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Essay / A Study of Misogyny in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight
The words feminism and equality are a hot topic in today's society. The word feminism has acquired an ugly connotation and even sparked a second movement called meninism. Basically, meninism is the response of ignorant misogynists to a valid fault in our society at large. Women are still oppressed every day, some worse than others, but we are shocked by the blatant inequality evident in medieval literature and yet we don't even pay attention when an actress is asked about her dress rather than his career. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, misogyny plays an important role and almost becomes a character in its own right. The culture of oppression of women from that era may seem dead, but rest assured that it is alive and well today, just in a different form. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The wives of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight appear to be treated with respect according to the code of chivalry, but these knights have no not true respect for women as human beings but as another man's property. In today's society, the parallel is where a woman must tell a man she has a boyfriend to refuse his advances, because men respect other men more than the woman's right to take his own decisions. The same goes for the bedroom scenes with Sir Gawain and Lady Bertilak. Gauvain only denies his advances on the principle of his belonging to Bertilak. Gawain further dehumanizes Lady Berilak by comparing her to Guenivere, who is portrayed as nothing more than a trophy for Arthur to show off. He sees them both as objects to be admired and not as real people. Women have been blamed for man's sins since the beginning of the human race, all the way back to Adam and Eve. Everyone likes to place all the blame on Eve, but no one recognizes that she was deceived until she persuaded Adam to taste the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Sir Gawain has a long outburst condemning women and blaming them for the downfall of not only himself, but also many powerful biblical characters. in sorrow, for such was Adam at one stroke, when the world began, and Solomon by many others, and Samson the mighty — Delilah was his undoing, and David afterward was seduced by Bathsheba and endured much pain. distress” (Greenblatt and Abrams). let us emerge in force with the example of Adam and Eve. The serpent deceived Eve just as Morgan Le Fay pulled the strings of Lady Bertilak's puppets. These women then cheated on their respective men, so they weren't completely blameless, but people seem to forget that men share an equal share of responsibility. Sir Gawain then compares himself to Solomon and Sampson. This is where his argument really fractures and we see that his brilliance is caused by rage and wounded pride, not by any logical injustice committed against him. Sampson is a bad example of innocence because he knew all along that he couldn't trust Delilah because she would do what she thought was right for her nation, but somehow , over time, she was reduced to an evil woman who ruined Sampson's life for no reason. . Sir Gawain then compares himself to David. This is absurd because David was almost entirely responsible for his own downfall. He saw Bathsheba bathing on the roof and he pursued her and brought her to his house to have sex with her and a child was conceived. As if that wasn't enough, David then sent..