Sir Gawain, Fit Three, Questions Two-Five

2. I believe that Gawain is acting slightly selfishly during this section. He does everything that he does for personal gain. Even when it is under the guise of not dishonoring his hosts, he chooses to bring honor to them because it will hurt him if he doesn't. I do respect him at the beginning though because he is attempting to hold up the code of chivalry and be honorable. As he fails more and more each day, it makes him more relatable. I believe the author was attempting to humanize Gawain in this section by showing us that he is not always perfect. There is even the suggestion in the text that, though he is trapped, he begins to enjoy his encounters with the lady. In this humanization of a before unattainable perfection, I understand Gawain better as a person, because he has failings too. I can relate to that. However, I don't respect him as much. While it is not fair to hold anyone to a standard of perfection, it was disappointing as a reader to see Gawain fail so miserably.

3. The climax of the book is when the Green Knight makes his third attempt to behead Gawain. This is the climax because many of our questions are answered. Gawain puts all of his faith in the girdle and utters not so much as a prayer to God. We see that he has completely lost his faith in God and is trusting magic to save his life. We also find out that the Green Knight never meant to behead Gawain in the first place. We discover that Gawain is not going to die. This is also the point in the story where we see a different side to Gawain's personality. The combative, competitive side, and the self-centered one. He cannot stop focusing on his own failure, rather than the fact that he's alive.

4. The girdle symbolizes Gawain's failure and obsession with being perfect. Gawain takes the girdle because he believes it will save his life, losing his faith in God. There is the suggestion though that Gawain does not realize this until later in the story. Everyone else sees him as a hero for facing down this challenge, but everything Gawain sees about the story is marred with his guilt. The other characters have seen this as a game, saying that Gawain's failure doesn't matter in the scheme of things. This only makes Gawain more despondent because nobody understands how he's feeling. Every time he sees a person wearing a green girdle to celebrate him, he is just getting his guilt and failure pushed back on him.

5. "But the Lord will save from harm all those who serve him well" (lines 2138-2139)
Gawain says this when the attendant is offering to keep his secret if he runs from the Green Chapel. Gawain refuses on the basis that God will save him because he's been a loyal servant. This is dramatic irony because we already know that Gawain has lost his faith in God by taking the girdle, Gawain just doesn't realize this. There is the suggestion that Gawain still believes he's been good in his faith. Perhaps he is in denial about his failure and doesn't want to come to terms with it yet and recognize that he can't be perfect.

"Before God, these are the finest beasts I've seen"
It would appear that this sentence has no important meaning, but when taken in context with the story it leads the reader to believe that maybe the characters are trivializing God. Many characters begin their statements with "By Heaven" or "Mother of God" or "Before God". This suggests that they are using God as a means to validate their statements. As though their word would not be taken at face value without bringing God into the mix. The characters, especially Gawain as he does this a lot, feel the need to use their religion and God specifically in everyday conversation. Perhaps to bring validity to what they're saying, or perhaps to remind themselves of what they're supposed to be thinking about. All of these statements from Gawain, especially after he has lost his faith, become ironic in nature. Then again, maybe I'm just crazy and none of this is right...