Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Analysis

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In the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the plot begins in Camelot and the setting is in King Arthur’s royal castle. Shortly, a green knight rushes into the court and challenges the King. Suddenly, Gawain enters the challenge and cuts off the Green Knight's Head. Oddly enough, he picks up his own head and the challenge continues for Gawain when he must search for the Green Knight at the green chapel. The story carries on along with the series of tests Gawain faces as a man and is finally met with the Green Knight once again. However, a new perspective is mentioned when analyzing Professor Dale B. J Randall’s literary criticism over the poem. Professor Randall is an american educator and critic, whose writings reveal his fascination with literature and…show more content…
He examines Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and theorizes that the Green Knight should be interpreted as satan or a “fiend” as Professor Randall would label. Therefore, the poem is focused on a Christian Knight who is tested by a fiend from hell. The Professor supports his thesis by carefully analyzing the text and other similar texts of the same genre, along with using information from encyclopedias. The point Professor Randall makes is an interesting one and I agree. It is obvious the Green Knight posses a type of magic because of the color of his flesh. Given the description of the Green Knight also contributes to the idea of the character being fiend for example, “His loins and his limbs so long and so huge, that half a troll upon earth I trow that he was, but the largest man alive at least I declare” (Tolkien, Stanza 7). The Green Knight is a massive man like creature however, he is never officially said to be a man. Here, the physical description clearly reveals that the identity of the Green Knight is not from the human world and is from somewhere else,
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