The idea that humans succumb to natural impulses is a literary topic that has been written about for hundreds of years. Authors have often pitted human impulses against a higher code, such as the chivalric code of King Arthur's time. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one such literary work, in which Sir Gawain is confronted with various natural impulses on his journey to fulfill a bet with the Green Knight. Alternating between the use of imagery in both the civilized court and the wild, disordered wilderness, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight parallels the human conflict Gawain faces between the code of chivalry he is sworn to and the natural impulses he feels, such as the survival instinct. This alternating use of imagery is how the moral of the story becomes apparent to the audience. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, images of the civilized court and images of wild, disordered nature are used to parallel Gawain's transition from the pure civilized world of Arthur and the Round Tables into the wild natural world where Gawain is forced to fight for his life and attempt to maintain his chivalric virtues. At the beginning of the poem, the author describes the "noble knights after the day rode in tournaments, jousted valiantly and well, then galloped to the court, sang and danced" (40-44). The purpose of this description is to provide a basis for the public's understanding of chivalric life. From this passage, the audience infers that the knights were noble men who competed for their king and then returned to court to relax and enjoy singing and dancing. After this description of chivalric activities the poem goes on to mention the appearance of the knights and their court. “Guinevere the gay, sitting among them: arranged around that priceless table fringed with silk, with the silk hanging above their heads, and behind them carpets of velvet, embroidered carpets, studded with jewels as rich as a man's ransom emperor” (74-79) . Again, the audience understands the extent of luxury in which the knights live. It is these images of fine silk and jewels that suggest that the court is a civilized place with only high-ranking men within it. The courtly images at the beginning of the poem provide the audience with a baseline for comparison when Gawain ventures into the wilderness. The images present in the first part of the poem are generally of high class, nobility and luxury, suggesting to the audience that the world of King Arthur and his knights is a civilized world. After the festivities of the first part are over, the images of the poem take on a different feeling; one of a cold wilderness and a less structured world. This is first noticed soon after Sir Gawain departs from King Arthur's court. “He found himself facing enemies so cruel and savage that they forced him to fight for his life. He met so many wonders in those hills that it is difficult to tell a tenth of them: dragons attacked him, and sometimes wolves, satyrs and forest trolls, running out of rocks, and bulls, bears and ivory-tusked boars. (716-722). The poem has moved from painting elegant images of silk and jewels to describing the wild and despondent nature in which Gawain quickly finds him. The purpose of this contrast is for the audience to realize that Gawain is no longer in the comforts of a civilized world. A few lines after the initial shock of the wilderness, the poem explains “And the fighting was hard, but the foul winter was worse, so.