Cold and Green in Gawain and the Green Knight. How does the season and Essay

Cold and Green in Gawain and the Green Knight. How does the season and the color green convey some of the themes in Gawain and the Green Knight - Essay Example This goes well on the first two days, but on the third, the Lady hands him a girdle which will prevent Gawain from being harmed during the return blow. Gawain is tempted into keeping the girdle, when he should have handed it over, and when the Green Knight comes to give the blows, makes two feints with the axe, and then strikes Gawain with the blunt end of the axe. The Green Knight reveals himself as the Lord of the Castle, and explains that the two feints stood for the two days when Gawain kept his promise, and the small cut was for the third day, when Gawain was tempted into keeping the girdle. The poem itself contains a number of symbolic sequences, the most commonly noted being the number three (three nights at the castle, three kisses, and three swings with the axe). The beheading game itself is part of an older tradition which celebrates the symbolic killing of the Holly King by the Oak King, and the Holly King's return of the favour with the next season. Indeed, although this is an outwardly Christian allegory, there are plenty of references to pagan and nature religions as well. Many commentators have associated the Green Knight with one element of nature worship, the Green Man. Traditionally, this figure is a 'wild man' deity, closely tied in to nature and the changing seasons. The Green Man represents all that is wild and awesome in nature. The Green Knight clearly symbolises this element when he gatecrashes the King's Christmas party to lay down his challenge: The butterflies and birds embroidered thereon In green of the gayest, with many a gold thread For much did they marvel at what it might mean That a horseman and a horse should have such a hue Grow green as the grass, and greener, it seemed Than green fused on gold more glorious by far. (Abrams, page 237-239) However, as well as nature, ancient texts associated green with death and magic, two other unpredictable forces which the medieval audience would be familiar with. The Green Knight's association with Morgan Le Fay emphasises his connection with magic, as does his appearances during the Christmas period: During the twelve days of Yule the forces of death and chaos Were unleashed upon the earth.We see himas the force Of both, life and death which intrudes into the human world. (Rowan 1995) In this interpretation, the beheading contest is a test of Gawain's courage and mettle, a knightly adventure which ends with Gawain's symbolic death and rebirth - a ritual with meanings in European societies far into the Christian period. Green is mentioned more than fifty times in the poem, and is the most frequent colour used by the poet. The Green of the Green Knight would bring to mind all of these issues to medieval listeners; and his role as a tester of Gawain in order to initiate him into the mysteries of life and death. Gawain returns to Arthur's court wearing a green sash, emphasising that he has passed the test and become a member of the Green Knight's court. In this interpretation, the meaning of Gawain's journey through the winter wastelands is clearly associated with the test. If the Green Knight is the lord of Life and Death, then the wasteland is the symbol of Gawain's moving from the reality of

Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 16

Questions - Assignment Example the end of capitalism would be brought about by the insatiable chase for higher profits, which has more than led to the never ending replacement of humans [workers] with machines, leaving thousands of the populace unemployed. Indeed as the share of profits rises for the capitalists, the share of wages falls, in effect, decreasing the capacity of the masses to buy the goods capitalism produces. The data for the ever increasing income inequality alongside the weakening aggregate demand is but readily available. Q4. Using the creative destruction†, Schumpeter argues that the failure of capitalism is internal rather than external as Karl Marx had contended. Using the phrase â€Å"creative destruction†, Schumpeter was categorical that capitalism creates its enemies from within the very elites rather than from the Marxian impoverished masses. As rightly predicted, the most radical environmentalists championing for the capitalism with a human face in the 21st century, for instance, are but socialist children of the very capitalists. Keynes differed with the classical theorists in that while the latter believed that such markets should be self-regulating, with supply creating its own demand [Say’s law] and prices and wages adjusting when necessary to keep the said markets in a state of equilibrium, he [Keynes] argued that such markets need a hand from the government to run properly and to attain agreeable employment levels and sustained economic growth, for prices and/or wages rigid/sticky downwards, and so are the very causes of recessions and high unemployment rates. An early defender of Keynesianism, Marriner Eccles advocated and actually took a direct role in the introduction of the expansionary fiscal policies in the Fed right after the Great Depression, virtually fixing interest rates at low levels to revitalize demand through constant borrowing from the Treasury as a result of the lowered interest rates. Anglo-Saxon Capitalism relies heavily on free market