ENG208.001 -- Survey of British Literature: Beginnings to 1789

Prof. Eileen Joy

Fall 2007

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS #1 (Sir Gawain & The Green Knight)

"He who breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." (Gandalf the Wizard, from J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings)

Respond to TWO of the following prompts:

1. What is chivalry, exactly, and how does Gawain demonstrate the chivalric ethos in the first two sections of the poem? [ethos = ethical philosophy]

2. Why is Gawain ultimately being tested, do you think? What aspect, or aspects, of his character are ultimately being challenged by the Green Knight [Bercilak] and Bercilak's wife? [look especially at Parts III & IV]

3. If Gawain fails, how does he fail, exactly, and what do you think Gawain has ultimately learned about himself when he returns to Arthur's court?

4. At the end of Apocalypse Now, when Capt. Willard finally meets Col. Kurtz, Kurtz tells Willard that there's nothing he "detests more than the stench of lies." Comment in any way you see fit on how these statements of Col. Kurtz can be related to the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

5. Why would I include on this assignment sheet the quotation above from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy? How might it apply to the characters and events of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight?

Please respond to the questions with full, complete sentences. You should write at least one typed, double-spaced page in response to each prompt (but let's not get distracted by these fine points of detail--what matters to me is that you respond to the prompts with thoughtfulness and care and show me that you have something of substance to say in relation to the reading and discussions we have had in class, and what that ultimately means is: MORE is always better than less, but one page is the minimum for each prompt). The questions are always interpretive in nature, and therefore there are NO right or wrong answers, only your interpretive opinion (an opinion, nevertheless, that's hopefully grounded in a close reading of the text as well as a close attention to background material presented in class). Be sure to always point to and/or quote specific passages from the text in order to support your observations and ideas (that will help you practice a skill that will become an absolute necessity when you are writing your critical essays). Furthermore, be sure to demonstrate that you have read the entire text in question; for example, do not respond to the question by only referring to events that occur in only one place in the text, or I will assume you have not done the entire reading. While one page per prompt does not give you enough room to point out everything in the text that you think is pertinent to the question, I expect to see you highlight enough aspects of the text that it is clear to me that you have read the beginning, middle, and end. And finally, NO SUMMARIES OF PLOT!!!