PARALLELS AND POLARITIES: DISCOVERING THE DUALITIES IN "SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT"

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is comprised of hundreds of parallels and polarities which balance, by reflection and contrast, all of its parts: plot structure, tone and style, words and sounds, characterization, settings, symbolism, purpose and meaning. Everywhere one looks, the dualities abound, one part of these pairs serving to illuminate, and at the same time, diminish the opposing part. What results is a tension between the serious and the comic; the poet puts us in a delightful game-like maze of misdirection to teach us that human nature is, at best, a compromise between the antithetical components of spirit and flesh.