Clarity, Falsity, and Games in Gawain and the Green Knight Sara Manlowe College

In Gawain and the Green Knight, the Gawain-poet employs a remarkable clarity of language and detailed imagery, giving the reader very precise, glowing pictures of the action. Yet a central tension of the plot is that things are not what they appear – that beneath these glittering images, there lies danger, and uncertainty, tricks that Gawain cannot see unfurling around him. Thus, this seeming clarity of language becomes a part of the trick unfolding throughout the narrative; the level of detail gives the reader the illusion of seeing truly, when in fact this clarity only serves as a gleaming distraction, meant to camouflage the layers of trickery and falsehood seething beneath. A thread of falseness runs throughout the poem: the notion that everything is a game reliant upon this delicate theater of courtesy and chivalry and appearance, and if Gawain were to see clearly or react truly than the game would automatically be lost. Thus, this intricate narrative dance hinges upon Gawain’s ignorance, which allows unknown entities to toy with his fate. He has only his code of chivalry to lead him through, though there is a falseness inherent even in chivalry, as it forces him to act in a way he does not feel. The end of the poem breaks...