I think that so far one of my favorite stories to read was Sir Gawain and the Green Knight just beating out Oedipus. After realizing this I figured out that I was probably liked them because they both do not have very happy endings. Oedipus ended with him having to leave his city, people, and throne because of the shame he felt. He also ended up losing his wife and he even stabbed his eyes out! In Gawain even though he was forgiven by his people and accepted even after his sins Gawain still felt guilty because of what he did and wearing that girdle around him will forever remind him of that guilt and that is a bit tragic to me.
I think also that another reason why I liked these stories was because they had a certain twist that some of the other stories didn’t. In Beowulf he went out, fought monsters, killed monsters and died. I think this is typical way for these types of stories to go and it has become redundant and expected so I really do not enjoy reading them because it is like I already know how it will end. Oedipus ends all bad, nothing good happens, and I love it! Even though it seems like Gawain may have had a happy ending because he is forgiven from his sins it can be seen that the guilt he feels for lying to Bertilak will weigh down on him forever, and that I love as well.
One thing I realized with the five knightly virtues is that they are really hard to maintain. It seems almost as if it were impossible to obey one without disobeying the other. For example in the scenes when Bertilak’s wife is coming on to him if he were to allow her advances he would be obeying his code of chivalry but if he would then also be breaking his code of chastity. I think this was interesting because when I realized this it seemed like there was no other option than for Gawain’s story to end badly and tragically, and I love that!
Overall I think that both Gawain and Oedipus were great stories; mainly because of their not so happy endings. It is much more interesting to read than the usual “I love him, he loves me, forever happy we will be” kind of stuff. I would take a tragic story over a romantic one anyday!
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