Green Things: Reading the Green Girdle as the Governing Object of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
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2013
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Haverford College. Department of English
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Abstract
My thesis examines the significance, both narratological and symbolic, of objects in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. A poem marked more by the poet’s exposition than any action involving the protagonist, Gawain, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight can be read as an object‐centric narrative. Embracing the poem’s object‐centricity, my thesis follows the path of the poem’s primary narrative, from the axe of the Green Knight, to the pentangle emblazoned on Gawain’s shield, before settling, as Gawain does, on the green girdle he has been given by Bertilak’s wife. Using the dual theoretical lens of Object Oriented Ontology and Thing Theory, my thesis reads each object in conjunction with Gawain and the poem more holistically, attempting to determine one central object that can be figured to govern Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This double theoretical framework enables one to see an object’s role both in the primary narrative and in the world of metaphorical meaning. Additionally, it creates the possibility of reading Gawain onto each object and the object back onto Gawain. Ultimately, it becomes clear that the green girdle is the most appropriate choice to govern Gawain and the poem. When worn as a girdle, a functional tool, it saves Gawain’s life when he is struck by the Green Knight’s axe. As a metaphorical sign, worn as a baldric around his shoulder, the girdle comes to represent a variety of things, ranging from Gawain’s failure to uphold his Christian virtues to a mark of camaraderie when adopted by the other knights. A complex, irreducible object, it best represents Gawain and the poem at large.