Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

The Hunt and the Temptation

activity	inactivity
outdoor	indoor
noise	quiet
public	private
male	female
attack	defence
practical	romance
moral safety	immoral dangers
acceptance of rules	challenge of rules
stylised	pragmatic

In the poem, before each of the temptation scenes, the narrative focuses on Bertilak and his court’s hunt. However, the narrator points out that these scenes do not take place chronologically, rather the hunt and temptation are occurring simultaneously. The animation obviously has the advantage here, being able not only to alternate between images but also to merge images.

In the animation, the first time the Lady slips into the shadows by leaning against one of the posters of Gawain’s bed, the shadows become the forest where Bertilak is hunting in the dark wood. Just as he is about to claim his deer, the image dissolves back to the Lady and Gawain. In the second scene, the animators have the hunt occurring onscreen in the distance while the Lady in the foreground progresses to Gawain’s bedroom. Identical sounds are heard when the arrow soars to hit the boar and when the Lady blows out the candle in Gawain’s room. The final fox-hunt becomes animated from the still carving of a hunt scene that we see carved in the confessional box that Gawain visits after the Lady’s third visit.

The two narratives, in both printed text and visual medium, are obviously meant to be read as complementary (despite their contrasts listed above).

As noted previously, the significance of the animals at each stage of the hunt narrative is symbolic – the hunting scenes act as metaphors for the temptations.

First scene: gentle	deer	HUNT	Poet provides great detail about the hunt and the carving – two activities that are considered to be skills of ideal courtly perfection.
		TEMPTATION	Gawain employs his skills of courteous speech to please the Lady while remaining loyal to his host, the ideal behaviour expected of a knight.
Second scene: aggressive	boar	HUNT	Bertilak is ruthless in his quest; despite fierce combat he emerges the victor.
		TEMPTATION	Gawain again has ‘an answer for everything’, but comes close to failing the Lady. Secular perfection in courteous speech requires the knight to discuss the subject of love to please the Lady. The Lady claims she came ‘hoping to learn from you about true love. But although you speak a great deal, you say very little’. The Lady is much more aggressive in her attack on his knightly reputation.
Third scene: devious	Fox	HUNT	Bertilak is disappointed that after a whole day of hunting he yields nothing more than a fox, the least esteemed animal that a knight should conquer.
		TEMPTATION	Gawain accepts the girdle, we are told, as a ‘love-token’. In keeping his promise to be discreet in his love service to her (a romance convention) he will break his ‘trouthe’ to Bertilak. In neglecting to exchange his win, Gawain slyly conceals the girdle from his host. Despite all of his endeavours to this point to maintain his reputation, Gawain gains nothing for his chivalric honour. He remains ‘clean’ physically but not spiritually, as he conducts ‘courteous’ speech with the Lady but fails to keep his ‘trouthe’ to his host. On finding Gawain’s fear for his imminent loss of life, the Lady deviously links his fear to the breaking of the bonds in the pentangle.