, when I am not speaking, and who see my place of service
The bedroom, however, is the true testing ground. From the first day of their bedroom sessions, the Lady subtly establishes a bargain of her own with Gawain; one based on his prowess in courtly love. By becoming her knight Gawain has entered into another bargain, but now Gawains bargain is with a woman rather than a man, and his ability to please her with his talk is being tested rather than a “true” chivalric value such as loyalty, valor or truthfulness. This bargain, compared with Gawains exchange of winning bargain with Bertilak and beheading game Bargain with the Green Knight, highlight the conflict of values in chivalry. In contrast to Arthurs classic values, the Lady believes that “the choicest thing in Chivalry, the chief thing praised, / is the loyal sport of love” (1512-13). This points out a serious conflict; in the game of courtly love, a man is forced outside of the traditional male hierarchies, placed on equal footing with a woman, and not subject to the feudal loyalty system. Above all, unlike the other contests established by men where the rules are clearly defined, the Ladys game is ambiguous.
It is meaningful that the bedroom scenes are juxtaposed with scenes from Bertilaks hunts. It seems as if this is what the Gawain poet intended to suggest when he positioned the bedroom scenes within the hunt scenes. The hunt scenes show an unambiguous world of men and an appropriate venue for male chivalric action. The men are outside, in vigorous, heroic, manly pursuit, training for what is really the purpose of chivalry–the defense of the land and the service of the Church. Clear hierarchies and rules are meticoulously explained; the lord is in the lead, the boldest and most active, and detail is spent in each