As we talked about in class, there are too many rules of chivalry and love for a hero obey every single one, and Gawain proved that in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In life no one is perfect: everything and everyone has flaws and hamartia, even if it’s very small, but what separates the good from the great is their ability to overcome that and have the best end result. The kisses the host’s wife gave Gawain put him in a situation where he would have to break at least one of the rules. Rule 11 Courtly Love says, “Thou shalt be in all things polite and courteous,” and so he was polite to the host’s wife in accepting the kisses. But had he entirely followed the Code of Chivalry and “Avoid lying to your fellow man,” he would have caused tension between him and the host. Gawain was trying to respect both the host and the host’s wife but he couldn’t do both because of the wife’s actions. Ultimately, he had to pick between being polite to the wife and the Code of Chivalry Rule, “Avoid deception.” There’s too much overlapping to say that they must obey every single rule.
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