What Does Green Represent in Sir Gawain: Belt Symbolism

In the end of the poem, Sir Gawain secretly receives a green and golden silken belt and gains victory over the Green Knight, but it turns out that the belt was the Green Knight’s property and that the Knight was the owner of the castle where Sir Gawain stayed before. Sir Gawain is ashamed that he tried to survive using some tricks. In the end of the poem, other knights decide to make the green belt the symbol that would remind them of the importance of fair play. Also, color green is the symbol of “honor and shame” (Harbus 2). In the beginning of the poem is associated with some primordial powers, acquires a new meaning: honesty.

What Does Green Symbolize in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Contrast with Gold

Another color that appears in the text very often is gold. Sir Gawain, a young, but noble and brave knight, has golden elements in his armor. He also carries a shield “with the Pentagle in pure gold” (Sir Gawain 44). This color expresses nobility and, perhaps, self-confidence that the knight displayed in the beginning of the poem. A lady in the castle where Sir Gawain stays offers him a golden ring as a gift but Sir Gawain refuses and wants to take only a belt (which is golden and green). Thus, the author shows that the knight somehow betrays his “golden” qualities (nobility and fairness), deciding to cheat in order to stay alive. As a result, he acquires some “green”, “wild” qualities, such a desire to survive beyond any moral principles.

Thus, the contrast between red and green colors reveals one of the main conflicts of the poem: the confrontation between chivalry and wild, chaotic powers of nature that lie in the depth of a knight’s personality and should be struggled with. It proves the thesis that the colors reveal the sense of characters’ actions and emphasize the importance of staying honest, conveyed by the author.

Works Cited

Coley, David K. Diaspora, Neighborhood, Empire: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Exemplaria, 2020.

Harbus, Antonina. “