Although Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is, in essence, a heroic poem about a heroic knight who resists temptation, the Story also features some interesting dialogue about sexuality intertwined within its lines. From King Arthur's "exuberance" (line 86) to the sexual exchanges with the lord near the Green Knight's residence, the poem can be seen as a positive view of homosexuality, something almost unthinkable to the era. To find this endorsement of homosexuality, one must examine the depiction of men in history in relation to women, and take that thread to one of its many logical conclusions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayWomen in the Anglo-Saxon poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, were often considered inferior to men in medieval times . In the poem, women like Guinevere were seen as social constructs of what an ideal woman should be in a male-dominated society. These social constructs were noted early in the poem during a Christmas party at King Arthur's court. The wives of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight alluded to women who were considered objects to a man. Although today's generation now views women as equal to men, these views have not always been expressed this way. The roles of women in the poem unfortunately appear as sexualized objects in the eyes of men, as Guinevere appears to be objectified as an ideal woman through her appearance rather than other human qualities. Making women feel marginalized through silence in a male-dominated society in medieval times. The poem opens with a description of a lavish Christmas party with the legendary Knights of the Round Table; the narrator takes great care to describe the setting and states that Queen Guinevere was "studded with stunning stones and gems beyond her pocket or purse...but no stone eclipsed the quartz of the queen's eyes." queen ". (Lines 78-82) Although this romantic description of Guinevere is breathtaking, it has very little to do with her beauty. In fact, depicting her eyes as quartz, rather than a more appropriate gemstone like emerald or sapphire, gives Guinevere an almost alien and supernatural feeling. We can compare this to the complete description that completely follows it, that of King Arthur. According to the poem, Arthur overflows with "exuberance, being almost childlike in his love of life." (Lines 86-87) King Arthur is described as charming, handsome, and generally a pretty nice guy to be around. This in itself would not be shocking in any way, as Arthur is a mythical hero of British history, but his description being the only description of the character given two full pages into the poem is interesting to say the least. The next major character introduced in the poem is the eponymous Green Knight, and if we thought we were safe from homoerotic connotations since this character is the enemy, we would be sorely mistaken. This character is “a mountain of a man, immeasurably tall/a human carcass from head to hips/so long and thick in his loins and limbs/I should truly judge him as a half-giant.” Ignoring the low-hanging fruit regarding the loins of a rather muscular man we have here, the description of every item of clothing on this knight and his man's good looks spans more than a page. By the time the author stops describing the knight, his description represents only onequarter of the poem written so far. This description makes the knight larger than life, both physically and as the enemy Sir Gawain must face, and also makes him strangely appealing as a character. At this point, he is the most interesting character in the poem, as he is a towering man who seems to appear out of nowhere, or green, as he seems, and basically hijacks the narrative flow to focus solely on him. a significant moment. The knight appears, issues his challenge, and after some encouragement, King Arthur Almost taking on this challenge for himself, Sir Gawain accepts the challenge instead, claiming that he is "the weakest of (Arthur's) warriors and the weakest of mind; the loss of my life would be the least deplored. (Lines 354-355) This distinction between the knight's superhuman nature and the fact that Sir Gawain is portrayed as a modest and heroic knight sets up the conflict of this story. Gawain, of course, cuts off the Green Knight's head, which doesn't seem to bother him too much, and then sits there for the better part of a year, dreading his return blow. After a brief description of the months between the Knight's challenge and Gawain's departure, we see Gawain set off on his own challenge, and at this point we get a physical description of Gawain as he dons his armor, talking about his "thighs thick” (line 579) and how in his armor he “looked fabulous, famous.” (Line 590) Again, in this sequence we see a fascination with the male body, as well as muscularity and masculinity in general. Gawain seems to be presented as the embodiment of masculinity and virtue in his armor, as opposed to the almost monstrously masculine form of the Green Knight. The next message of note is Sir Gawain's scarlet shield. The shield bears a five-pointed star, and the narrator describes the fifth reason for the five points of the star, which also provides the most detail. “The fifth set of five I heard the knight followed/included friendship and brotherhood with his fellows/purity and politeness which impressed at all times/and pity, which surpassed all sharpness.” (Lines 651-654) Friendship and brotherhood with other men seems to be a virtuous thing, and it probably was at the time, but to be able to interpret this fully one must look a little closer . The description of "comrades" probably just means men, as all of the women in this poem are either completely characterless or actively seductive and subversive. As a good and pure knight, Gawain has no right to fall victim to the wiles of femininity. , and must instead seek comfort in the relatively virtuous company of men. The idea that female sexuality is an enemy is intriguing and one that she draws attention to near the end of the poem, as Gawain says to the Green Knight: “That's the way the world is. Adam fell because of one woman/and Solomon because of many, and as for Samson/Delilah, that was his downfall…all were charmed and transformed/by cunning women. (Lines 2416-2426) Gawain obviously condemns female sexuality here as something foreign to him and hostile to his intentions as a knight. Gawain, however, seems to be mostly alone in this heroic mentality, as his fellow knights in Arthur's court are happy to get involved with the women, teasing them and playing games with kisses as a forfeit. Gawain is portrayed as a purer knight due to his complete lack of interest in female sexuality, and as such it can be concluded that his lack of heterosexual drive is replaced by something completely else, which.