The Color Green in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" - Literary Analysis Essay

Introduction

In literature, it is known by writers, authors as well as readers that green as a color is usually used to represent nature, rebirth, fertility, and lust depending on the particular flow of the story. The writer might decide to use the color differently depending on the kind of themes that he or she wants to present to the targeted audience of the story. There are therefore various forms with which symbolism can be used either through objects, colors or even characters in the story to represent themes and bring more understanding and a clear picture in the head of the reader. The main aim of this study is to vividly look into this story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight focusing on the color and the style of symbolism used in the story to represent the nature in the story.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Nature is well known to be very unpredictable and always causes destruction whenever it is involved or in case of any occurrence. The Green Night appears unpredictable when everyone is settled and not expecting anything of such a kind to appear. The night shows up weirdly with a weird color green. It is all green, and everything that is with him is green like the horse, and the axe that he carries is green. A clear symbolic character of nature stated before of being unpredictable continues to reveal itself when the green night appeared to be friendly and proposing a game which is the opposite of what everyone expected (Benson, pg. 300). In the whole, following the appearance of the knight, everyone expected some kind of disturbance which was not the case. The night instead came up with a game and just like nature; the game was unexpected as well as it included cutting ones, head. When the knight's head was cut by Sir Gawain, he picked it up and fixed it again. The picking up of the head and fixing it is a clear symbolism of how nature is indestructible and cannot be controlled by humans. This was as well fascinating to everyone who attended the Christmas party at King Arthur's hall.

One of the true characters of nature is that it is always seasonal for example there is the time of rain, time of sun and time of wind. Just like nature, the Green Knight when proposing the game that when one cuts his head, after one year the person will go for the challenge again and it will be time for the persons' head to be cut. This is a symbolic character of nature which is seasonal. Nature strikes seasonally just like the green knight said that it would do. In literature, the color green, alongside representing nature which is seasonal, it is usually used to represent something seasonal like feelings. The writer, therefore, uses this symbol of the night being seasonal to represent nature and make use of the color as well. Nature is therefore well represented just from the beginning of the story by the righter by showing us its impacts. The green axe as well is also used to represent the destructive character of nature since it was used to cut down the head of the green night. It is therefore clear from the beginning of the story that the writer uses this color to represent nature (Blenkner, pg. 354).

Malarkey, Stoddard and Barre (pg. 16) explain that, when introducing himself, the green knight describes himself as a deadly storm that is seen yearly and therefore creates a big picture in Gawain's head that it is he is very dangerous and that it kills the kings and knights who are very brave and ready to challenge him. Just like floods and heavy rains, the true elements of nature, when heard off, a picture of destruction and defeat against the humans are created. The green knight is therefore used to represent nature following the way it describes himself. He then mysteriously leaves the place releasing the tension, and after that, the people can continue with their party. It is a character of nature to happen within a period and not to prolong for example the rain usually pours for some hours or days then stops, the green knight also came, caused a fascination among the people and after some period it went leaving the people per tab.

The forces of nature are usually felt by humans even in the absence of nature itself. One feels the heat at night for example, and the sun is not present. While traveling to go and meet the green knight, Gawain meets with and is attacked by various wild animals which make him feel the presence of the green knight even when it is not around. The writer, therefore, uses this symbolism as a true representation of nature's character which in this case is the green knight.

Gawain comes across a castle which is green and is described as one that seemingly emerged from the ground. Most of the time, nature and its courses are always original and appears to exist on its own without any generation or manmade efforts (Markman, pg. 572). The castle appearing to be emerging from the ground is a true symbol of nature since just from the name nature it is natural. He never expected it to be there thus unpredictable as well. The way, with which the writer describes the castle including the color, a true picture of nature is drawn in the reader or the target audience's head thus successfully uses the color green to represent nature throughout the story.

Some elements of nature like water, fruits, and animals add value to the life of human beings for instance by either being consumed or producing products that are useful to the lives of humans. The lady at the castle gives Gawain a green belt or girdle which she cheats him that it is a symbol of love. The green girdle belt, however, is what makes a person invincible and adds the value of his life just as discussed before. The writer makes this belt green and gives it the ability to save Gawain thus just as discussed before; it gives it a characteristic of nature which is to add value to the human as it saved the life of Gawain as he was being cut by the green knight (Benson, pg. 309). It is therefore successful that even in this particular instance, the writer makes the significance use of the green color in the novel to represent nature by giving it the characters of replenishing life just as water, an element of nature does to the humans in one way or the other.

It can be said that nature as a whole can be represented differently by wind, rain, animals, water and even sun. As the story was approaching the end, Gawain realized that his friend Bertilak was the green knight when they were fighting and the green knight was supposed to cut off his head (Blenkner, pg. 354). It, therefore, can be clearly said that indeed the green knight represented the nature and that the writer painted it green since it is nature. The fact that it transformed from the green knight to Bertilak confirms that he represents nature which is symbolized by its green color.

The only expectation of humans while confronting nature at its extreme is either to survive or to die. Gawain faces the green knight at the green chapel with the expectations of either to die or to survive. Just like nature, the green knight turns out to be unpredictable once more by not cutting the head at the first and second try. He also reveals himself as Bertilak which Gawain did not expect at all. Animals usually fight in the jungle or any place that is natural and open. The writer uses the color green on the chapel to represent the nature of the jungle with which the two were to encounter their second experience of beheading (Malarkey, Stoddard, and Barre, pg. 15).

Conclusion

The green color therefore from the above discussion is clear that it has been used to represent nature. Either directly or indirectly, the writer uses the colors in several occasions to describe the characters of nature thus the reader can connect the color and what it represents in the story from the beginning to the end where Gawain returns home.

References

Benson, Larry D. "The Meaning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Critical studies of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1970): 295-306.

Blenkner, Louis. "Sin, Psychology, and the Structure of 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.'" Studies in Philology, vol. 74, no. 4, 1997, pp. 354-387.

Malarkey, Stoddard and Toelken, Barre J. "Gawain and the Green Girdle." The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, vol. 63, no. 1, 1964, pp. 14-20.

Markman, Alan M. "The Meaning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (1957): 574-586.