For Wednesday: Reading the Pearl Poet

Close Reading Questions for

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part I-II (pp.3-30)

Answer TWO of the following (I gave you extra questions since I would normally split Parts I and II into two days—so here is a question banquet for the Labor Day holiday!). 

[Click "Read More" under the picture for questions]

1. How does the poet present the fictional setting of Camelot in the poem?  What kind of world is it, and how might it compare (or contrast) with the famous hall of Heorot in Beowulf?  You might also consider his invocation of Troy at the beginning of the poem…

2. Discuss the description of the Green Knight on pages 6-9 (approx. lines 135-220).  What is significant about the words and images the poet uses to outfit him?  Unlike Grendel, he is quite finely detailed, though he, too, seems to have one foot in the pagan world and one in the Christian… 

3. In the beginning of Part II, after the elaborate section on the changing seasons, Gawain prepares to fulfill his quest with the phrase, “We must engage our fate” (22).  How do you think he defines fate here?  Is it ‘wyrd’?  God’s will?  Or something else?  Consider the opening pages and the rest of the chapter’s events. 

4. Related to our discussions of Beowulf, do you feel this is a more ‘pagan’ or ‘Christian’ poem?  Though written many centuries after Beowulf, the poem still bears many pre-Christian hallmarks, and is said by some critics to be a re-writing of a much older poem (one based in folklore and legend).  Do we “see” this in the poem itself? 

5. Similar to the description of the Green Knight, we now get an elaborate description of Gawain suiting up for battle.  What is the significance of his shield and clothing?  Why does the poet linger over these details?

6. When Gawain meets the lord’s wife, they get on quite well, and entertain each other with “French phrases, and lingering, light douceurs” (41).  Part of the duty of a chivalric knight is to entertain and serve royal ladies.  Do you feel Gawain is merely fulfilled his role in Part II…or does he overstep his bounds?  Clues to support this either way?