SPOILER DISCUSSION

1.Gawain fails to be generous when giving money to the young boy for instructions on where to go, despite being reminded to do the same. He fails friendship when he pelts rocks at the fox who accompanies him and then runs it off at the end. He fails courtesy with the headless woman, Winifred, when he asks her for something in return to help her out. He fails courtesy and piety when he refuses to give the belt to the Lord (or the sexual release if we’re going 1:1). He fails chastity when he has his sexual encounter with the Lady.

2. So I’m of the belief that Gawain lives at the end. We know his mom had some part in summoning the Green Knight given that we see her do the magical ceremony involving the same letter the knight delivers to the audience. Additionally, his mom is blinded while doing the ceremony with a sash. Later on when Gawain meets the Lady, there’s another women who’s blinded with a sash who similarly watches as Gawain fails the virtue of chastity who I think it also his mom. This is due to the fact that the Lady and Esel look exactly the same (which I think is due to magic) because Morgan, who already disapproves of Esel, would use that visage to test her son again. This doubling is reinforced by the fact that it’s the Lady and Morgan that give Gawain his Green sash. Given that we know that Morgan loves her son and wants him to become a better person killing him with her proxy agent at the end seems a bit too strange.

3. I think the Knight’s “off with your head” statement is the actual “beheading” he plans on doing on Gawain. It’s Gawain’s first demonstration of a knightly virtue in the form of piety as he honors the agreement wholeheartedly.