How does Gawain’s dilemma illustrate courtly behavior

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How does Gawain’s dilemma illustrate courtly behavior?

Option 4 (Nicholls’ essay): How does Gawain’s dilemma illustrate courtly behavior?

Background.  Jonathan Nicholls’ essay is in the style of New Historicism, a literary critical movement that began around 1980 in the works of Stephen Greenblatt (now a very prominent scholar at Harvard).  Reading and Writing About Literature, chapter 9, outlines how New Historicism looks not only at the literary work, but also at other writings or evidence from the time.  Thus, Nicholl’s essay addresses codes of courtly behavior—courtly love and chivalry, which we have discussed in class—and the ways that Gawain is challenged and fails or succeeds at them.  To make his analysis, he compares Gawain’s behavior to courtly behavior as described in similar medieval quest romances or as described in medieval manuals on courtly behavior.  He sees Gawain, for example, as remaining courteous despite the Green Knight’s discourtesy as he enters the court.   One example: Gawain gives his name; the Green Knight neither offers nor gives his.  Nicholls argues that Gawain is quite courteous in the scenes leading up to the bedroom and hunting exchange, yet the demands on his behavior are becoming increasingly tight.

What to do.  Read Nicholls’ essay and then choose a bedroom scene.  In what ways do you see Gawain remaining nimble and appropriate in his courtesy, despite the difficulty of what he is being asked to do: that is, remain true to the host and not insult the Lady or the hospitality he is receiving at the castle?

In your essay, you will need to summarize relevant points from the Nicholls essay in order to establish your own argument.  Use specific detail from Sir Gawain, including at the level of quotation, to support your argument.  See Reading and Writing about Literature for how to format and quote verse with line numbers in MLA citation.