While Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is, for the most part, a heroic poem about a heroic knight who resists temptation, the story also has a interesting dialogue about sexuality woven into its lines. From King Arthur's “exuberance” (line 86) to the sexual exchanges with the lord near the Green Knight's residence, the poem can be assumed to have a positive view of homosexuality, something almost unthinkable at the time. To find this endorsement of homosexuality, one must look at history's portrayal of men in comparison to women, and bring that thread to one of its many logical conclusions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Women in the Anglo-Saxon poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, were often seen as inferior to men in a medieval setting. In the poem, women like Guinevere were seen as social constructs of what an ideal woman should be in a male-dominated society. These social constructs were noted early in the poem during a Christmas feast in King Arthur's court. The women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight offered an allusion to women being seen as objects to a man. Although today's generation views women as equal to men, these views have not always been expressed this way. Women's roles in the poem unfortunately appear as sexualized objects to men as Guinevere seems to be objectified as an ideal woman through her appearance instead of other human qualities. Making women feel marginalized through silence in a male-dominated society during the Middle Ages. The poem opens with the description of a sumptuous Christmas party with the legendary Knights of the Round Table; the narrator takes great pains to describe the setting and states that Queen Guinevere was "studded with wonderful stones and gems beyond her pockets or in her purse...but no stone surpassed the quartz of the queen's eyes." (Lines 78-82) While this romantic description of Guinevere is breathtaking to think about, it has very little to do with her beauty. In fact, portraying her eyes as quartz, rather than a more suitable gem like emerald or sapphire, gives Guinevere an almost alien and otherworldly feel. We can compare it to the complete description that follows in full, that of King Arthur. According to the poem, Arthur is full of exuberance, being almost boyish in his love of life. (Lines 86-87) King Arthur is described as charming, handsome, and generally a pretty nice guy to be around. This in itself would not be shocking at all, given that Arthur is a mythical hero in British history, but his description, being the only character description given over two full pages in the poem, is interesting to say the least. The next major character introduced in the poem is the eponymous Green Knight, and if anyone thought they were safe from homoerotic overtones because this character is the enemy, they would be sadly mistaken. This character is “a mountain of a man, immeasurably tall/a human mass from head to hips/so long and thick in loins and limbs/I would sincerely judge him to be a half-giant.” Ignoring the low hanging fruit on the loins of a rather muscular man we have here, the description of every single garment of this knight and how handsome he is of a man goes on for over a page. When the author stops describing the knight, his description is a quarter of the poem written so far. This description makes the knight larger than life, both physically and as an enemy for Sir Gawain to face, and it also makes him strangely fascinating ascharacter. At this point he is the most interesting character in the poem, as he is a hulking man who seems to appear suddenly, or out of nowhere, it seems, and basically hijacks the narrative flow to focus on him the whole time. a significant time. The Knight introduces himself, issues his challenge and, after some prodding, and King Arthur Almost accepting this challenge for himself, Sir Gawain instead accepts the challenge, saying that he is “the weakest of (Arthur's) warriors and the weakest of spirit ; the loss of my life would be the thing least regretted.” (Lines 354-355) This distinction between the superhuman nature of the knight and the portrayal of Sir Gawain as a heroic and modest knight creates the conflict of this story. Gawain, of course, cuts off the Green Knight's head, which doesn't seem to faze him all that much, and then sits for much of the year fearing his return blow. After a brief description of the months between the Knight's challenge and Gawain's departure, we see Gawain departing on his challenge, and at this point we get a physical description of Gawain as he puts on his armor, speaking of his "thick thighs" (line 579 ) and how in his the armor "looked fabulous, famous". (Line 590) Also in this sequence we see a fascination with the male body, musculature and masculinity in general. Gawain appears to be shown as the epitome of masculinity and virtue in his armor, contrasting with the almost monstrously masculine form of the Green Knight. The next noteworthy message is Sir Gawain's scarlet shield. The shield features a five-pointed star, and the narrator describes the fifth five-pointed motif on the star, which is also the one given in most detail. “The fifth set of five that I heard from the knight followed/included friendship and brotherhood with one's fellow men/purity and kindness that impressed at every moment/and piety, that surpassed all acuteness.” (Lines 651-654) Friendship and brotherhood with one's fellow men seems like a virtuous thing, and probably was at the time, but to fully interpret it, one must look a little closer. The description of "fellow men" probably means only men, as all the women in this poem are either completely characterless or actively seductive and subversive. As a good and pure knight, Gawain cannot fall victim to the wiles of femininity. , and must instead seek solace in the relatively virtuous company of men. The idea of ​​female sexuality being an enemy is intriguing and attention-grabbing towards the end of the poem, as Gawain tells the Green Knight: “It is the way of the world. Adam fell because of one woman/and Solomon because of several women, and as for Samson/Delilah it was his fall… all were enchanted and changed/by the cunning woman.” (Lines 2416-2426) Gawain obviously condemns female sexuality here as something foreign to him and hostile to his intentions as a knight. Gawain, however, appears to be mostly alone in this heroic mindset, as his fellow knights in Arthur's court are happy to be involved with women, teasing them and playing with kisses as a forfeit. Gawain is portrayed as a purer knight due to his complete lack of interest in female sexuality, and as such the conclusion can be drawn that his lack of heterosexual drive is replaced by something else, which in the author's eyes is far superior to the heterosexuality of the other knight. To support this somewhat scandalous statement, let's go to a later point in the poem, where Sir Gawain is welcomed into the castle of the lord, the Green Knight, by a doorman who not only welcomes him enthusiastically, but is also described as one of many who had “knelt in the frost before the knight/to welcome.