Sir Gawain Essays                     Back to Assignments
English III CP
Mr. Steen

Choose one of the following questions and answer it in your best form. Consider with each question the audience that it asks you to address, and, with this assignment, put a clear statement of your thesis at the top, before writing the essay. This thesis should, somewhere, be restated in the first paragraph, even if you don't use the same words to
say it.

A. Sir Gawain is praised as the epitome of chivalrous knighthood, and in most of the poem he appears to be just that. But at the end he is hugely dissatisfied with himself, and cannot be convinced that he passed the test. Argue that he is or is not the perfect embodiment of all knightly ideals, that he is or is not being too hard on himself. Your audience is a Sir Gawain fan club.

B. The Green Knight is a strangely mysterious character. He is at once magical and realistic, arrogant and humble, ferocious and forgiving.  It has been said that he might be Satan, or Death, or simply a savage medieval monster that's been reworked into a chivalric form. Using the best evidence you can gather from the poem, convince your audience that your interpretation of what he really is is correct. Your audience is the knights in his own castle who know nothing about him other than the generous host and skillful hunter.

C. Gawain and the Green Knight gives a wonderful picture of medieval court and sporting life. Clothing, food, manners, housing, sport, and entertainment are all covered. Write an essay in which you use the poem to explain all these things to a modern 21^st century  teenager who knows of nothing further in the past than the fact that people used to listen to 8-track tapes.

D. There are parallels between the behavior of King Arthur and the behavior of the Green Knight, and there are also parallels between the three hunts out in the field and the three back at the castle. Write an essay in which you explain how these two different stories complement one another and make the poem richer, more exciting, and more satisfying to read. Your audience is a simple housewife/househusband who seldom reads anything more complicated than a Harlequin Romance or a Sports Illustrated swimsuit Issue.

E. At the end of the story, we find that this has all been an elaborate hoax and test to see if anyone from Arthur's court was really chivalrous. The contest, the seduction, everything, was one big sham. Now Arthur has brought a lawsuit against the Green Knight for damages to Gawain, for loss of income, for calling Gawain out on false pretenses, and for pain and suffering. You must choose to be either Arthur's attorney or the Green Knight's attorney and present your closing argument to a jury, arguing that your client was in the right and must prevail in this case.