The Green Knight
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I’ve seen this a few times, most recently last night. I really like it - not among my favourites (yet), but I like it better each time. I was reading around last night and came across an interpretation that suggests
What do people think?
WARNING: spoilers below
Morgana orchestrates the whole thing to give her son the “purpose”/honourable conquest he craves. There are certain elements which I think support this reading, such as the Lady being a more appropriate version of Essel that Gawain could conceivably marry (obv. both being Alicia) etc. I tend to see the reading as quite convincing and valid, if not inevitable. However to me that also takes the “fun” out of the whole thing as it almost makes the “adventure” self-defeating if he was never in real danger, never likely to die and so on? Hence even the Lord of the castle says with confidence that he knows Gawain will come back alive etc. Doesn’t that mean that unlike Odysseus, he never has any agency and that there are no stakes?
What do people think?
WARNING: "stuffs" spoilers below
Last time I watched this was in the theater maybe the second week of its release so I can't speak to the details. I will offer that even if that interpretation is true, and that Gawain was never truly in danger (it's just a game, after all), and even if we, the audience, immediately pick up on that, Gawain did not know that it was all a game. Even though he was told so from the start. Gawain's challenge is, partly, to face his fear and be honorable by accepting his role that he agreed to with the first blow. I take it that the story is about his acceptance of fate rather than cowardly and selfishly running away from it. I might be able to see through it all as a viewer, but I also have perspective on events in the story that Gawain did not. Regardless, I'm more interested in if he can find a path through it all in spite of his fear of death which apparently at one point was greater than his desire for honor. In the end, it was made clear that it was just a game in the beginning. He just didn't pick up on it.
It's been a long while since I've read The Odyssey, but didn't he survive from divine intervention? Was Odysseus ever truly in risk of death?
It's been a long while since I've read The Odyssey, but didn't he survive from divine intervention? Was Odysseus ever truly in risk of death?
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"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel
"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel
"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear
"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel
"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel
"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear
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WARNING: "stuffs" spoilers below
Last time I watched this was in the theater maybe the second week of its release so I can't speak to the details. I will offer that even if that interpretation is true, and that Gawain was never truly in danger (it's just a game, after all), and even if we, the audience, immediately pick up on that, Gawain did not know that it was all a game. Even though he was told so from the start. Gawain's challenge is, partly, to face his fear and be honorable by accepting his role that he agreed to with the first blow. I take it that the story is about his acceptance of fate rather than cowardly and selfishly running away from it. I might be able to see through it all as a viewer, but I also have perspective on events in the story that Gawain did not. Regardless, I'm more interested in if he can find a path through it all in spite of his fear of death which apparently at one point was greater than his desire for honor. In the end, it was made clear that it was just a game in the beginning. He just didn't pick up on it.
It's been a long while since I've read The Odyssey, but didn't he survive from divine intervention? Was Odysseus ever truly in risk of death?
It's been a long while since I've read The Odyssey, but didn't he survive from divine intervention? Was Odysseus ever truly in risk of death?
I don’t know about risk of “death” per se (he was obviously protected from injury), but he did give a promise to Helen of Troy’s husband to protect her if she were ever in trouble, and when called upon to honour this promise he joined the war - my point being that even if he was obliged to by his honour etc, he wasn’t being forced/compelled to, it was a choice to join. Also nb that Odysseus was offered immortality and rejected it because he wanted to be with his wife - also a choice.
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