Sir Gawain, The Chivalric Hero

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Sir Gawain, the Chivalric Hero Sir Gawain in the epic poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, fulfills the expectations of a chivalric hero. In literature, he is one of the more common examples used to describe a medieval chivalric hero. He puts others before himself, such as his uncle, King Arthur, and the men of the Round Table. When the Green Knight comes to ask one of them to play the beheading game, Gawain respectfully tells King Arthur and his men that he should be the one to be struck by the Green Knight’s axe, as he felt he was the “least to be lamented” loss of life out of them (Armitage 355). Gawain behaves courteously and how a knight is expected to. Sir Gawain is a chivalric hero because he volunteers to meet the Green Knight and face certain death and because he behaves in the ways a knight was expected to during the time period. Gawain acts courteously towards everyone he encounters. Often times, the words “chivalric” and “gentlemanly” are used as synonyms. In medieval times, knights were expected to follow a code, called the Code of Chivalry. This code included being respectful to women. In Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain proves his gallant ways with his behavior towards the host and his…show more content…
He follows a strict code, one where he is required to act courteously, brave, and selfless, but also must follow the rules of courtly love. He believes his ideals to be the most important thing in life, and is grief-stricken when he believes he has failed. He also is portrayed as how an ideal knight ought to be. He only considered his mission of meeting the Green Knight at the Green Chapel a failure when he jeopardized his ideals by using the green girdle to save his own life, rather than failing to vanquish a monster, in comparison to what a failed mission would be to an epic hero. All these aspects of Sir Gawain make him fitting of the title, a “chivalric
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