Dewulf, Torres 1

Essay outline

Names:

Alexandra Dewulf, Kathia Torres

Topic:

6. Do you agree with the following statement: Medieval literature is constantly presenting the
human struggle between our rationality and our animal nature. Discuss in relation to specific
works.

Thesis statement:

The struggle between rationality and animal nature in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is
represented in the internal fight that Sir Gawain goes through when he faces the amorous
temptations of the lady and when he conceals the present of the girdle.

Arguments:

1. Sir Gawain is tempted by the lords lady in the castle. Although she gets to kiss him, he
honorably returns this gifts to the lord.

2. When Sir Gawain receives the girdle, he accepts it, believing that it will protect him from death,
therefore, revealing the animal instinct of survival instead of rationale.

Primary material:

Tolkien, J. R.R. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1975.

Secondary material:

Manning, Stephen. A Psychological Interpretation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Criticism (1964): 165-177. Web. 2 June. 2017.

Dear Kathia: in Friday you should have come to class because that is where I gave the remaining
feedback, as I explained in my email.
However, I send your feedback here.
You are on the right track but outline needs a bit more work.
 Dewulf, Torres 2

Thesis: needs a bit more work. You need to say if you agree or not with the topic.
Careful about format for book titles.
Your thesis needs to be linked to the topic. You don't mention anything about struggle or about
animal nature.
Why is rationality a virtue?
What do you mean by "chivalrous" and "honourable"? You need to be specific.

Arguments should support thesis.

If thesis is modified, arguments should change as well.

Argument 1: what part of the thesis is this explaining? not clear. Here you make reference to the
idea of animal nature but that should alluded to in your thesis.
Argument 2: why is defending the king and being faithful him are examples of rationality? what
do you mean by "rhetoric of rationality"? Careful because Gawain's relation to the king is only a
small part of the text.
Secondary source: fine for essay but incorrect format (italics)

Careful about grammar and spelling, check mistakes.

Best wishes
 Dewulf, Torres 3

Alexandra Dewulf, Kathia Torres

Professor Alejandra Ortiz

British Medieval and Renaissance Literature

23 June 2017

The human struggle between rationality and animal nature represented in Sir Gawain and the

Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a medieval text that introduces the story at Arthurs

court on New Years Eve. While celebrating festivities, the Green Knight, described as man of

green colour, mightier than anyone, and of a very gay aspect, visits the court, claiming that he

has heard about the honourable king Arthur and his knights. Consequently, he proposes a game

to this famous court, that consist of a challenge to the daring men there present. He invites them

to cut hid head of with his own axe, to what none of the present answers, causing the mock of the

Green Knight, who declares that all the tales about the best fellowship that England has seen are

false. After this, king Arthur decides to prove him wrong and accepts the challenge. He faces the

Green Knight and is ready to make the challenge towards him, when Sir Gawain interrupts him,

asking for the king to leave the task so he can take his place. He fulfils the test and decapitates

the Green Knight, but this man stands again and pick up his head. This causes that Sir Gawain

must return to his encounter in a year, which was part of the challenge, then the Green Knight

leaves, commanding him to ask -in his journey to find him- for the Green Chapel.

In this context, the story of Sir Gawain begins, his journey starts a year from the events

with the Green Knight, in Christmas time. His trip was long and difficult, but eventually, asking

for help to the Virgin, he sees a castle in the distance and goes there. The lord of the castle
 Dewulf, Torres 4

welcomes him in an admirable way. He introduces him to his companions, his lady and an older

lady that sits highest in the table. When the lord of the castle offers to Gawain to give him all that

he hunts in exchange of Gawain giving him what he may receive inside the castle, he opens an

opportunity of having advantage over Gawain, since what he really wants, is to test Gawains

honour.

By saying this, the intention is to conceptualize what Gawain is facing when, referring to

the topic selected, he struggles between his rationale and animal nature. Therefore, we agree with

the statement, since the reading demonstrate these two aspects in conflict in the following

situations: first, Sir Gawain is tempted by the lady of the castle; she continuously insinuates to

Gawain, at the beginning it was a simple friendship relationship, but later she intrudes in his

room and lays in his bed when the lord of the castle is absent. These sexual proposals suggest

that Gawain could betrayed his host by being with a lover and falling in the desire of a woman.

Second, the opportunity to survive his aggressors attack, becomes viable for him only when the

lady offers him, as a sign of love, her girdle, which supposedly has the power of protecting, the

one who is wearing it, from death. He hides this present from the lord, because he puts primary,

his sense of survival rather than the supposed conduct behaviour, which would have meant

giving the girdle back to the lord.

As these two situations have place, it is expressed that Sir Gawain must fight, according

to chivalry and honour, against both of forces; and, considering that these forces will be taken in

account as the animal nature of humans, they become shameful actions, that bring only doubts to

the protagonist about himself.

Following the idea of Manning, the protagonist encounters in personal term a well-

established truism, usually doctrinal or moral, and by his personal experience of this truism, he
 Dewulf, Torres 5

verifies the truism for the audience. In other words, the protagonist becomes typically of

mankind, and while the story is personal, it is simultaneously exemplary. So, he found the

traditional guidelines of the court present in the story, for this reason Gawains actions are

interpreted as lessons for the reader.

In contrast to Gawains actions that demonstrate his animal nature, he still possesses

chivalry -towards his king, his host and his court-, which is connected to his rational side.

Chivalry stand for the ethic code of behaviour followed in the court, and deals with terms such as

piety, honour, valour, chastity, and loyalty. Thus, the struggle is presented as his internal fight,

when firstly evading the lady, and secondly, lying to his host.

In the first case, Gawain finds himself in less dominance position, since the woman, Lady

Bercilak, tempts him in a private space -the room and the bed- or with private items -clothes-

which are in literature related to womens power in the story, thus, the role changes.

Simultaneously, sexuality plays part as he resists these temptations due to his chastity. but

when the temptation assumes a personal guise, he falters. His diatribe against women should not

surprise us: his sense of guilt causes him to blame anyone but himself. But the diatribe is heavily

ironic, for his momentary loss of self-control demonstrate exactly the same yielding to the

unconscious which is diatribe deplores. Unconsciousness is related to behaviour and described

as not only dark, but also light, not only bestial, semihuman and demonic, but superhuman,

spiritual, and, divine.

He is tempted in three different occasions, that are narrated accordingly to the three hunts

the lord makes. These three hunting scenes are compared to the three scenes of temptation; the

first two scenes show the lord of the castle hunting a dear and a boar respectively each day.

These occurs in parallel with the scene in which the lords wife visits and interact with Gawain.
 Dewulf, Torres 6

She gets to receive a few kisses from the knight, although nothing major happens. Yet, the third

and last hunt is the hardest one. He is hunting a fox, which is a difficult animal to chase. This

compared to the third scene, between the Lady and Sir Gawain, goes in a similar way since she

finally gets three kisses for Gawain, and also gets to give him the girdle as a gift from her. She

accomplishes this because there was a change in the way she acted, she appealed to win over him

by means of unconsciousness self-preservation.

The second moment in which Gawain fights with rationality and animal nature, is

presented in the third day of hunting/ temptations, when, as said before, the lady tries to captivate

him by giving him the girdle. She accuses that her gift has the power of protecting him from

death, and so, as he was soon to encounter his opponent, he accepted this gift, something that he

did not do with the other gifts she offered him. This creates a contradiction in his morality of

returning what he won inside the castle, because every kiss that he received from the lady, he

gave it back to the lord; on the other hand, he kept the girdle when the lord returned from the

hunting that day. Gawain didnt give the gift of the girdle to Bertilak, thus breaking the

agreement made in a game he was paying with his host.

The acceptance of the girdle, or at least the failure to render it to Bertilak as the days

winnings, seems to be basis of the accusation the lack of Christian faith exhibited by Gawain

in accepting magic talisman, is surely to be rejected.

Dewulf, Torres 7