Celibacy, Adultery, and Salvation in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight presents an entertaining, well-told, but complex story that has left readers wondering about the tale's meaning. As previously recognized, it relates the story of a possible felix culpa, a fortunate fall, but what sin does Gawain actually commit? He is presented as an ostensibly Christian knight devoted to the Virgin Mary, but also as a man whose pride must be tested so that he can be humbled enough to be prepared for the possibility of becoming a true Christian knight. A test is thus set to simultaneously prove his fidelity to an oath, to the Virgin, and to his own chastity. This article argues that he fails not merely the first two but even, and more profoundly, the third, for Gawain falls into an adultery of the heart by his not entirely pure love for a married lady, the wife of his host, Lord Bertilak, and by his acceptance from her of a purportedly 'magical' green belt that, in the system of courtly love, constituted a love-token signifying his devotion to the lady. The tale is thus a deeply Christian one presenting Gawain's necessary moral failure, a failure that illustrates his human frailty and that prepares him for the grace that gives salvation, though that divine gift would have to be left for another tale, for Gawain does not clearly overcome despair at his failure in this tale.
Abstract
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight presents an entertaining, well-told, but complex story that has left readers wondering about the tale's meaning. As previously recognized, it relates the story of a possible felix culpa, a fortunate fall, but what sin does Gawain actually commit? He is presented as an ostensibly Christian knight devoted to the Virgin Mary, but also as a man whose pride must be tested so that he can be humbled enough to be prepared for the possibility of becoming a true Christian knight. A test is thus set to simultaneously prove his fidelity to an oath, to the Virgin, and to his own chastity. This article argues that he fails not merely the first two but even, and more profoundly, the third, for Gawain falls into an adultery of the heart by his not entirely pure love for a married lady, the wife of his host, Lord Bertilak, and by his acceptance from her of a purportedly 'magical' green belt that, in the system of courtly love, constituted a love-token signifying his devotion to the lady. The tale is thus a deeply Christian one presenting Gawain's necessary moral failure, a failure that illustrates his human frailty and that prepares him for the grace that gives salvation, though that divine gift would have to be left for another tale, for Gawain does not clearly overcome despair at his failure in this tale.
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