At the beginning of the poem, Gawain is idealized. As with any ideal, he is larger than life. His character unfolds through the testimony of witnesses or is implicit in the tests he faces. By the end of the poem, we sense that we have come to know Gawain as he really is. Though still a commendable character, he is somehow more real, more human, more capable of mistakes, - large in life, but not larger than life. However, we also realize that nothing short of perfection is acceptable to him. He aspires to an impossible ideal.

Our first glimpse of Gawain occurs when the Green Knight suddenly appears at Camelot. He arrives with a challenge:

If any in this house such hardihood claims,

Be so bold in his blood, his brain so wild,

As stoutly to strike one stroke for another,

We come to further conclusions about Gawain's character from the description of his armoring when he sets out a year later to find the Green Knight, true to his word despite having been advised to ignore it. We learn that Gawain's shield has a gold pentangle on it. The author tells us that a pentangle is a "token of truth", a sign of a "most courteous knight"- certainly one that is true to his word.

Through the Green Knight's tests of Gawain's character, we see that Gawain is not the perfect knight he strives to be. However, neither we, nor the Green Knight, nor his fellow knights of the Round Table hold Gawain to the standard of perfection to which he holds himself. We are worried for Gawain. We anticipate his almost certain death at the hands of the Green Knight. We understand why he accepts the girdle. We know he remains 'true' until his fear of death causes him, at last, to sabotage his Knight principles. This proves he is human. Yet Gawain sees only that he has been inconsistent in upholding his Knight status, and this means failure to him. We see why Gawain is renowned. Despite succumbing to temptation, he remains a loyal, noble, honest and courteous knight. We feel that he ought to 'lighten up' in terms of his ideals, and accept his 'human-ness'. To be human is to be imperfect, and that has to be 'good-enough'.

On the way to the Green Chapel, Gawain must face yet another test. This time, he passes it easily. His guide offers him a last chance to avoid meeting the

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Approximate Word count = 1010
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)