Bertilak’s wife came in while Gawain was sleeping and he was quite frightened by her abrupt nighttime appearance. As “he slips into slumber, slyly there came the lady” (1182). This intimidation Gawain felt connects to the third scene of the swinging of the Green Knight’s ax. As the Green Knight swung his ax with all his strength, for the first time, Gawain “glanced up aside /As down it [the ax] descended with death-dealing force…his shoulder shrank” (2265-67). Gawain’s fear of dying made him flinch as the ax was coming down. This reaction parallels his feeling of the seduction of the lady on the first day. In both events he feared for his life, because adultery can be punished by death and he shows his fear of death during the ax swing, as well. In the end, Sir Gawain replaced the one kiss he received from the lady for the deer that the Lord killed, to keep with their agreement of exchanging what they each got at the end of the day. The kiss will also be seen three times throughout these three events.
The second day Bertilak hunts a wild boar. Hunting a boar becomes a challenge and not nearly as easy as hunting the deer was. The boar was tough and the arrows “had no power to piece through his hide/…But when their stubborn strokes had stung him at last,/ Then foaming in his frenzy, fiercely he charges” (1456-61). It wasn’t until the boar got tired that Bertilak himself was able to kill him. On the second day in the bedroom, Bertilak’s wife relates to the hunting of the boar because she too was a challenge for Gawain. Her visit to Gawain is more abrupt and ferocious, even more difficult than last time. As the boar made the men fight for a while, Bertilak’s wife also stayed with Gawain for a long time, “thus she tested his temper and tried many a time" (1549). This time because of her persistence she was able to get two kisses, which Gawain exchanged with Bertilak for the boar.
The second ax swing by the Green Knight, Gawain was brave and he didn’t move this time. But the Green Knight didn’t go through with his swing. He told Gawain he was only testing him to be sure he wasn’t going to move again and to “keep your [his] neck bone clear, if this [next] cut allows! (2297). Although Sir Gawain may have been brave this time; he wasn’t struck by the blow of the ax. Connecting to the bedroom, he wasn’t fully tested by Bertilak’s wife either. She is more forward toward Gawain this time, like the aggressive boar. She insists that Gawain is romantically known by all, and that he can’t disappoint her. But again Gawain is able to avoid her, like the second ax hit, by saying that surely she knows more than he does about love. Both Gawain and Bertilak face struggles by themselves and come out successfully in the scenes.
The third day of these three events Bertilak is out hunting a fox. A fox is known for his sly and deceiving abilities and Bertilak’s wife takes on this role of a fox. The craftiness is seen as the hunter hunt the fox who “reverses over rough terrain, or loops back to listen in the lee of a hedge" (1717-8). The wife was involved in all of this trickery as well. She wanted to break down Gawain and discover his weaker side. She was able to break him down by his fear of death. She was only able to receive three kisses; again the repetition of three, but she was also able to give him a belt. She found Gawain’s fear when she told him this if he wore the belt, “he could not be killed by any craft on earth” (1854). The belt was “magical” and anyone who wore it would be saved from death. Gawain has this fear for his life of being beheaded by the Green Knight, just like the fox does; they both look for a way to avoid death. The fox is the hardest out of the animals to hunt because of his use of unexpected moves. Connecting to the bedroom, the wife is more unpredictable to Gawain this time and harder for Gawain to resist her than the previous times. She is also more forceful in her language and clothes the third time. Her language is a more assertive tone as she tells him “kiss me now” (1794), verses her less controlling loving language in the other scenes. She now dresses more revealing and sexual toward Gawain, as well.
When it is time to exchange what he got with Bertilak, Sir Gawain exchanged the kisses for the fox, but states nothing of the belt, and this was where he failed in the Green Knight’s test. Gawain was in fear of Bertilak finding out his own wife was with Gawain and he didn’t want him to assume they had sexual relations. Connecting to the Green Knight’s third swing of the ax; by Gawain not confessing of the belt, it came back to in fact hurt him. When the Green Knight swung, although he did not cut Gawain’s head off, he cut Gawain’s neck so that it bled. After he swung the ax and cut Gawain’s neck, he revealed himself as the host of the castle Gawain stayed at; the “hunter” he kept exchanging things with. He explained the test that he had given to Gawain, and explained the three swings to Gawain as “You kissed my comely wife—each kiss you restored./ For both of these there behooved two feigned blows by right. / True men pay what they owe; /No danger then in sight. /You failed me in the third throw, /So take my tap, sir knight (2351-7). Gawain realized his life was spared and confronted the Green Knight about his wife’s belt he received saying, “I confess, knight, in this place…Most dire in my misdeed” (2385-6). The Green Knight accepts his confession of having the belt and tells him he is free of fault. The Green Knight gives Gawain the belt to keep, as a reminder to him of their encounters, and Gawain leaves to return to King Arthur’s Round Table in Camelot.
These three different events all have three parts within them, linking one to one another. The animals in the hunt represented Bertilak’s wife and how her seduction on Gawin got progressively more intense for him to resist; as the animals got trickier for Bertilak to hunt. Each swing of the ax of the Green Knight, who was actually the man hunting, represented the way Gawain responded to the three seductions by the Green Knight’s wife. The Green Knight acknowledges that although Gawain didn’t exchange the belt like he should have, he also resisted committing adultery with his wife, who was relentless on Gawain. This is why the Green Knight just cut him, instead of beheading him and killing him, like he had said he would a year and a day ago. But because Sir Gawain was for the most part was faithful to Bertilak, he was able to return to Camelot; demonstrating the qualities of bravery and loyalty.
