Sir Gawain And The Lay Of The Werewolf Analysis

Since the beginning of human society, woman have always been considered a subordinate sex, as men have been associated with the upper hand of power in a household. Even today, after decades of for equal rights, many women still play and are viewed as this stereotypical role, and as a result woman have relentlessly attempted to strive away from it. In innumerable medieval texts, such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Lay of the Werewolf, the prestigious women withhold their power in order to disguise the ultimate potential their power has. The Middle English texts, Sir Gawain and the Green Night and The Lay of the Werewolf display the vindictive persona woman possess as they attempt to defy the image society has set. It is in a woman’s nature to play a role in her household where she acts as if she obeys her husband in every manner, which ultimately results with it overshadowing her authentic emotions she has toward a particular event, leading her to take drastic measures. In the short story The Lay of the Werewolf, when Bisclavaret 's wife is alerted on the true accounts of her husband’s weekly disappearance her “her face became flushed with fear” as she was “greatly alarmed by the story” which led her to begin to “consider various means of parting from him, as she no longer wished to lie with him” (De France 3). Bisclavaret 's wife deliberately manipulates her husband into withdrawing the particular reason for his disappearances; however, as he obeys her wishes, she wants to abandon him when he needs her most, to reassure him he is not the monster he identifies himself to be. Not only is this an act of selfishness, but it also highlights the crucial characteristic that woman feel powerless, and as a result, overdue their act to leave a man, ultimately leaving him powerless. At the other end of the spectrum, Lady Bercilak in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight uses her ladylike charms, and eventually succeeds as Gawin indeed realizes he has a physical attraction to her by noting how “the faults and frailty of the flesh” ultimately “preserve” and as a result the “tenderness entices the foul taint of sin"(Neilson 12). Lady Bercilak takes advantage of Gawain’s attraction to her in order to control their interactions and use them for her purposes. Eventually Gawain succumbs to her charms by accepting one of her gifts, a green girdle, which represents his internal struggle as he is comprised with his values, as a result of Lady Bercilak’s manipulation. Along with the theme of internal struggles, as Bisclavaret 's wife ponders about the new whereabouts of her husband she persuades her husband into revealing the truths about his transformation by telling him to that he “should hide nothing” from her as well as ever doubting that she is not loyal in any affair” (De France). Due to their constant ability to adhere to virtually anything a man tells them, she gives no reason to Bisclavert for ever doubting her, let alone believing that she would exploit him to the entire community. Although women (back then) were believed to have no hold no power in the community around them, the amount of power, through trust in the household, is used to try to gain power in the outside community. With the constant internal drive to become the unexpected in such a society that looks down upon that behavior, women are able to to attain their needs and exert their influence as they desire, even in an extremely patriarchal society. In his speech comparing himself to famous biblical figures who were led astray by the deceitful tricks of women, Gawain acknowledges that he …show more content…
However, as they are stories, the actions from the woman are slightly over exaggerated. Furthermore, the stories also highlight the inequality in the preconceived notions societies have of woman, especially in the power they truly hold, and the amount of destruction that can result of slight judgment. Although both Sir Gawain and the Green Night and The Lay of the Werewolf were written over 400 years ago, similar ideas of woman are still around today, despite the amount of progress woman have made to move away from