Courtly Love in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

At first glance, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight seems to be a relatively simple story about the quest of a knight in Arthurian Camelot. Upon further examination, however, it becomes clear that interwoven within the simple plotline is an intricate relationship between men and women with an emphasis on the values of the time. Throughout this work, we are privy to a variety of literal and figurative dichotomies including those between men and women, court values and church values, girdle and pentacle, the Green Knight and Sir Gawain, Guinevere and Morgan de Fay, and the Virgin Mary and Lady Bertilak. During the medieval period, the court and the church were of utmost importance - codes of chivalry in the court were substantial factors in dictating the etiquette and specific behaviors of people - as demonstrated through its literature:
What seems to have happened in medieval literature is this: the pre-courtly love literature presented a fairly accurate portrait of women's role in society. Then, with the advent of courtly love some authors felt the need to conform the role of women in literature to that which was assigned to them by the philosophy of courtly love. (Malcor)

In a sense, the medieval work in question does not seem to draw exclusively from either the pre-courtly or courtly genres in its discussion of the role of women, rather we see a multitude of different women portrayed in clearly contrasting manners.

Most notably, Lady Bertalik becomes a major figure of this work, as well as a symbol of knightly virtues, or lack thereof. In the third part of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the story turns to Sir Gawain and Lady Bertalik; on three successive days, Lady Bertalik meets Sir Gawain in his bedchambers and attempts to seduce him. During the first two days, though tempting, Gawain manages to remain a model of both courtly and religious restraint and behavior; meanwhile, Lady Bertalik extends herself as the aforementioned "fairly accurate portrait of women's role in society." While some women of the time succeeded in being entirely pure, it was not uncommon for damsels to try and seduce men as they traveled about the lands.

The third morning, however, Gawain succumbs to his own fear of death and accepts the "lesser" of two gifts offered by Lady Bertalik on promises that the magical girdle will protect him from all harm. "[The girdle] was wrought of green silk, and gold, only braided by the fingers, and that she offered to the knight, and besought him though it were of little worth that he would take it," while in reality, Lady Bertalik is knowingly tricking the unsuspecting knight (Weston, Part III). In addition, Lady Bertalik's gift is a strong symbol of womanhood and parallels both facets of pre-courtly and courtly literature. Like Lady Bertalik, the girdle is similar to the depiction of pre-courtly realism - in which women maintained their outward appearance, but also had inner, wild sexual desires that were often unleashed - as it is meant to be tied, but then removed to allow for free movement and expression. In slight contrast, the girdle may also illustrate the more courtly and idealistic viewpoint due to its restrictive qualities, which in theory, forces the girdle-clad to appear as a woman. The idea of the girdle enforcing a female façade is lost, however, when Gawain, himself, dons the green article; thereby, excusing the idea that the girdle has any semblance of courtly qualities.

For purposes of this argument - that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight entertains two separate depictions of society through literature, the realistic and the philosophical - it is Guinevere who plays Lady Bertilak's opposite. Though she appears only briefly in this text, her role in courtly society is quite obvious. Seen at the opening feast given by her husband, King Arthur, Guinevere sits regally, but quietly beside her husband. While she expresses some momentary discontent - when Arthur first offers himself up to the Green Knight - it is almost entirely based upon her role as a woman and the wife of the king. In this particular piece of Arthurian literature, Guinevere is defined by specific binaries; she is only what the king is not and she behaves the way that Lady Bertalik does not. Given this role, Guinevere exemplifies the pre-courtly disposition of behavior and remains the passive and silent, but "perfect" queen.

As demonstrated through the actions and general social conduct of Lady Bertalik and Guinevere, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight displays a variety of women in several blatantly contrasting roles. While this does substantiate the suggestion that the behavior of women has been projected differently throughout medieval literature, the work does not visibly fall into either realm of pre-courtly or courtly writing. What this does seem to confirm, however, is the suspicion that this work may truly have been completed over the course of half a century; and possibly, by several different authors, each with different perceptions of the role of women in the medieval era.