Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, Gawain’s Behavior In The Bed With The Host Lady

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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Written in the fourteenth century, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is a poem with a story about the adventures of Gawain as a knight. It is a Middle English chivalric romance and some of the aspects that stand out are the three hunts that Gawain takes part in and the symbolism associate with the same. There are three main hunts that are illustrated in the poem all of which have some significant meaning to the development of the story and the characters in question. There is a hunt where Gawain is after a deer, a boar and finally a fox.
The three hunts are aligned with the temptations that Gawain is taken through in the poem. In the first hunt, he is hunting for a deer. This is a relatively simple task and it not by accident that he is shown to take part in the exercise. Ideally, deer are relatively easy to hunt as they are not as aggressive. In the case of Gawain at the time, he was also relatively innocent and pure. As such, hunting for a deer is supposed to represent a knight that was innocent and pure at heart. His was simply going about his daily chores without much thought or motives. This is an innocent hunt where he just wants a deer for his food. Even the description of how he captures the deer shows the element innocence. It is also a symbolic element that shows the fate that awaits Gawain at the hands of the green Knight.
In the second hunt, Gawain is much grown as a person and is more aggressive. The second hunt is a boar, which compared to the deer in the first hunt is much harder to handle. This is an animal that requires better skills to hunt, compared to the deer. This hunt is symbolic of the advances that Bercilak’s wife is making at Gawain. However, it is clear that Gawain at the stage is able to resist the temptations laid bare before him. He could easily have given in to the advances of the wife to the Green Knight. However he holds his position and resists. His skills in this case are consistent and he is able to fight the temptation that comes with the advances from the lady. It is also important to note that, Bercilak is aware of the advances that his wife is making at Gawain. This brings out the character of chivalry. Gawain s able to maintain his high moral standards despite the fact that he could have easily given i...