His respect of her stems from not wanting to betray another man when if it was about respecting women his motivation would be different. ![]() His eventual rejection of the Queen because Gawain was not worried with respecting the queen but rather respecting Sir Bertilak. However, once he realizes if he chose to sleep with the queen he would, “treacherously betray the lord of the castle.” (3.1775) Highlighting this moment illustrates that Gawain is concerned with how this act will change how the KING views him. This is seen through the lines “And pleasure reached its height/Great peril threatened should/ Mary not mind her knight” (1767-69) Here we see Gawain at the precipice of temptation and showed that he was willing to cross the line if some higher power did not control his behaviour. Sir Gawain was willing to break his code up until the moment he thought about how his actions would change how his host viewed him. Take for instance the moment when Gawain is grappling with the choice to sleep with the queen or not. Poems like these were sometimes “written expressly for young noblemen who were being trained for knighthood” (Gershon) so it is particularly important to take note of the ideals it is showing. He does all this without losing his chivalrous title and his own belief that he is free of wrongdoing. Looking at “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” a poem dedicated to illustrating how chivalrous and gallant Sir Gawain is and there are multiple times where he acts disrespectfully toward women. In reality it was a code to be applied to men to keep them from acting on more boorish actions and “at a time of routine military violence with massive civilian casualties, chivalry was an effort to set ground rules for knightly behavior.” (Gershon) The popular opinion was that being chivalrous involved slaying dragons and saving the damsel in distress and it was, at least in a literary sense. To be a great knight you must respect women, not respect women because you are a great knight. Jennifer Goodman Wollack says, “To be a great knight, you ought to have consideration of civilians, for women,” This is an important distinction. The treatment of women was merely a tool for measurement. It was a strictly observed code of conduct for men with which to judge other men’s worth. That is because chivalry is not and never was about respect for women. ![]() A common lamentation of the modern era is the so-called death of chivalry especially regarding respect for women, I however would celebrate its demise.
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