Sexuality in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Essay -- Essays Papers

The Complications of Sexuality in Sir Gawain and the viridity sawbuck Gawains travels in Sir Gawain and the unripened Knight suggest a initiation in which home--i.e., Camelot--is normal, while extraneous--the opposing fortress of Hautdesert where Gawain perforce spends his Christmas vacation--is other, characterized by unfamiliarity, dislocation, perversity. And in fact the atmosphere at Hautdesert appears about peculiar, with various ch everyenges to normal versed identity, and with permutations of physical intimacy, or at to the lowest degree the suggestion of such intimacy, t lid atomic number 18, to determine the least, surprising. The typical journey of medieval romanticism juxtaposes a real public where things and people behave according to foreboding with a magical ground in which the usual rules are suspended. harmonise to this paradigm, we might expect that this meter would carry Hautdesert outside the bounds of tradition, stranded by its difference fro m the expectations that govern Camelot and the remainder of the Arthurian world. However, Gawains journey away from Camelot and back is framed by references, in the prototypic and last stanzas, to the journeys into transport of Aeneas and of Brutus, the legendary founder of Britain, that down this apparent encounter. As this paper pass on argue, this framework poses the poems presentation of sexual activity and innerity. Rather than a clear opposition between, say, marital sexuality and everything else, we square up a situation in which potentially adulterous acts and kisses among men are vested with varied--and shifting--values. The poem uses references to the (imagined) British past to complicate any simple take away of the tale it tells in terms of sexual morality or transgression.1 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight opens with a summary of the events direct from the fall of Troy to the disposal of BritainSien e sege and e assaut watz sesed at Troye,e borgh britte ned and brant to brondez and askez,e tulk at e trammes of tresoun er wroghtWatz tried for his tricherie, e trewest on ertheHit watz Ennias e athel, and his highe kynde,at sien depreced prouinces, and patrounes bicomeWelneghe of al e wele in e west iles.Fro riche Romulus to capital of Italy ricchis hym swye,With gret bobbaunce at burghe he biges vpon fyrst,And neuenes pull in his aune nome, as hit now hatTirius to Tuskan and teldes bigynnes,Langaberde in Lumbardie lyft... ...e is once once again surrounded by the familiar faces of Arthurs knights, this come back cannot undo what he has experienced, does not unwrite what the poet has written. The return of the endless knot to the place of its beginning does not deviate the existence of the pattern that has been created. Bertilak reads the ominous and the dissipated in Layamons depiction of the origins of Britain. By locating the story of Gawains flirtation with chick Bertilak within the context of Layamons bill of treason in Troy as well as at Camelot, the Gawain-poet complicates any reading of Camelot and Hautdesert as strange places with opposed valuations. Treason is already and always present at Camelot, named with complicated referent in the first stanza of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight--and this very obscurity points to the barrier of reaching any conclusions adjoin gender or sexuality in the poem. The use of history shows that femininity, masculinity, normative sexuality and transgression are all difficult, perhaps impossible, to define. Gawain, of course, does not read Brut, and is therefore left floundering in reckon of a finality which is unavailable within the world of this poem. Sexuality in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Essay -- Essays PapersThe Complications of Sexuality in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Gawains travels in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight suggest a world in which home--i.e., Camelot--is normal, while away--the opposing castle of Hautdesert w here Gawain perforce spends his Christmas vacation--is other, characterized by unfamiliarity, dislocation, perversity. And in fact the atmosphere at Hautdesert appears somewhat peculiar, with various challenges to normal sexual identity, and with permutations of physical intimacy, or at least the suggestion of such intimacy, that are, to say the least, surprising. The typical journey of medieval romance juxtaposes a real world where things and people behave according to expectation with a magical world in which the usual rules are suspended. According to this paradigm, we might expect that this poem would place Hautdesert outside the bounds of tradition, separated by its difference from the expectations that govern Camelot and the remainder of the Arthurian world. However, Gawains journey away from Camelot and back is framed by references, in the first and last stanzas, to the journeys into exile of Aeneas and of Brutus, the legendary founder of Britain, that complicate this appa rent opposition. As this paper will argue, this framework complicates the poems presentation of gender and sexuality. Rather than a clear opposition between, say, marital sexuality and everything else, we find a situation in which potentially adulterous acts and kisses among men are vested with varied--and shifting--values. The poem uses references to the (imagined) British past to complicate any simple reading of the tale it tells in terms of sexual morality or transgression.1 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight opens with a summary of the events leading from the fall of Troy to the establishment of BritainSien e sege and e assaut watz sesed at Troye,e borgh brittened and brent to brondez and askez,e tulk at e trammes of tresoun er wroghtWatz tried for his tricherie, e trewest on ertheHit watz Ennias e athel, and his highe kynde,at sien depreced prouinces, and patrounes bicomeWelneghe of al e wele in e west iles.Fro riche Romulus to Rome ricchis hym swye,With gret bobbaunce at burgh e he biges vpon fyrst,And neuenes hit his aune nome, as hit now hatTirius to Tuskan and teldes bigynnes,Langaberde in Lumbardie lyft... ...e is once again surrounded by the familiar faces of Arthurs knights, this return cannot undo what he has experienced, does not unwrite what the poet has written. The return of the endless knot to the place of its beginning does not negate the existence of the pattern that has been created. Bertilak reads the ominous and the disruptive in Layamons depiction of the origins of Britain. By locating the story of Gawains flirtation with Lady Bertilak within the context of Layamons chronicle of treason in Troy as well as at Camelot, the Gawain-poet complicates any reading of Camelot and Hautdesert as opposed places with opposed valuations. Treason is already and always present at Camelot, named with obscure referent in the first stanza of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight--and this very obscurity points to the difficulty of reaching any conclusions su rrounding gender or sexuality in the poem. The use of history shows that femininity, masculinity, normative sexuality and transgression are all difficult, perhaps impossible, to define. Gawain, of course, does not read Brut, and is therefore left floundering in search of a finality which is unobtainable within the world of this poem.