This epic poem contains
several references to sexist ideologies that were commonly found during that
era. Lady Bertilak, who is an antisexist symbol, strives to convince and show
the readers at the time that such behavior should not be acceptable. Lady
Bertilak had, “The fair hues of her flesh, her face and her hair and her body
and her bearing were beyond praise,” and she, “excelled the queen herself, as
Sir Gawain thought” (943-945). Clearly, she was more beautiful than any other
woman, including Guenevere the queen. The Lady Bertilak is more dangerous than
the queen is because her beauty is superior. Although the queen is supposedly a,
“fair queen without a flaw,” Lady Bertilak’s beauty makes her more desirable to
men (81). Both Guenvere and Lady Bertilak are symbols of sexual temptation.
Lady Bertilak is also the only woman given a voice. However, she has been told
what to say and do by her lord and husband. Thus, Lady Bertilak lacks an
identity. As noted by Geraldine Heng, “The result is the emergence of a
feminine example in the text of identity as plural, heterogeneous, and
provisional, elusively reforming elsewhere just as it might seem most fixedly
locatable” (Heng 502) Geraldine’s quote supports that all the females lack an
identity. Within the poem Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight women are not treated as equals, however, Lady Bersilak is
an antisexist symbol because she, unlike the other woman in the poem, has a
voice and is used as an example of all the things done wrong.
On day one of the story, the first test was given to
Gawain. Lady Bertilak says, “a truce we must make, or I shall bind you in your
bed, of that be assured” and “my body is here at hand, your each wish to
fulfill; your servant to command I am, and shall be still” (1210-1211,
1236-1240). She is clearly being sexual and tempting him to try something
sexual. The lady is testing his character with her making all the moves. The
gender roles have been reversed. The women are supposed to be tame, allowing
the men to be the dominate ones. However, she cannot physically touch him
without permission, demonstrating that Gawain still wields the power. The lady
is in a balancing act that could go badly with one bad move. Elsewhere, her
husband hunts deer. This correlates with the first test of his wife. The deer
is not a dangerous animal and the risk of the lady is not high. The lady tests
his virtue and manhood; she is hunting her prey by tempting him. Gawain says,
“Mary reward you! For in good faith, I find your beneficence noble” (1263).
Mary speaks for him. The lady also uses Mary and it becomes a battle for
Gawain’s love. The ladies temptation proves to be too powerful. He never prays
to Mary while in the castle. This is a
sign that he is losing trust in the opposite sex. Her husband in his twisted
game is using the lady.
The test gets riskier on day two for the lady when she
says, “Thus she tested his true intent, to entice him to sin” (1550). While the
wife is administrating this test, her husband is hunting a boar. The boar is a
dangerous animal and is able to kill many humans if it is not carefully killed.
This animal is used on this day as a symbol to his wife playing the game a
little more dangerously. She is almost tipping the balance almost over the
edge. The boar is a good symbol for this day because Gawain could have been,
“killed” by the lady. This would have the lady doing an act she would most
likely not want to do.
The last test is given on the final day. The lady came in
with, “her bosom all but bare, and her back as well” (1741). This represents men’s
deepest desires. Lady Bersilak is a sex object at this point. She is breaking
all the rules of that time and making the relationship very complicated. The
lady has no way to object at this point if Gawain was tempted. She is forced to
show off her body to this man and it is unknown if she had any objections to
this as well. While this encounter takes place, the husband is hunting a fox.
The fox is considered a sneaky animal. It is appropriate that a fox would be
used as a symbol here because Gawain takes the green girdle. He is being dishonest
and is taking away something of the ladies. He is taking something that does
not belong to him from her and is degrading her even more. By taking it, she
has actually won because she got him to do something that Gawain did not want
to and at that moment, she became the strongest woman in the poem.
Morgan le Fay was an evil mastermind who was a woman
within the play. The reader learns a bit about her when it is quoted that she
wanted “to afflict the fair queen, and frighten her to death” (2460). The
author depicts that a woman in power is only out to do evil. This is supported
by the description when the reader first meets her as an old woman because her
appearance is not described as being beautiful. Because of this, she is passed
over. Her appearance made it so she was not the same as other woman. She only
comes up in the world of the poem so she is restricted as a power figure. Bertilak
de Hautdesert also supported this notion of evil by listing a bunch of women in
power that caused evilness.
If
he does give in to the lady, which means sex with her, how would he handle the
exchange when it became time to give up what he had won to the heavily bearded Bertilak?
Derek Pearsall offers up an idea, “It may be, strictly speaking, that the
conditions of a proposed exchange, in the romance value-economy, must be
capable of fulfillment, otherwise there can be no satisfactory resolution of
the plot” (pearsall). Therefore, it is possible that this is something that
Gawain could not give back. The temptation that the wife is doing in the first
place is wrong and Gawain should never have been in such a situation to start
with. When Bertilak says, “And the wooing of my wife-it was all my scheme,” the
reader learns her husband made her everything (2361). What kind of wife listens
to his husband in this situation or what kind of husband puts his wife in this
situation? The wife has no say in this situation and one has to wonder if the
Gawain did try to have sexual interactions could she have said no? “Could one
but learn to love, and not believe them not” (2421). This quote by Bertilak
makes the reader wonder if one can love someone without trust and the answer is
no. This is meant to show that you have to trust a woman and the only way to do
that is to treat them as an equal.
In
the end of the poem, the Green Knight directly acknowledges how women have been
blamed for man of the world’s problems throughout history. In general, the
whole poem has a sexist feel, because the poem revolves around those
ideologies. The Lady Bertilak does have a greater freedom over the other woman
within this poem. More importantly, Sir Gawain truly makes this an antisexist
poem. Throughout, Sir Gawain gives the lady freedom and his leaving at the end
is a symbol that he does not approve of the sexist acts occurring.
Sources
Heng, Geraldine, May,
1991. “Feminine Knots and the Other Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”. PMLA,
Vol. 106, No. 3, pp. 500-514
Pearsall, Derek, 2011.
“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:An Essay in Enigma”. The Chaucer Review, vol.
46, nos. 1 & 2, 2011 pp 248-258
Borroff, Marie, 2010.
“Sir Gawain And The Green Knight”. A Norton Critical edition.
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