Sir Gawain

The audience is introduced to Sir Gawain shortly after the Green Knight. His entrance is famously noted for his tactical self-deprecation that gives King Arthur and the Arthurian Court the space to allow Gawain to play the Green Knight’s game but maintain Arthur’s status—for if Arthur were to look as though he backed down from the game due to fear, his title may be questioned. Gawain’s introduction to the reader is also an androgynous one, for his speech includes both passive and active language:

                        My body, but for your blood, is barren of worth;

                        And for that this folly befits not a king,

                        And it is I that have asked for it, it ought to be mine,

                        And if my claim be not comely let all this court judge (ll.357-60).

Gawain may be discussing a heroic act—taking the challenge from Arthur so that he may not die, for the sake of Camelot—but the way Gawain undermines himself, “And for that this folly befits not a king” (l. 358), lowering himself in status and drawing attention to his shortcomings, is passive, or, in other words, feminine. Referencing his body in relation to man is also very feminine, and, therefore, passive, for his title is not of importance, just his connection to Arthur himself—his relation to a man of great title is what makes him worthy at all: “My body, but for your blood, is barren of worth” (l. 357). The idea that one’s importance or status is tied to their relation or other connection to a man is very passive and feminine—think of how women take a man’s last name in order to show a man’s possession of a woman or how marrying a man of higher status benefitted a woman and her family financially and socially.

Another important note is that Gawain is asking Arthur for permission to take on this quest. The other option would be to demand the task be his, which would be active, but, instead, Gawain is giving the power, in his dynamic with Arthur, to Arthur. Of course, this is normal in a scenario with a king and his men, but that does not change the passivity of asking someone for their permission. Not only is Gawain asking Arthur for permission, he addresses the entire court: “And if my claim be not comely let all this court judge” (l. 360). This inherently places Gawain at a position lower than the entirety of the court, allowing the active role of judgement and placing status or shame upon someone in the hands of the court, giving Gawain a passive role in relation.

            What makes this section active in any sense is Gawain’s capacity for the heroic. He has given himself the opportunity to go on a heroic journey, saving not only the king, but the whole of Camelot. While the words within his speech are doing work to paint Gawain as passive, what he is ultimately setting himself up for is an active journey to preserve the court through sacrifice, which I will expand upon a little later. Because Gawain is presenting both passively and actively in this scene with Arthur and the court, androgyny is helping to characterize and build the plot here as well. The absence of either role, active or passive, in this section would completely change the rest of the poem, for if Gawain had been only active—demanding the quest instead of asking, trying to lift himself up instead of making himself look small—his character would be completely different and so would the rest of the poem. This only active version of Gawain would lead the story down more of a straight-forward hero’s journey—placing more emphasis on the battles and less emphasis on the game created by Morgan le Fay, placing more pressure on a slow change in Gawain, etcetera. The only passive version of Gawain would look more like an underdog archetype. I would like to point out that there is a reading of this poem already that is only an underdog story: Gawain, the least likely of the court to succeed in the task, goes on a long journey to Lord Bertilak’s castle, he is pressured into relations with Lady Bertilak, and he shamefully bears his neck to the Green Knight. To those who come away with said reading, I would say close reading would be a great friend to better textual analysis. Gawain does not truly believe he is the lowest of the court and that is why he should take Arthur’s place on the quest, he actively chooses to be a part of courtly love games, and he courageously finishes the quest.

            Gawain’s ask to the court is only the first of many lines which characterize Gawain as both masculine and feminine, however. Lady Bertilak and Sir Gawain’s encounters carry passive and active connotations: “He [Gawain] claims a comely kiss, and courteously he speaks” (l. 974). Because Gawain is on the receiving end of this encounter, his role, in the late-medieval ages, would be considered passive, for Lady Bertilak is the one who is acting upon Sir Gawain, making Lady Bertilak the active role in this encounter. However, this line specifically is not black and white. The word “claims” indicates action, and, therefore, there is both action and passivity present in this line. This is a great example of androgyny being used to characterize Sir Gawain, for claiming the kiss gives him agency and power, even though he is not carrying out the action. This tells the reader that Gawain, as a person, is not wholly submissive or dominant in his relationship to Lady Bertilak, granting Lady Bertilak more power over Gawain than just her title—this will be delved into a little later.

            One of the larger examples of passivity in Gawain’s quest is when he is fulfilling his journey to play the game with the Green Knight. The poem reads, “He [Gawain] proffered, with good grace, / His bare neck to the blade” (ll. 2255-56). Because Gawain is bearing his neck to the Green Knight, he is showing the ultimate passivity—a willingness to get down on his knee and give over his life to the Green Knight. At the same time, he is actively getting down on his knee to take the blade, which is a courageous or heroic act, one that he begged Arthur’s approval for. Is the heroic, then, being depicted as passive? The heroic may not be passive, for, especially in Sir Gawain’s case, the hero’s journey contains many active choices, but the heroic is being depicted as sacrifice—with both active and passive roles. Sir Gawain actively chooses to take the passive role in order to fulfill his promise and the honor of Camelot.