Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Character Analysis

The term hero can be interpreted in many different ways; furthermore, there are certain traits that details the underlying characteristics of a hero, such as chivalrous, brave, moral, and so forth. When looking at these, it’s not hard to recognize Sir Gawain from the poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” as the embodiment of a true hero. In fact, Joseph Campbell, the author of the hero’s journey monomyth concept, suggest that a hero follows the various stages to complete his or her journey, and according to this Sir Gawain follows the narrative of an archetypal hero.
Joseph Campbell’s comes up with 12 stages that are found universally in literature, fairy tales, movies, and so on. Cristopher Vogler points out Campbell’s steps and portrays the notion in shorter terms; he …show more content…
From the poem, itself, it can be determined that Sir Gawain along with the other knight of the round table chivalrous, loyal, and honorable subjects of king Arthur. These men, the knights, live by a code of honor, so when the Green Knight showed up at their holiday celebration challenging everyone to a beheading game, Gawain saw that King Arthur was about to take the challenge and decided to accept himself instead. This is the first moment that we see a hint of heroism in Sir Gawain. His noble sacrifice, for lack of a better word, carries through the rest of the poem, even when he was face to face with, death, the Green Knight. However, some might suggest that Gawain’s actions are not that of a hero. Focusing on the fact that he took the green girdle, giving into sin and becoming a liar, but being human, wanting to live shouldn’t doesn’t make him any less than he was before. Despite any momentary lack of moral judgement, he dove right into the line of danger when he took the challenge and was able to get through it with his