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.

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the hero sets out
on a journey in which he is forced to make moral choices
that ultimately alter his self-knowledge. Gawain's journey
is the direct result of a challenge offered by the Green
Knight under the guise of a Christmas game. Metaphorically,
his actions are reflected by the pentangle, which although
composed of oppositions, always leads back to itself.
Gawain'3 divided consciousness is further symbolized by
the Virgin-shield, which alludes to caritas, and the magic
girdle, which alludes to cupiditas. Their opposition forms
the basic conflict of the poem: between spirit and flesh.
These symbols initiate two sequences of action wherein
Gawain is tested, fails and is absolved. He returns to
Camelot a new man, wiser for his folly, a true exemplar of
Christianity as symbolized by the pentangle virtues.