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Example research essay topic: Adam And Eve Green Knight - 1,287 words

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... il attends that meeting Should Mary forget her knight. (37: 1765) The signposts of the third day and the mention of Mary alert the reader that Gawain is at a moment of crux. When the coquette sees that all of her advances are refused she tries to get Gawain to accept a page. The green sash is first presented as a love token, which Gawain refuses with the utmost courtesy. She then tries a different tack. For the man who possesses this piece of silk If he bore it on his body, belted about, There is no hand under heaven that could hew him down, For he could not be killed by any craft on earth. (39: 1850) This protection from death, this "pearl for his plight" to come at the Green Chapel is what he accepts from the coquette.

Adam bites the berry. Clearly, it is the contention of this paper that Gawain, in accepting the sash, is mirroring Adam taking the fruit. Yet, what does a green piece of silk have to do with a piece of fruit? Firstly, the sash is green. This color is associated by the author with spring and things that grow. (11: 505) It is the color of the enigmatic knight, who, as we shall see, is very much implicated with earthiness. Secondly, the sash, like the fruit, is given by a woman.

Thirdly, death avoidance is integral to a any thought of the sash or the fruit. When the coquette says "he could not be killed" (above) it is both reflection and inversion of the saying of the serpent, "Ye shall not surely die. " (Gen 3: 4) Fourthly, the sin is temporarily hidden. Gawain, when he receives the embroidered silk, is bidden to "conceal it well." (39: 1860) Likewise, Adam and Eve sew green aprons but conceal themselves. (Gen 3: 7, 8) Finally, both cases are seen as robbery or poaching in God's garden. Gawain, who has covenanted to give over all of his gains to the king (23: 1105 - 10), hides the sash in his chamber. (39: 1875) When Bercilak returns from his fox hunting, Gawain greets him thus, "Never trouble about the terms, since all that I owe here is openly about the terms, since all that I owe here is openly paid. " The king replies, "Marry!" said the other man, "mine is much less, For I have hunted all day and nought have I got But this foul fox pelt, the fiend take the goods! Which but poorly repays those precious things That you have cordially conferred, those kisses three so good. " It is not surprising that as Gawain here commits to his robbery that signposts should lie about; Marry, and the number three.

But, the cross is also here since Gawain replies, "Thank you, by the rood!" Gawain's rudeness will now be revealed. Gawain rides forth from Bercilak's castle and Adam is "sent forth" from Eden into the earth. Gawain too finds himself in a very earthy place. The Green Chapel is described as a "mound" with a hole and "grass in clumps all without." (45: 2175 - 85) As Gawain has come full circle, transition is close at hand with all the signposts. Mary is mentioned (45: 2140), but also eluded to in Gawain's comment on his "five wits." (46: 2190) This harks back to his shield (14: 619), with its star (Solomon's Knot) and its occurred image of the Virgin.

The "Fiend", the Green Knight, who is Bercilak in disguise, gives Gawain three "taps" with his ax. It is notable that this act, along with the giving of the sash renders Gawain Bercilak's vassal by knightly custom. The whole scene is rich with reversals of the Green Knight's visit of the Green Knight's visit to Arthur's castle. Gawain rides in, now to his own beheading, wearing the bright green sash "against the gay red" (43: 2035) mirroring the giants blood "bright on the green" (10: 426). After exposing Gawain's fault Bercilak gives him the sash as a token of remembrance.

Though Gawain compares his fall to woman to Adam's (50: 2415) this is not his final point. He gives the sash a place of honor, hanging from his right shoulder and tied at his left side. (52: 2485) It will serve, not only to lower his pride, (51: 2437) but also to remind him of past "cowardice and coveting. " (52: 2505) Thus it is shown that Gawain's, and perhaps Adam's sin was not merely overcome of life, but also thievery. Be that as it may, it seems that each gleaned a certain wisdom from the experience. Gawain, though convicted of robbery, is allowed to re-enter Arthur's, and by implication, God's court. To eat the fruit is not merely to rob God, but also to gain wisdom.

As Bynum pointed out, "to taste is to know. " (151) Biting the berry is partially, but not totally, evil. There was something left of Gawain that was still worth saving. One wonders if the author of Gawain would agree with Aquinas that; "To starve the body" would be to steal from what it should be and offer God only "stolen goods." To fast into ill-health would destroy one's "dignity" as a person. (239) Thus, the implications of this assessment of Gawain are within the realms of medieval thought as elucidated in Holy Fast. However, they by no means encompass that thought.

Many of Bynum's women saw gluttony rather than robbery as central to Adam's (and Eve's) sin. The omni-present Aquinas examined this notion. (32) Medieval women were taught that food was dangerous, that gluttony was the root cause of other sins. (82, 109) The point that Bynum fails to make is that medieval women's piety can be seen within this context, to be a response to Eve's transgression. In this sense, fasting would be a retreat, in general, from gluttony, and eucharistic piety would be a retreat, in particular, from the fruit. This is not a return to the misogyny which Bynum shunned, but rather, a re-focusing on the fruit and its implications which Bynum neglected.

Bynum's women did not dwell inordinately on any essential weakness of Eve, or of women in general. Perhaps they were familiar with the implication of I Timothy 2: 14 - 15 that Eve was saved. It seems that Eve was equated with physical humanity as often as Mary or the body of Christ. (263) Hildegard treats this same subject with language that makes Christ more of a New Eve than a New Adam. (264) Some have seen the middle ages as a time of hatred for women, and for humanity in general. In that this paper joins with Bynum in rebuttal, it is at least a partial success. However, though it began as an analysis of a piece medieval poetry, it has evolved into a consideration of Adam and Eve and the state of their souls.

Perhaps this calls doubt upon its conclusions. I don't think so. Rather, I think this speaks volumes to the thesis that the middle ages, that phenomena in general, will forever remain more complex than anything we can say about them, This realization has resulted in what Bynum calls "the impoverishment of twentieth century images. " (299, 302) I would not treat it so negatively. We have undone "Solomon's Knot." Yet, the star did not fall from heaven. It still burns in every one of us. Notes 1.

Holy Feast and Holy Fast, Carolyn Walker Bynum, University of California Press, 1987. References are given as; (page number) 2. I used Marie Baroff's verse translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. References are given as; (page number: line number)


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