Abstract

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a masterpiece of middle English period, totally 2529 lines, created in late 14th-century and the author is unknown, it is one of the best known Arthurian stories. The work reflects the ideal of Chivalry with extraordinary artistic expression, is the essence of the feudal aristocracy culture in the Middle Ages. It’s also the main reference materials of my writing. This paper analyses the chivalry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and legendary stories about King Arthur, simply expounds several important features of chivalry and point out its influences on the whole western culture. Chivalry is the soul of knights, it contains loyalty, courage, romance and so on, and those great qualities have been amply mentioned in the reference materials. Also chivalry has great effects on the code of conduct in western society, the concepts of “gentlemanship complex” and “Lady First” are all based on chivalry. Besides, from all the artistic works about King Arthur such as movies, novels, poems and so on we can see that Chivalry is extremely popular in both middle ages and nowadays. To find the reason, this paper analyses some well-known works about King Arthur and discusses the key factors of Chivalry in these works. Finally, this paper draws a conclusion that people are so interested in Chivalry because they dreams to adventure and romance and they can only achieve their fantasy in the stories of knights. All in all, Chivalry is a theme which is very popular for a long time, this concept and spirit influenced millions of all around the world. In my opinion, it is necessary for us to understand the spirit of Chivalry. Because the admirable qualities of Chivalry are still meaningful.

Key Words: Chivalry; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; King Arthur; Loyalty; Romance

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1  Introduction-1

2  Courage-4

2.1 The Courage and Honesty of Sir Gawain-4

2.2 The Courage of King Arthur and his Knights-5

2.3 Rationality of the Courage-6

3.  Romance-7

3.1 The Ambiguous Love Story of Sir Gawain-7

3.2 The Tragic Love Story of King Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot-8

3.3 The Lady of Shalott-9

3.4 The Influences of Romance in Chivalry on Western Society-10

4  Loyalty-11

4.1 The Contradiction of Sir Gawain: Loyal or Not-11

4.2 The Contradiction of Lancelot: Loyal to Lord or Love-12

4.3 Loyalty or Blind Devotion-13

5  Conclusion-15

Bibliography-16

Acknowledgments-16