Group A 11/4

I found it interesting how we made the comparison table for the loving scene, hunting scene, and fighting scene. While it might not work in pairs of three the exact same way for every book, comparing and contrasting seems to allow for a lot ideas for writing an essay. 

One thing I found particularly interesting was the similarity between the hunting and loving scenes. The deer were an easy catch. When Lady Bertilak first talks with Gawain, it is easy for him deflect her. The boar was a more difficult catch, and Bertilak had to wrestle with it to kill it. Likewise, it was harder for Gawain to avoid Lady Bertilak's advances. He no longer pretended to sleep and Lady Bertilak talks more on love and tries to convince Gawain that it's his duty to perform courtly love. Gawain still deflects her. But the fox is the hardest to catch and it is deceptive. Instead of Lady Bertilak trying to make Gawain sleep with her, she offers the girdle which would allow Gawain to live. Because this is such a deceptive move, preying on his survival instinct, Gawain has no choice in his mind but to accept. It seems like the difficulty of catching the animal is also the difficulty for Gawain to avoid giving into Lady Bertilak's offers. 

And in all three hunting scenarios, Bertilak catches his prey. This suggests Bertilak always wins. Gawain, while able to deflect Lady Bertilak easily--just as Bertilak captures the deer easily--has already given in because he is now friendly with her. In the second loving scene, Gawain falls further for Lady Bertilak. And in the third scene, he takes her girdle. Had he completely shut her down in the beginning, she could not have made so many advances.

What I got out of this is that Bertilak always wins. And that makes me think about how Gawain/the translator connected Bertilak to the devil. If Bertilak always wins, and he is the devil, does this mean sin always beats out the best of people. 

Comments

  1. Jordan SilversmithNovember 4, 2018 at 5:58 PM

    This is a very interesting point on the three scenes. While comparing between nights, I had not thought about the behaviors of the animals, or how that relates to Gawain's behavior with the Lady Bertilak. If Bertilak is connected to the devil, I think that the author is using this to say that the only way to overcome sin is with Christian values. Had Gawain been honest and given back the girdle, he would have had nothing to fear.

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