Chivalry Under Siege: The Gawain-poet And His Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

Academic researches on"chivalry"related to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are not uncommon.Maurice Keen posits:"it[chivalry]is...a code of values apposite to this order of estate[knights]"(Keen 2);Hearnshaw however,says"chivalry is used in a broader sense to include the whole knights' system of the later Middle Ages,with its peculiar religious,moral and social codes and customs"(Hearnshaw 1-2);Davis maintains that chivalry is"peculiar and often fantastic code of etiquette and morals which was grafted upon feudalism in the eleventh and succeeding centuries"(Davis 106).Obviously,to them the core meaning of chivalry is its indication of the moral,social and religious code of values for medieval knights.However,the present study on chivalry based on literary texts still finds the following inadequacies that need to be further discussed and clarified.First, there has been a tendency that equates chivalry to chivalric virtues,such as,"trouthe","courtesy","humility","prowess",etc.and as this method examines chivalry by its value constituents,it oversimplifies the comprehension of chivalry and overlooks the interrelated medieval power matrix and political interests behind those chivalric virtues.Second,most critics agree with Huizinga's vision of chivalric decadence in the late Middle Ages.It is not a wrong view if we take the whole historical panorama into account,but just drawing an absolute conclusion that chivalry declines in the 14^th century has oversimplified the issue and failed to go a step further to illuminate the contours of the complex existence of"chivalry"besiged by various forces at the end of the 14^th century.The present study agrees with Richard Kaeuper's interpretation of"chivlary":"Its[chivalry's]expression in romance literature is no simple'mirror to society' but an active social force.To read chivalry in romance simply as a set of personal qualities in a knight risks reducing chivalry to a'micro' force.It was,in fact,a'macro' force doing major social work"(99). Though Kaeuper does not further elaborate how chivalry as a"macro force"has done its"major social work",he has transcended the traditional humanistic evaluation of chivalry.To Kaeuper,chivalry reflected in medieval romances is by no means an aggregate of humanistic values that float above realities but an ideology set by medieval hegemonic powers to legitimate and perpetuate their own interests.Consequently,to study chivalry from an ideological perspective by accentuating the power formations behind it and by examining its incandescent engagement with various new forces at the end of the medieval times will definitely facilitate the comprehension of the value system in an objective way,and to a certainty,in a new light.This dissertation offers a textual reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight from an ideological turn.It reduces various"chivalric virtues"to the source of their promulgation—the three dominant feudal powers,namely,the patriarchic,the Christian and the courtly ladies.The critical attention is given to the active ideological shaping function of chivalry on individual knight's consciousness and behaviour and the resistance from various non-dominant ideologies to the containment of such a commanding episteme. It points out that it is the inner conflicts among these three powers and the exterior confrontations with various new forces that lead to the ultimate decadence of chivalry.It also maintains that in correspondence to the disintegration of the value system of chivalry, the form of romance has undergone noticeable modifications.New rudiments have so much challenged and broken through the old pattemized writing of romance that romance writing commences to assume an unsurpassed artistic individuality.Therefore,in both form and spirit Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has subverted the stagnating effect of homogenous thought of chivalric teachings and patternized mode of romance writing and adumbrates the coming of modern fiction.The dissertation is divided into five parts:The first chapter makes clear three dominant social powers that engendered and circulated chivalric ideology—the patriarchic power,the Christian order and the courtly lady's discourse.First,medieval knights were supposed to defend the kingdom in times of war,therefore,a knight should be adept at the art of war—equestrian and fighting skills with lances,swords and shields;besides his martial skills,he should also possess courage, strength,endurance,fidelity to his word and contract,and all in all,his"Trawpe"[loyalty; fealty]to his liege lord.Second,a knight was also expected to observe Christian teachings, to venerate the priesthood and assail infidels.Chivalric virtues,such as,faithfulness, humbleness,chastity and temperance originate from Christian education.Last but not least, courtly ladies played a pivotal role in the education of chivalric knights,from whose teachings chivalric warriors learned to conduct themselves,both courteously in manners and in speech,which made them so different from epic warriors and became the heroes of"courtly love".These three institutions in medieval times worked together to circulate a set of values in their own interests to ensure knights' recognition of their social identities.Sir Gawain as the"flower of chivalry"in King Arthur's court no doubt embraces and internalizes all the chivalric teachings and endeavors to police his behavior to the very requirement of such a value system.The second chapter explicates the threefold inner conflicts of chivalric ideology (Patriarchic vs.Christian,Christian vs.Courtly,Patriarchic vs.Courtly).In medieval romances there are many paradigmatic knights.The common property for these knights is that they are only supposed to obey one particular set of orders.However,in the poem chivalry places a more exacting command on Sir Gawain.As his pentangle shield indicates, he is bound simultaneously by the three dominant powers.In truth,Sir Gawain is a"pentangle"knight who has to balance all the obligations required of a knight.His efforts can't but result in failure because chivalric ideology is such a hybridized concept full of inner oppositional arguments and persuasions that it is impossible for Sir Gawain to locate ultimate coherent meaning in it.Gawain's personal failure is the result of the inner irrelevancies of a twisted chivalric ideology and his failure prefigures the doomed fate of chivalric ideology.The third chapter points out that chivalry decays not only as a result of its inner inconsistencies,but as a result of being"besieged"by various new foreign forces.It is true that in its due course,chivalric ideology became an old fashioned idea in the late 14th century England.In Jameson's terms,it[chivalric ideology]has become a"residual"ideological formation,whereas an"emergent"ideological formation is in the process of establishing its influence to challenge and sabotage the authority of the old ideology.We understand that at any given time there will be a particular dominant ideology in the society and the contesting ideologies that are struggling to establish themselves as well.A good literary text is able to register the contesting voices representing a variety of non-dominant ideological positions.Sir Gawain and the Green Knight gives full play to the fierce competition between different ideologies,therefore,successfully subverts the authority of chivalric ideology.First,the new-emerging concept of the"self"that attaches much importance to the"value of life"agitates the conventional chivalric ideology which claims allegiance and loyalty,be it to one's seigneur,God or courtly lady,over all other considerations;second,the Castle of Hautdesert features an alien voice that emphasizes naturalness,vitality and the spirit of fair exchange.By placing Hautdesert which,in essence,epitomizes the interests of a vibrant middle class along with Camelot,the established central voice is desacralized;third,the antithetical force of a rising feminist consciousness represented by the magician Morgan le Fay starts to destabilize the male-chivalric Arthurian world.Chapter four examines the Gawain-poet's attitude toward chivalry by taking the Gawain-poet's other poems into account and argues that beneath the superficial ambivalence of the authorial attitude the true humanistic sensibilities of the poet.It points out that the author's personal identity of being a poet has transcended his social identity of being a"courtier clerk".Critical attention is given to the ways in which humanistic aspects of the Gawain-poet's poetic energy cut across and press against the dominant ideology. The poet seriously examines the pros and cons of chivalric ideology in his capacity of being an intellectual with social consciousness and a poet who refuses to subordinate his creative imagination to the inherited ideology.The poet's serious examination of the chivalric ideology and his positive attitude toward"value of life"prove the poet's peculiar humanitarian turn.Chapter five is devoted to the discussion of the new developments of romance writing in the late 14^th century.In full compliance with the chivalric decadence[the spirit],the romance genre[the form]has also undergone new changes.Romance writing has broken through the fixed pattern of writing and exhibited before us a new tendency of artistic individuality.The dissertation discuses from the aspects of character-building and plot-arranging about how the basics rudiments of romance have been remolded.Both in content and in form,Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has displayed its special charm of breaking through homogenous thinking and patternized writing.