Essays on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Characters, in a story or poem, who undergo personal struggles and trials is not a new concept in literature and Sir Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight thought to be written by the Pearl Poet and Satan in Paradise Lost by John Milton are no exception. While Sir Gawain could be considered the…

Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It’s Not) A very simple situation is presented: a boy struggles through physical hazards to get bread at a store, while also meeting with emotional conflict about a possible lover and enemy on the way. The book describes even this small “venture” as a literary quest. The various…

Both Heorot and Camelot hold the similar functions of a gathering place for the respective kings of both mead halls. Both halls serve for merriment and festivities. However, the inner details and atmospheres of the halls both differ in several ways. Heorot is a large hall, instructed to be built “higher than humankind had ever…

All heros, in fact, all people have character, but what separates the common-folk from the great heroes of our time is a hero’s ability to maintain moral character. In Susan Thompsons’ rendition of “Gawain and the Green Knight”, Gawain not only proves this time-tested quality, but he also portrays why it is optimal. One of…