Chivalry: You're Doing It Wrong (Series, Part 7)

Part 7: Damn Those Women!

Warning: Spoilers

While we’re on the subject of chastity, let’s talk about women.  This isn’t exactly on the subject, but it’s close enough that it makes an acceptable segue.

Basically, the portrayal of women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is confusing.  They are portrayed as powerful and powerless, meek and grasping, lascivious and naïve, stupid and cunning.  They are temptresses, possessions, and innocents.  Yet, whether women are being portrayed as beautiful creatures, helpless children, or spawn of Satan, chivalry seems to condone the viewpoint. 

The ambivalence of the medieval view of women is a weak point of chivalry, and Lady Bertilak uses it to get what she wants.  She pretends to be stupid to hide her cunning, pretends to be naïve in order to proclaim her lust, uses her weakness and femininity to gain power over Sir Gawain, and uses his chivalry toward her to get him to do what she wants. 

This is portrayed as a bad thing, and Sir Gawain is quick to bemoan how the wiles of women have tricked him when he fails the Beheading game, while Lord Bertilak looks on, despite the contrasting chivalric views that women should be respected and protected.

I, however, found it a breath of fresh air to finally have a strong independent woman in a medieval classic.  As you can imagine, I was severely disappointed when I found out that Lord Bertilak was pulling the strings the entire time, but Lady Bertilak was still very strong and competent for a woman of her time.  She uses whatever means are in her power, from medieval attitudes to her sexuality, to get Sir Gawain to do what she wants.

All of the ways that women are portrayed in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight link up to form a commentary on how women are seen in medieval society.  Like the virtues of the pentangle, the mixed attitudes on women in the text serve as a critique of the hypocrisy of medieval society.