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Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Literary Analysis

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Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Literary Analysis
Medieval romance novels have several characteristics including a near-perfect hero, supernatural elements, such as magic, an evil enemy, good V.S evil, a quest, damsels in distress, and a test of the hero. I will be focusing on an evil enemy and a near-perfect enemy for this analysis essay. A few classic examples of medieval romance are Beowulf, King Arthur and a main focus on Sir Gawain and the Green knight.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a story about King Arthur’s nephew, Gawain. The story is about a mighty green knight who comes to the round table wanting to play a game. A brave knight will strike the green knight with an axe once after a year the green knight gets to return the strike to whomever strike him. However the Knight must find him and as we learn in the story his boast about how easy it will be to find him is a lie. After searching and combating deadly foes, …show more content…
The green knight then proceeds to laugh at him so he bares his neck one final time and the green knight strikes. However the knight barely cuts his neck, simply saying a strike is a strike. Gawain however shows why he is a near perfect hero, during the game with the king, he was given a magic belt that would prevent death, failing to give the belt to the king as agreed by his wager. This is a great example of a near perfect hero because he does everything right expect for one thing.

Beowulf is another example of an old English story that describes a near perfect hero, supernatural elements, and an evil enemy and so on. The story of Beowulf begins with Hrothgar, king of the Danes, whose mead hall is being terrorized by a monster every night so much so that they close the hall down. After so many years Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, ventures forth on this quest to help. Beowulf slays the evil enemies before returning home and slaying one final enemy before his
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