Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – A Test of ChivalryEssay with Outline Loyalty, courage, honor, purity and courtesy are all attributes of a knight who displays chivalry. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is truly a story that tests these attributes. To have a true test of these attributes, there must first be a knight worthy of being tested, meaning that the knight must possess chivalric attributes from the start. Sir Gawain, by his own admission, is not the best knight around. He says "I am the weakest, I know, and the weakest of wits; / and the loss of my life [will be] the least" (Sir Gawain, l. 354-355). Continuing to test a knight who doesn't seem worthy certainly won't accomplish much in the story, nor in establishing a theme. Through the use of symbols, the author of Sir Gawain is able to demonstrate that Gawain possesses the necessary attributes to make him worthy of being tested. He also uses symbols when testing each individual attribute and in revealing where Gawain's guilt lies. The effective use of these symbols allows the author to integrate the evidence of each individual attribute into a central theme, or rather into an overall evidence, the evidence of chivalry. To establish the knight as worthy, the author first shows Gawain's loyalty to his king. The Green Knight challenges everyone in the room to the decapitation game and no one takes him up on it. Arthur, angry at the Green Knight's provocation, is about to accept the challenge himself when Gawain intervenes, saying "would you grant me this grace" (Sir Gawain, l. 343), and takes the ax from Arthur. This is a very convenient way for the author to introduce Gawain and also show Gawain's loyalty to Arthur, but it almost seems too convenient. Here I am... in the center of the paper... life.VI. Gawain's guilt is not actually revealed until he is at the Green Chapel.A. Upon his arrival he hears what is apparently a scythe being sharpened.1. The scythe is a harvesting tool.2. This may be related to the harvest of the land just before the Day of Judgment.B. The test turns out to be the Green Knight's scheme.C. Gawain's real flaw is his desire for self-preservation.VII. Gawain finds himself in many different situations where he must prove that he does, in fact, possess the attributes of a worthy knight. The author uses symbols to place Gawain in these different situations and as a means to demonstrate that he is exemplary.B. Loyalty, courage, honor, purity and courtesy are all components of the term chivalry.C. When the individual tests of these attributes are put together, the result is an overall test: the test of chivalry.