Wanderlust in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Literature Essay
Thesis and two paragraphs of textual analysis for peer review: Tuesday, 10/30 (This is not the entire draft of the paper, please Kindly upload it on 10/30, it could be rough)
Assignment
Write a paper that makes an argument about wanderlust in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. You may focus on any aspect of wanderlust that we have discussed in class, including nature, adventure, and monsters/others. Choose a specific aspect of the text and make a claim about how it reflects, adds to, or changes the concept of wanderlust as we’ve discussed it, or how wanderlust should shape our understanding of SGGK.
The main source of evidence for your argument should be the text itself - i.e. detailed textual analysis and close readings. The second most important source of evidence should be either Gillian Rudd’s “The Wilderness of Wirral” or Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s “Monster Culture (Seven Theses).” You may also reference 1-2 of the other readings from our syllabus, including Wild, that are relevant to your analysis, but you do not have to do so.
Your paper should have at least one detailed, close reading of a stanza of SGGK.
This should not be solely a description of how and where one can see the concept of wanderlust in the text. Rather, the focus of the paper, and the force that determines its structure, should be your overarching analysis of the text and its overall messages with regard to wanderlust.
As you search for a topic, ask yourself what interested you about SGGK. What questions came up as you read the text, and what topics were brought to mind? What other texts from our syllabus came to mind as you read this medieval romance?
Goals
This paper is meant to give you practice analyzing texts, using textual evidence, and applying critical/theoretical concepts to texts. It is a stepping stone from the summary/response and compare/contrast papers you just wrote to your fourth paper, which will incorporate textual analysis and scholarly sources in more complex ways. You’ll write textual analysis papers (sometimes called literary analysis papers) in several different kinds of courses, and will often need to analyze texts as parts of longer papers.
In addition to working on textual analysis and use of evidence, in this section of the course we’ll also work on thesis statements, clarity, and organization.
The writing process
Once you’ve determined your thesis, figure out what you need to show to prove it. What passages support your argument? What details about the text uphold your thesis? The textual evidence you use should come in multiple forms--not just close readings of select passages, but also reference to narrative events or very brief summary of certain texts or passages. Once you’ve selected your evidence and thesis and begun writing, be aware that your thesis might change. As you engage with the text even more closely during the writing process, you might become aware of nuances that change your argument, and you may well revise your thesis after your first draft.
Resources
As always, remember our class discussions and our in-class analysis of various texts
Paragraphing and Thesis statement slideshows, on Moodle
Chapter 15 of TSIS, “Entering Conversations about Literature”
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Wanderlust in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
In most of the literature of the medieval times, wanderlust was a common feature. This was especially the case where chivalry was involved and individuals needed to show their love and loyalty in different circumstances to different people. The poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an example of a case where this feature is evident. In the poem, the character sir Gawain is determined to prove his loyalty to King Arthur by accepting to challenge the Green Knight on his behalf. As he sets out on his quest, he encounters a series of adventures that finally lead him to achieve his goal but takes his physical and emotional being on a voyage. Generally, this paper examines how Sir Gawain’s encounter with a monster shapes his life. Through the analysis of the poem and a focus on Gawain and the Green Knight monster, the paper proves that encountering and overcoming monster is a blessing rather than a curse. This is evident in the manner Sir Gawain undergoes significant transformation throughout the poem.
Gawain has never revealed his feeling before, and at this stage, nobody can tell whether he is a coward or not. However, on several occasions he has often referred to himself as the weakest of the knights. He offers to face the Green Knights challenge because, he is the weakest and even if he succumbs to the challenge there shall be no loss. "I am the weakest [of your knight], I know, and the dullest-minded, So my death would be the least loss, if truth should be told; Only because you are my uncle am I to be praised, No virtue I know in myself but your blood." (James 354 - 357). Also there are five pentangles that are used to describe his moral code and believes which set him out as a naïve religious paragon. The first set is representative of his five senses which are known to be faultless. The second set is that of his five fingers that are extremely sure and dexterous. The third set stands for the five wounds of Jesus Christ which signify the virtues of faith and the fourth set consists of the five joys that Mary had in Jesus Christ with a picture of Mary painted inside his shield. The last set consists of the virtues of charity, fellowship, generosity, courtesy and purity. This gives a clear picture of an innocent loyal knight who was only dedicated to the service of King Arthur (Shmoop Editorial Team, web).
Part one starts with the Christmas festivities at the King’ court but the feast is yet to begin because the King Arthur is waiting for someone to narrate him an adventurous or story. Unexpected enters the court and offers to challenge King Arthur to behead him. The Green Knight is described as a gigantic character who from the authors description was a monster but also half human.
“From broad neck to buttocks so bulky and thick, And his loins and his legs so long and so great, Half a giant on earth I hold him to be, But believe him no less than the largest of men, And the seemliest in his stature to see, as he rides, For in back and in breast though his body was grim, His waist in its width was worthily small, And formed with every feature in fair accord was he,” (James 136–150).
This is the kind of creature that the weakest of all the knights (Sir Gawain) offered to cut his head but on condition that he meets him one year later to face the same fate. Mackley (n.p) shares in this idea that such a strange creature with monster-like behaviors is bound to evoke fear within humans. Evidently, the ability to withstand such a strange test proves that indeed, humans are capable of taking either good or bad action when faced with a crisis. Courageously and in display of loyalty, Sir Gawain takes up the challenge ion behalf of the king after all the knights stay off from the challenge. He beheads the Green Knight who instead of dying picks up his head and turns to the court reminding Gawain of the contractual terms. “See, Gawain, that you carry out your promise exactly, and search for me truly, sir, until I am found, As you have sworn in the hall in the hearing of these...