The Theme Of Sir Gawain In A Midsummer Night's Dream

The Green Knight’s character is somewhat estranged. His strange color and his ability to live without a head undoubtedly differentiates him from the other characters involved, namely, Sir Gawain. However, he plays a very proud and bold, yet rude character, as he charges into King Arthur’s Court and demands any one of the men to a challenge. His brash attitude can be depicted from one of his sayings, which is as follows: “The Knight of the Green Chapel I am known to many so if to find me thou endeavour, thou’lt fail not to do so. Therefore come! Or to be called a craven thou deserves” (J.R.R Tolkien). Even though King Oberon is not immediately shown as a villain and his compassionate side is shown, later on it can be learnt that his malicious
However, their immediate characteristics vary from one another as described earlier. Furthermore, there are various themes that contribute in outlining their traits and can be demonstrated that it makes both villains appear to be somewhat similar after carefully analyzing them. One introductory theme that is plays a significant tie between the story and the poem is the theme of a “quest,” which can be explained by Christopher Booker’s seven basic plots (Mackley). Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream begins as a quest for love as Lysander and Hermia flee from Athens with the hope of marrying one another. But as more of the characters are introduced, the antagonist, King Oberon too endows to the theme of a quest. His quest for revenge on his wife, Queen Titania, takes place because of their dispute and disagreement on her possession of an Indian boy, which leads to the next series of events in the tale to unfold. Whereas in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the poem begins as the Green Knight, who initially plays the role of a proud man but later on is exposed as more of a trickster, challenges the men in Arthur’s Court. This leads to the main story line where Sir Gawain has to leave on a quest to fight for his chivalry as opposed to the Green Knight’s quest for a thrill and challenge. As it can be noticed, the theme of a “quest” plays a key role in outlining and helping the readers
King Oberon exerts trickery through the use of fairy magic. Nicola Bown argues how it is more acceptable to believe in fairies than in ghosts (Mackley). Bown goes on further to say, “The departure of the fairies is a tradition in itself, a genre of lament for the passage of time and the loss of innocence. Fairies always belong to yesterday, because today’s world is corrupt, sophisticated, urbane and disenchanted” (Nicola Bown, 163). King Oberon uses Puck to do various tasks that involve fairy magic. Simply to win the Indian boy away from Queen Titania, he uses magic to cast a spell that leaves her in love with Nick Bottom, who he previously turned into an ass, again with Puck’s help. However in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, even though there is no existence of fairy magic, towards the end of the poem, it can be understood that there was magic involved. The Green Knight tricks Sir Gawain by not telling him about his supernatural abilities. He also uses the magic of Morgan le Faye, a powerful sorceress, to change his identity into the mysterious Green Knight and does not reveal himself as Bertilak of Hautdesert, until almost the very end when Sir Gawain finds him to end the challenge. Both the characters’ uses of magic and tricks prove how deceitful they were, which is another trait that they