Between the Lines of Happily Ever After.
Between the Lines of Happily Ever After
Nan Ni
After a long journey of travail and tribulation, the valiant hero returned to the arms of loved ones. Oh, Mr. Unknown Medieval Author, what a predictable ending, how you disappoint the readers of the twenty-first century! Is there is some artful insight that I am missing about this standard romance ending? Indeed, at first glance, the last fit of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight seems to leave our protagonist blissful, unscathed and morally correct once again. However, delving deeper, one finds that the ending of the novel is a series of events and revelations that profoundly changed Gawain.
The conclusion informs the audience much about Sir Gawain's self-perception. Before accepting the "splendid stratagem to escape being slain", it is safe to assume that Gawain thought himself to be remarkably virtuous in his dealings thus far. In fact, even after he "swore outright" that Sir Bertilak should never know of the girdle, he did not seem to feel much guilt. This is because Gawain's confidence in his own morality is so strong that it did not allow him to recognize his own blunders in judgement. It is only after the Green Knight jocularly reprimanded Gawain that he relialized his wrongdoing and "shrank from shame". The Green Knight and the audience can easily forgive Gawain, for after all, his failing was not due to lust, but "for the love of [his] life". To readers, Gawain's character has fallen from being "perfect" to "almost perfect". Nevertheless, in his own eyes, Gawain has suddenly become "faulty and false" and has "found fearful ways". Seeing the impossible expectations Gawain holds himself up to, the reader almost wishes to comfort him as the Green Knight did when he politely said, "In my view you have made amends for your misdemeanors." Yet, it is doubtful that even our condolences could have prevented him for flying into his diatribe against women followed by further self-condemnation. In short, the ending of the story, although revealing a misdeed of Sir Gawain, further reinforces the description of his rectitude because it shows us just how much this "paragon of princes" expects of himself. But Gawain's illusions about his own morality were shattered by the girdle incident - he cannot accept the fact that he is not perfect, and the last pages of the story leaves him a very disappointed man.
