Abstract

The story is scattered around various contracts which challenged Sir Gawain, and it is by these contracts, the character of Sir Gawain is vividly portrayed. By the sign, fulfillment, violation of those big and small contracts, a lively, dramatic character of a typical knight is shown to us and those contracts are worked as tests of Sir Gawain’s royalty and devotion towards chivalry creeds. By looking into those contracts, a picture of Medieval Age is shown to us. There are mainly three major contracts, the contract between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight about the beheading, the contract between Sir Gawain and the king, and the contract between Sir Gawain and the owner of the castle; they serve as the major clue of the story. By these two contracts, there are also other contracts implied in between. In terms of Sir Gawain’s actions towards the Green Knight’s challenge, the Lady Bertilak’s inducement, the attitude towards death, we can all find religious impacts there. Nowadays, we are all facing many contracts consciously or unconsciously. They have much in common with the contracts Sir Gawain has in terms of the challenge against humanity.  

Keywords: contract; chivalry; knight; humanity; character

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

  1.1 Literature Review-1

  1.2 The Creation Background of the Work2

  1.3 The Gist of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight2

2. On the Analysis of Chivalry. 3

  2.1 An Introduction about Chivalry, its Characteristics, Evolution and Development.3

  2.2 Chivalry towards the King, the Religious Beliefs, the Noble Ladies and Their Example Illustrations..4

3. On the Analysis of the Contracts...4

  3.1 The Main Contracts in the Story..5

  3.2 The Main Tests in the Story.5

  3.3  The Religious Influence upon them..6

4. Conclusion.7

  4.1 Its Influence on the Later European Literature7

  4.2 Its Influence on the Spirit of Contract Nowadays8

  4.3 Thoughts about Humanity8

References..9