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Post by melody on Sept 27, 2015 13:50:00 GMT
In the story, Sir Gawain trades kisses with the beautiful woman. He controls himself not to cross the line with the woman but, Gawain's attitude towards the woman seems mysterious. He traded the kiss with the lord to keep the promise, however, Gawain breaks the treaty by keeping the green girdle which the woman have gave. In the text, it's known that Sir Gawain kept the green girdle because he thought it was the only thing to keep him safe and survive from the green knight's fight.
My question is, is that the only reason that Sir Gawain kept the Green girdle? Can there be any other reasons for Gawain to keep the green girdle for himself?
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Post by Jooyoung on Sept 28, 2015 3:20:15 GMT
I think Sir Gawain took the girdle only in behalf of his own life. Gawain being all flirty with the lady is because it is against chivalric code to shame a lady, therefore it would be considered disrespectful of Gawain to ignore the lady completely. Also, Gawain never crossed the line to commit adultery. Though the two exchanged word and few kisses, the affection was one sided; Gawain never gave her his heart. Therefore, Gawain would not have taken the girdle as token of her love.
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sunnyp
Junior Member
Posts: 92
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Post by sunnyp on Sept 28, 2015 13:33:07 GMT
I didn't think there were other reasons. I was very surprised when Sir Gawain kept the Green girdle be cause I thought thought he was a very courteous man. Like Ms. Boyd said in cluncool, I guess he did that but he can be still courteous because he only did that because he wanted to live and that's human nature because all humans are afraid to die. However, can he really be forgiven because it's human nature? The thing is, greed and desire is human nature too. If he kept the girdle for his greed, would he have been forgiven because that's human nature too? Therefore, I think Sir Gawain had lost his chivalry (can you lose it?) lynig to the lord and not keeping the promise.
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Post by Emily on Sept 29, 2015 0:54:40 GMT
I agree with you that Gawain took the girdle to save his own life from the hands of the Green Knight. I do not think there are any other reasons why Gawain took the girdle; not from greed or even to please the lady. First of all, Gawain was offered by the lady a precious ring which seemed to be worth much more than a girdle, but he rejected that. Next, when the lady first offered the girdle to Gawain, he rejected it, saying that he couldn't accept any gifts. It was only when the lady told Gawain of its magical properties that Gawain finally decided to take the girdle. If the lady had never told him of its magical properties that could save Gawain's life, he would have never taken the girdle due to his code of chivalry.
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Post by andrewcho77 on Oct 2, 2015 12:48:08 GMT
I believe that Gawain took the girdle because of the chivalry code. The chivalry code says to respect the women. It is kind of disrespectful to not take the gift that the women offered it many times. First she offered a ring but Gawain rejected it because it had too much value. When the women was keep on offering, Gawain had to accept at this point because she is going to keep on offering gift until Gawain accepts it. Even today, if someone is constantly offering gifts and you keep on rejecting it but you will accept it because it will get annoying.
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Post by maysamyounis on Oct 3, 2015 12:37:33 GMT
I agree with Andrew , Gawain keep Green girdle because of the chivalry code, I think Sir Gawain keep Girdle to keep him self and woman in safety, also adopt the green girdle represent as heraldic honor of Gawain. there is another reason that Gawain keep girdle green with him , because us know Sir Gawain get love with the Lady Bertilak , also the Bertilak give him this to keep Sir Gawain to remember him all the also sir Gawain he take this and keep because it was mean have mean for Sir Gawain (Green girdle )Gawain, then, the green girdle represents his survival. Since Gawain fails to exchange the girdle with Bertilak as the terms of the men’s agreement dictate .
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Post by lucia on Oct 3, 2015 14:27:19 GMT
I also think that there was only reason Gawain kept the green girdle, survival and fear of death. But I don't think Gawain followed the chivalric code by accepting the green girdle and perhaps failed as a noble knight. Instead, he gave into temptation again (as it happens a lot throughout the story), which is not considered chivalric. The green knight says that the only flaw Gawain had was that he loved his life too much and that he feared death which made him lie to the lord during the game. It wasn't really because of his love for the lady but his fear of death and instincts.
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Post by Tharu on Oct 4, 2015 0:32:23 GMT
I think Gawain took and kept the green girdle to save his own life from death. In the third day, the beautiful lady asked to keep a ring as a memorable gift, but Gawain didn't accept it, because he knew that it was not really useful for him. So i believe if he takes the ring, he would've probably give it back to the host when they were exchanging, because it was just a ring. but about the girdle, Gawain knew that the girdle will protect himself from death, so he was kind of not willing to give it back to the host. And I think it is part of human nature too, because anyone would try to do anything just to protect themselves, so nobody can blame Sir Gawain for cheating on the challenge.
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Post by heesu on Oct 4, 2015 10:48:40 GMT
I think Gawain kept the girdle to save his life. I think he took girdle for himself and safety. I think he was force to take the girdle. He didn't accept the ring and he didn't want to get anything from her, but he was so forceful to take girdle. At the last moment, he couldn't say he wants the ring not the girdle. I think girdle was the sign for Green Knight. The lady was Green Knight's wife, so they had a secret plan to test Gawain. I think Green Knight used wife to test Gawain's honour and trust. He was not that much trustful when he flirting with wife, but his trust was changed after when he met Green Knight. I think there is no big meaning of taking girdle instead of ring.
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Post by Jessica (Yeeun) Kim on Oct 4, 2015 11:46:27 GMT
I think Sir Gawain kept the Green girdle just because he wanted to keep him self and survive from the green knight. As the Green Knight said at the end of story, Sir Gawain kept the green girdle because Sir Gawain was afraid to die. If Sir Gawain loved the beautiful women, Sir Gawain would accept the ring at first, however, he did not accepted. Secondly if Sir Gawain had another reason to keep the green girdle, the the beautiful women would realize it and she would tell her husband.
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Post by ETypeRegymon on Oct 4, 2015 12:39:30 GMT
I also thought he took the girdle to survive, but also, he might have done it to keep Bertilak's wife away from him. She was extremely forceful of giving a gift since Gawain didn't fall into temptation, so he probably didn't imagine her leaving any time soon if he didn't accept any of her gifts. There's a chance that she'll pester him all day since it's the last day before he leaves for the Green Knight, so he just took one so he won't be bothered anymore.
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Post by chris9280 on Oct 4, 2015 13:29:51 GMT
From the distance past, lovers give and take their precious possession to each other as a good luck charm as well as hoping to remember each other. At the time, the lady had nothing else to give Sir Gawain except for her girdle. The girdle happened to be a green and Sir Gawain thought maybe it would protect him against the Green Knight. Perhaps he wanted to hold on to anything that might give him an extra safety against the Green Knight.
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Post by mohahaha on Oct 15, 2015 15:30:57 GMT
As a knight, Gawain had to focus his objective, so the women came and mocked flirtatiously him that all his work, traveling across the lands,and here Gawain cannot sweet talk to the lady. The reason for Gawain to keep the green girdle other than to show love, is to as that it breaks the code of chivalry as its "breaking the rule" that you disliked and not accepted of what she offered.
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