Sir Gawain Section Four Questions

1) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight can be viewed as a journey from life to death and back to life. Discuss how this works.
The journey from life to death and back to life appears in Gawain's physical journey to the castle. Camelot represents life because it's always full of joy and something is always happening. Gawain is spiritually alive and well there. The castle represents Heaven for Gawain because it is a physical and emotional paradise. It quickly turns to Hell as he loses his faith and becomes everything he once despised. As he emerges from his battle with the Green Knight and realizes his failings, he is spiritually reborn so a new life has begun. This is what I did my essay on, so read that too.

2) Sir Gawain is reborn both physically and spiritually at the end of the book how?
Sir Gawain is physically reborn because he thought he was going to die at the hands of the Green Knight. The Knight never intended to chop off Gawain's head, but Gawain didn't know that, so it was a physical rebirth of sorts. Spiritually, Gawain is reborn because of his new views. He once was pious and perfect, but then succumbed to human failings. Now he realizes that he can't be perfect, but has still rededicated his life to God in the attempt to serve Him well.

3) Whose Point of View are we suppose to exact at the end of the book? Why?
We are supposed to take Sir Gawain's perspective by the end of the story. Throughout the entire book we see Gawain exactly as he sees himself. In the beginning we are shown a humble knight who only wants the best for his king, which is how Gawain is trying to portray himself. This is further evidenced by the battles in the woods that are just mentioned in passing whereas in a story like Beowulf they would be the focus. Gawain doesn't want to make a big deal of it, so we just move on. In the castle, we see a knight trying to maintain his honor but slipping into human failures. At the end, we see a knight who has failed completely and cannot be perfect anymore. This is how Gawain views himself, so we are supposed to be taking his point of view.

4) Is Gawain ruined as a knight or will we see great deeds from him again?
Gawain is definitely ruined as a knight. This is not because of anything he has truly done, because as it is shown in the book his misdeeds are easily forgiven. He is ruined because he believes he is. He has given up trying to be perfect because he believes his failure has stained him forever. Gawain is such an egotistical wimp by the end of the story that I believe he could never pick himself up to be the knight he once was, though it's all his fault.

5) In your opinion who is really in control?
I believe the person who is in control of the story is Morgana. She is the one who has planned this entire adventure, as admitted by Bertilak in the end. It is suggested that Bertilak went along with it for the fun, so he cannot be the one in control, though he is arguably the most physcially powerful. Gawain likes to believe he is in control, but can't be because not only was he not in on the "game", but one who loses his faith so easily can't be in control.