The Importance of Green
The color green represents many different things in general, but it is also specifically symbolic in the Pearl Poet's Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. First, the Green Knight is, literally, green. This makes him appear odd or even supernatural. At a deeper level, the green also represents the devil and death, but because green is an ambiguous color, it can also represents nature and life, as the holly is a symbol of nature and of the will to live, as it is a very hardy plant. Apart from the Green Knight, green epitomizes envy and evil as well, themes that are important in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. When the Green Knight makes his first appearance, he is "in guise all of green, [both] the gear and the man" and "in his one hand he had a holly bob" (I. 151, 207). The holly, which grows in the winter, the time where even the hardiest plants won't grow, represents the will to live, longlivity, and in its
simplest form, nature. However, on a darker note, the green knight is described as a "grim man in green" and carried a "Danish (long bladed) ax devised for" killing Gawain, an obvious description of the Grim Reaper or a contemporary equivalent and therefore symbolizing death (III. 2259, 2223). The setting itself is very ominous, with "a most barbarous din", and even Gawain states that "the devil himself [can] be seen / Saying matins at black midnight" here (III. 2200, 2188). Although the Pearl Poet describes the Green Chapel as being full of death, it also has signs of life, for example the chapel itself is overgrown with grass, signifying the presence of nature and life. Green however is related to envy, and on the same note, it is also related to evil. The medieval incarnation of Satan was said to have worn green, and therefore green is linked to evil and wrongdoing. The girdle, an earthly, coveted, and supposedly supernatural ite
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Approximate Word count = 633
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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