Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Masculinity Analysis

Loss of Connection with Nature and Masculinity in The Pursuit of Civilization

In Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, the trials that the Green Knight sets for Gawain are all designed to make Gawain aware of his loss of touch with primal human nature and the natural world. Throughout Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Pearl Poet plays on Man’s disconnection with nature and how disconnection with nature robs one of the skillset most essential for basic survival and decision making. Every one of the trials that Gawain goes through contains an underlying lesson about striving to be pure in character or staying connected to nature. Ultimately, the Pearl Poet seeks to express that through the development of civilization, people lose their connection
with nature—the Poet sees that loss of connection as a threat to primal masculinity. If we consider knighthood to be the standard for masculinity during this time period, we can see Gawain’s knightly character and thus his masculinity, tested when the Green Knight criticizes Arthur’s Court in the dining hall, when Gawain has to survive a treacherous journey to the Green Chapel, and when Gawain and the Green Knight finally meet at the Green Chapel. Through the exchanges between Gawain and the Green Knight, we see the Green Knight as a perfectly masculine representation of nature and Gawain as a valiant, but ultimately less capable being—a symbol of the pitfalls of civilization’s comfort.
The Green Knight first exposes the knights for becoming too used to the comforts of modern civilization when he suddenly bursts into King Arthur’s dining hall. He makes a booming entrance into the hall where Arthur and his knights are having a new-year’s feast and demands to see the leader of their group. The knights all stare in bewilderment at the gilded

green horseman in front of them, too taken aback to respond. The knights’ failure to immediately respond to the challenge that the Green Knight offered shows that the knights have lost their natural fight-or-flight instinct because they are settled in their comfortable place of dwelling—separated from situations that require them to make split second decisions in order to avoid or conquer adversity. In line 280, the Green Knight then calls the men “beardless children,” suggesting that the knights lack the physical aspects of manhood, and they do not possess the traits necessary for ideal masculinity. In calling the knights children, the Green Knight suggests that, like children, the knights are inexperienced, and have not encountered many events that have tested their manhood. The Green Knight then says that he would like to play a game to test the claim that Arthur’s knights are the best. He challenges the knights to send someone forth to chop off his head. He says that after the knight chops his head off, he must travel to the green chapel in order for the Green Knight to chop his head off. One of Arthur’s knights, Sir Gawain, participates in the game and chops the Green Knight’s head off. In accordance to the terms of the game, Sir Gawain sets off on the journey to the green chapel, where the Green Knight will chop Gawain’s head off. Along his journey to the green chapel, Sir Gawain encounters hardships that show him how dependent he has become on the technology and modern comforts of Arthur’s realm and thus how disconnected he has become from the undeveloped world and its ruthless nature. Though he overcomes the beasts he encounters on the journey, he has nightmares every night. His nightmares symbolize his subconscious realization that he has both lost touch with nature and cannot control or work with it. In contrast to Gawain, the Green Knight symbolizes perfect understanding and familiarity with nature. The Pearl Poet most obviously shows that the Green

Knight is “one” with nature by making him almost entirely green—the color of natural life. The Pearl Poet also suggests that the Green Knight keeps an understanding of the civilized world by trimming him in gold. The Green Knight’s gold is a representation of modern culture where goods are traded for gold instead of other natural goods or services. The Green Knight can be interpreted as a perfect example of masculinity and familiarity with nature because he completely understands nature while respecting the advances that humans have made in the pursuit of civilization. Nature nearly overcomes Sir Gawain when he almost freezes to death in the wilderness. As Sir Gawain deteriorates both physically and mentally, and Christmas draws nearer, he prays to God for a place to worship because he can no longer handle the journey--a point which suggests that the Pearl Poet views him as disconnected with nature.
A white castle suddenly appears, and its king, the Green Knight in disguise, invites Gawain to play a game. Over the course of the game, the king travels out and hunts animals, wrangling them into herds and slaughtering them while Gawain lounges in the castle. By having the king go out on these hunts while Gawain stays inside the castle, Pearl Poet could be suggesting that Sir Gawain is not “masculine” enough to participate in such activities and is much more content with living in the cradle of modern comforts. In addition to not participating in the hunts, Sir Gawain jokingly “surrenders” to the knight’s wife while she has him “trapped” on his bed, effectively forfeiting his masculinity to the king’s wife. Pearl Poet also suggests that Sir Gawain is not masculine by associating him with the king's wife instead of surrounding him with masculinity by letting him go out on the hunts with the men of the palace. When the king returns from the first hunt, he gives Sir Gawain some of the meat that they harvested on the hunt, and, in return, Gawain gives the knight the kiss that he won from the king's wife. Historically,

kissing another man in a non-sexual way has been a sign of subordination or surrender, as in kissing a man’s ring or feet. By having Gawain kiss the Green Knight over the course of the three-day game, Pearl Poet further strips Gawain of his masculinity. After the third day of the game, it is time for Gawain to travel to the Green Chapel and accept his fate. When Gawain first sees the Green Chapel, he immediately assumes it is evil, and draws his lance as he calls out to the Green Knight to tell him that he has returned to fulfill the second part of the game. The fact that Gawain assumes that the chapel, an earthen mound with an opening covered in bright green grass, is evil symbolizes his unfamiliarity and fear of the natural world. Inside the chapel, the Green Knight swings the axe on Gawain three times, nicking his neck only once on the third blow. The Green Knight then reveals that he is the master of the palace in which Gawain stayed and that he sent the king’s wife to test Gawain’s character. By having the Green Knight show Gawain mercy, Pearl Poet makes the Green Knight the perfect example of a being whose actions are equally influenced by both nature and civilization. He delivers a blow that draws Sir Gawain’s blood in order to punish him for deviating from his character and accepting the girdle without telling him, yet shows understanding of Gawain's situation by not killing him. The Green Knight then tells Gawain that he is the best of Arthur’s knights and invites him to stay in his beautiful palace to celebrate the new year. Sir Gawain respectfully declines many times and starts to head home to tell the other knights of his journey. Ultimately, The Green Knight conducted the whole trial so that Sir Gawain would return to Arthur’s knights and preach to them the importance of connection with nature and warn them

not to lose their masculinity in the pursuit of civilization and new technology.
Pearl Poet wrote Sir Gawain and The Green Knight as a kind of warning to those who are on the path of discovery. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl Poet means to say that connection with nature, along with an understanding and respect for modern advances, is key in the effort to achieve ideal character. Pearl Poet constructs The Green Knight as an example of pure balance of nature and civilization by adorning him in gold and green, giving him an intimidating physical stature, and allowing him to control nature by herding animals in hunts and having complete control over his horse. While in Arthur’s realm, Sir Gawain has become soft due to lack of adversity. Pearl Poet puts Gawain in situations such as having nightmares in the wilderness and almost freezing to death to expose the fact that Sir Gawain and the other knights have lost their connection with nature—an essential trait of beings of exceptional character—in their efforts to modernize their daily lives. By losing touch with nature, the knights also lose some of their masculinity. By not having to make dire decisions in the untamed wilderness, the knights lose their preparedness for situations that might cost them their lives. Pearl Poet views masculinity as the way one responds in trying situations, and what factors influence the split-second decisions made in these situations. Ideally, one who is a perfect example of masculinity reacts on instinct while utilizing knowledge gained from lessons learned in the modern world. Overall, Pearl Poet conveys the warning not to lose touch with nature in the pursuit of new frontiers to influence readers to reflect on past experiences and natural instincts before making the decisions that will shape modern
society.