What is Sir Gawain’s true personality like? Sir Gawain has two sides to his personality. The first side is the way in which everyone else expects him to be. Sir Gawain has a certain honor to uphold as the noblest knight of the Round Table. He is expected to be chivalrous by being courageous, loyal, honest, courteous, the best at everything he attempts, and have a strong will to resist temptations of evil nature. Everyone believes Sir Gawain to be the perfect epitome of a knight.
The way that Sir Gawain shows his courage and nobility is by accepting the challenge given to the knights of the Round Table by the Green Knight. Gawain accepts this challenge to release King Arthur. King Arthur was faced with the challenge and humility because there was no response to the challenge from the knights before Sir Gawain accepted. Sir Gawain also shows his loyalty and honesty by upholding his end of the challenge and making the journey to find the Green Knight and take his return blow of death from the axe.
The second side to Sir Gawain’s personality is his true nature. When tested by fate, he reveals that he is just as human as anyone else and should not be put on a high pedestal of heroism. Sir Gawain is not as honest and courageous as everyone believes him to be, proving himself to be imperfect. He shows his imperfections when he succumbs to Bercilak’s wife’s advances and accepts the green girdle from her without telling Bercilak.
Sir Gawain is breaking a pact between him and Bercilak and lying to him by omitting the gift from his gains won on that day. Sir Gawain shows another flaw when he shrinks away from the Green Knight’s first attempted stroke from the axe. Sir Gawain feigns a cheerful face, but deep down, he is full of fear that wasn’t expected from such a noble knight. In conclusion, Sir Gawain is not the perfect knight, even though he strives his best to be. Through the Green Knight’s tests, Sir Gawain is proven to be just as human as anyone else. The other knights of the Round Table forgive him for not being absolutely perfect and learn from his mistakes and how he upholds his chivalric code.
Even though Sir Gawain is proven to be human, he is still, in the end, a courageous and noble knight. Does everyone’s ideal leader have the same qualities and talents? How do Baldesar Castiglione’s courtier compare to Niccolo Machiavelli’s prince? The courtier and the prince have many similar qualities, but they also have some different qualities that set them apart. The courtier and the prince are similar in their roles of leadership. They should both be strong leaders with good reputations. Both should have virtuous qualities and seem compassionate and not cruel. Both should also be very intelligent in the qualifications of their positions and how to stay in control of their people.
The prince should have a stronger military background and greater control over others than the courtier who doesn’t control as many people. The prince and the courtier are very different in their aspect of how others perceive them and the way that they actually are. The prince should have virtuous qualities, but only to use them to his betterment. This keeps the prince from being marked as virtuous, which can only bring him blame or shame. The prince should be thought of as compassionate and not cruel to gain respect and be feared to stay in control of his people.
On the other hand, the courtier should show compassion for others and be bold, strong, and loyal to whomever he serves. The courtier should be bold and stern among the enemy but gentle, modest, and reserved with his kinsmen. The courtier’s day is expected to be filled with honorable and pleasant exercises designed for the body and mind. These exercises help the courtier stay in control and earn the respect of his people.
The prince uses wit and trickery to stay in control of his people. In conclusion, both the prince and the courtier should seem to have the same qualities and talents to everyone else. The prince uses his trickery to stay in control, but the courtier uses his natural talent and hard work from his exercises to stay in control. Each man is an ideal leader, but the courtier is a more down-to-earth leader. The courtier’s qualities are like an updated version of the typical Renaissance man. They are easier to achieve because they are more like natural human traits.
The courtiers’ qualifications are not as far-fetched as the prince’s.
