22 May, 2014

Morality over Chivalry in SGGK


SGGK, through the choices of Sir Gawain, demonstrates the difficulty of being both moral and chivalrous at the same time. As the wife of the King, who has provided him hospitality in his castle, seduces Gawain each morning he arises, Gawain chooses to keep to his moral principles rather than submit to his desires by being chivalrous. It would seem that morality supersedes chivalry.

However, it could be that morality only supersedes chivalry in this case because the chivalrous action is combined with the decision to submit to immoral pleasure. In other words, Gawain could be rejecting the queen's advances due to the knowledge that he would be controlled by his own immoral desire.

Gawain chooses to be chivalrous over wholly moral in the decision of allowing the interactions with the queen to go as far as they did, even to the point of kissing. He always had the option of "unchivalrously" of not allowing the queen's presence to avoid any direction of immoral conduct, but Gawain chooses to interact with her. Perhaps he did this because he knew that he could control his desire and still act chivalrously, without crossing any moral boundaries all at the same time.

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