One major theme of honor in these poems is when honor is put over everything including love or even one's own life. Honor over everything can be interpreted as trying to maintain an honorable public image and keeping a good name for one's self. This can be seen by what other things honor goes ahead of. For starters, honor would go ahead of love that may be in the form of marriage or not. If, in fact, love is in the form of marriage th

A third type of honor is seen in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This is the honor of yourself and what one believes in. Gawain believed very much in the church and the pride of being a knight. As a knight he would have to be the model of perfection and also protect the citizens of his land. Maintaining this perfection would be very difficult but Gawain would do anything to maintain it, even give his own life. It seems that Gawain did care what others thought of him but he seemed more concerned with his own personal honor than any other. This personal honor comes down to honoring what Gawain believes in. One of the most important things that Gawain believes in is the church. This is seen in one of Gawain's most desperate times, "Thurgh mony misy and myre, mon al hym one, / Carande for his costes, lest he ne kever schulde / To se the servyse of that syre, that on that self nyght / Of burde was borne, oure baret to quelle."(749). Even though Gawain is freezing and all alone in a strange land he prays to the Lord that he wants to find someplace where he can pray on Christmas. Gawain is clearly more concerned with honoring his Lord of this special day than praying for a nice warm place so he can survive. Honoring his faith like this proves that Gawain put what he believes in before his own life, and one could say that the only reason that Gawain was going through all this trouble is his faith.

Honor and love are very important in each of the three poems. The ways that love is treated in each of the poems is different. In The Franklin's Tale love is second to honor, nothing could make these people give up their good name in the public eye. In Sir Orfeo, love is all that matters and honor doesn't seem to even be a big part in the poem except for at the end when Orfeo tests his steward. "King Orfeo now had proved and knew/ his steward was both loyal and true, / and loved him as duly should"(553). This shows that although the king did put love before honor, he still felt that honor was very important. Orfeo felt that it was important enough to tell people that the king was dead just to see their reactions. In this story it seems as if being honored is more important than having people think that you're an honorable man. Orfeo didn't care what people thought as he left for the forest but on his return the first this he does is not greet his friends, which he hasn't seen in many years, but test there loyalty and honor for him.

Gawain does maintain his word to the Green Knight, which was a very hard thing to do because in Gawain's mind he was ultimately going to meet his death. Gawain was the pinnacle of what it meant to be a knight and not only that, he was the best of King Authur's court which was also very renowned for being the best. The knightly code is the one thing that the Knights of the Round Table and all other knights of that time had to live by. Sir Gawain was co

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1967
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)