Sir Gawain and The Green Knight

Women in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight

In fourtheenth century when the Sir Gawain and The Green Knight was written, this time was dominated for Christian tradition, the power was totally male, and the women had very little perceived power. The paradigm of womens in this era was delicate, beautiful, they was treated with idolatry and reverance. Chivalric code that knights prided themselves on was based on the assumption that women couldn't achieve much for themselves, and therefore men had to achieve it for them.

LADY BERTILAK

Character Analysis

Lady Bertilak is a beautiful woman, your first encounter is when the narrator tell us about her appearence and features. Besides being very beautiful and lovely the narrator continue telling about her kindness, when this lady seems to be very pleasant and courteous, chatting friendly with the knight and feasting with him on spice cakes and wine.

Seductress

On the day her husband goes hunting, however, the lady’s behavior takes a turn toward the... weird. She enters Gawain’s room before he’s even dressed, then playfully "traps" him between the bedclothes, telling him she plans to take advantage of having the knight most renowned for courtesy under roof by whiling away the hours in conversation. This behavior seems suspiciously seductive. When the lady tells Gawain "ye are welcum to my cors" (you are welcome to my body), we know for sure it’s more than pleasurable conversation she’s got in mind (1237). And indeed, Lady Bertilak’s seduction attempts become ever more aggressive. She really goes for it on the third day when she stretches her seductively-attired body out on the bed alongside Gawain’s and scolds him for not making love to her.

Skilled Conversationalist

Yet, Lady Bertilak is more than just a wily temptress: as her interaction with Gawain betrays, she’s also something of a conversational master. She basically forces Gawain into kissing her by telling him that he certainly can’t be the legendary Gawain if he "spends so much time with a lady / Without begging a kiss, to comply with politeness" (1299-1300). With this, she slyly threatens his reputation for courtesy, and his good name, while still managing to be utterly polite. That takes some skills (and some balls!).

Never Trust A Woman?

At the end of Sir Gawain, when our hero learns he’s been tricked by Lady Bertilak, he gives a heartfelt anti-feminist speech about how even the holiest men have been beguiled by women, and how it’s better "to love women and not trust them" (2421). To us, though, this seems kind of unfair. Although it’s true that Lady Bertilak tricks Gawain, she does so in collaboration with two other people – one of them a man! (That would be her husband and Morgan le Fay.) With his anti-feminist speech, though, Gawain is expressing a view of all women as evil seductresses that was common at this time period, catching Lady Bertilak in its net. We can’t undo medieval anti-feminism, but at the very least, with Lady Bertilak we get a female seductress who also happens to be smart and articulate.

MORGAN LE FAY

Character Analysis

When we first meet her, it's in the company of the beautiful Lady Bertilak, against whom the narrator upholds Morgan as a portrait of ugliness. The famous enchantress who learned her arts as the lover of Merlin. Morgan has a mixed reputation in Arthurian tradition. In some legends, she is a benevolent healer, one of nine mystical sisters who cures Arthur's wounds when he is brought to Avalon. In other legends, she is the enemy of Arthur and his court, constantly plotting the downfall of Camelot. Morgan is generally considered a literary survival of a Celtic goddess of death or the underworld, and Bertilak underlines this connection when he calls her Morgan the Goddess. This being a medieval romance and all, the fact that Morgan’s physical appearance is ugly means something about her insides, too. Some feminists have also adopted Morgan as a representation of female power or of a fading form of feminine spirituality supposedly practised by the Celts or earlier peoples. These interpretations draw upon the original portrayal of Morgan as a benevolent figure with extraordinary healing powers.