![5 points of chivalry code sir gawain and the green knight 5 points of chivalry code sir gawain and the green knight](https://image3.slideserve.com/6695636/sir-gawain10-l.jpg)
Of course in one sense all literary or artistic masterpieces are miracles and occasion for wonder, but above and beyond the pleasure and surprise which come from great achievement and the feeling of perfection, some works create a peculiar sense of intellectual puzzlement as to the author's intention and tone and even on a more prosaic level as to the tie between a work and its milieu: intellectual, artistic, and social. Yet the more one studies Sir Gawain and ponders on its charms and organization the more one begins to wonder and speculate. sidered a relatively uncomplicated, beautifully organized, and masterfully presented obvious poem. No such stimulus comes to the much larger group who enjoy and study Sir Gawain, for, although much has been written on it, it has always been con. Those who are attracted to it are stimulated to probe its significance and to elucidate its mysteries. Piers Plowman, everyone agrees, is a difficult poem and has, at least since the sixteenth century, been recognized as such. The apparent obviousness of its genre and its combination of apparently straight-forward narrative and notable passages of description do not lead one to suspect that complicated problems of intention or meaning are lurking beneath its vivid and attractive poetry. In spite of its language which is admittedly difficult and in spite of certain problems of literary history which beset it, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has never been considered hard to interpret as a work of art. Accordingly, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight can be read as a poem that praises chivalry and knighthood more by way of commenting on their dissipation than through overt affirmation, as the future of the kingdom, its rulers and society, with its faulty Christian knights, is far from bright, given the cracks and flaws that mar its seemingly glossy façade. as reflections of the realities of medieval life.
![5 points of chivalry code sir gawain and the green knight 5 points of chivalry code sir gawain and the green knight](https://narnianfrodocom.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/gawain.png)
This is particularly noticeable when the poem’s symbolism, its hero, and the society he comes from are read against historical context, i.e. Although the poem seemingly praises the strength and purity of chivalry and knighthood, it actually subtly criticizes and comments on their failure when practiced outside the court and in real life.
![5 points of chivalry code sir gawain and the green knight 5 points of chivalry code sir gawain and the green knight](https://image3.slideserve.com/6695636/sir-gawain8-l.jpg)
Medieval English romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is unique not only in its form, content and structure, but also in the poet’s skillful use of conventions that play with the reader’s expectations by introducing elements that make the poem exquisitely ambivalent and place it in the fuzzy area where reality and fiction overlap.