Monty Python Gawain And The Green Knight Analysis

|Arthur's Unrealism: Monty Python, Gawain and the Green Knight, and the Destruction of Ideals |

It may be that ideals are necessary for humanity. Without idealized images, codes of behavior, even idealized objects, mankind would have difficulty functioning. There would be a lack of context or criteria with which to judge objects that may be termed less than ideal. However, the problem with idealized images is that they can never be described fully, and certainly never attained. An example is the contemporary ideal of feminine beauty, which has led to countless problems such as depression and psychological dietary disorders among women who perceive themselves to be "inadequate." The more culturally emphasized an ideal…show more content…
When Monty Python's Galahad must face the final test at the Bridge of Death, he is one of the two knights who perish for failure to answer the riddles; perhaps he dies also for having failed to be what his title terms him, just as Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave dies for his flaw.

In Gawain and the Green Knight, the temptation in an analogous castle is again that of the hostess, "Her bright throat and bosom fair to behold, fresh as the first snow fallen upon hills." (Lines 956-7) However, the critique of chastity is entirely on the grounds of sinning in thought and not in deed. Whereas Galahad the Chaste was perfectly willing to give up his chastity, Gawain is not willing--but he does consider it.

The temptation is presented is much less lustful terms in the poem. The lady offers herself using remarkably similar terms to those used by the Anthrax women, who say first to spank them, and then to "do with them as you [Galahad] will[s]." In the poem the lady uses these…show more content…
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