Women, Courtly Love and the Creation Myth in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a great epic written in fourteenth century Europe by the Pearl poet, emphasizes the opposition of Christian love to Courtly love in the 13th century through the dilemma of Sir Gawain, one of the great knights of the Arthurian round table. By examining the women in the poem, Gawain’s dilemma becomes a metaphor for the contrast of these two distinct types of love. The poem looks upon the …

…considered the serpent in the garden, the instigator of the conflict in the story. Because of the story of Eve, women were frequently looked upon in medieval times as cunning, untrustworthy and generally evil. Women in the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are looked upon with the male concept that flesh is evil and will lead to man’s downfall, which is highlighted by the contrast of Courtly love to Christian love.