Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Theme Essay

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Green Knight is a green horseman on a green horse who in the beginning of the story he looks for the “captain of the crowd.” The Green Knight is strange as he is green and receives many stares from onlookers. The Green Knight in the story shows to be merciful, cunning, and adoring. The Green Knight is a forgiving person as he forgives Sir Gawain, a respected knight, for kissing his wife twice; but the Knight forgives him as he gave Gawain two blows with an axe. He gave two blows with an axe to Gawain on his neck to test what kind of a person he really is. The Knight also showed forgiveness and understanding when he noticed Gawain wore a braided girdle around his neck to protect him from the blow of the axe; moreover, the Knight understood that he “loved [his] own life; the less, then, to blame.” On top of that he gives Gawain the “gold hemmed” girdle. The Green Knight is an adoring character as well, though he seemed uncaring throughout the story since he spoke very little. After the Knight gave Gawain the two blows, it is shown that the Knight cares much about Gawain as he holds him “polished as a pearl, as pure and as bright.” It would be right to hold Gawain as such since he traveled far and showed bravery throughout the story; moreover, if the Knight was uncaring, he wouldn’t
This proves that the Knight is cunning. The Green Knight in no way did he inform Gawain that he wasn’t really going to cut his head off. Gawain was frightened by the fact that his head was going to be cut off. He also planned that he would kiss his wife as “the wooing of [his] wife- it was all [his] scheme.” If the Green Knight wasn’t so cunning he wouldn’t have brought his own wife into this; moreover, if he wasn’t so forgiving or adoring either, he would’ve cut Gawain’s head. The Knight was more than aware that Gawain was using a magic