David Lowery’s 2021 film The Green Knight beautifully captures and enhances Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the original romance it set out to adapt. Although many scenes can be explicitly found in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (SGGK), a vast amount of dialogue, imagery, and characters are original to the movie itself. One key aspect that differs in the film is the portrayal of women. The women flourish throughout the movie by finally having the ability to speak, exist physically within the scenes, and play an active role in the world around them. The stark contrast from the original text emphasizes the agency women received in the film, providing them control of their actions and effects. The coven scene, Lady Bertilak’s monologue, and the emphasis of Guinevere’s character are a few examples of concepts invented by the movie to display the women of SGGK and add new depth to the themes of temptation and reform. 

The original Sir Gawain and the Green Knight consists of women with little to no agency and a passive demeanor. They exist in a double contradictory state through both their role in the story and their presence. Women are seen as manipulative and evil, but they also exist as objects and tests meant to reform Gawain. While the variety of roles makes them essential to the poem, their passiveness forces them in the background of a plot they created. A dissonance is created that Lowery’s film solves by generating a space for the women to perform their roles in the forefront of the narrative. In this way, the audience is able to see past the surface-level misogyny of the text and truly understand how women with agency deepen the themes of the Green Knight story. 

Women in the plot of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight first endure contradiction through their roles, guiding Gawain towards his journey to betterment while simultaneously hindering him and tempting otherwise. Central figures such as the Virgin Mary, Guinevere, and Morgan le Fay play significantly clashing roles, from protector to manipulator. Within the text, as Gawain prepares himself for the journey, he pays great respect to the Virgin Mary. Before he leaves, “he prayed to the highest heaven/ [and] let Mother Mary guide him/ towards some house or haven” (737-739). The clear devotion to Christ’s mother places a woman as the guide and savior for Gawain on his journey, and he depends on her to keep him safe. Even though Gawain prays to both “Father” and “Lady Mary”, Christ is first referred to as “the Virgin’s son”. The established relationship further places the role of savior in the Virgin Mary’s hands, and Gawain desperately prays with the hope and expectation that she protects him. The text uses her to represent piety and righteousness, forging the path for Gawain to resist womanly temptation later in the romance. Directly contrasting the Virgin Mary’s role as a savior, Lady Bertilak tempts Gawain with sexual pleasure. While Lady Bertilak attempts to strip away Gawain’s morals, the poem symbolizes the Virgin Mary to remind him of the virtuous path he must continue to follow as a knight. 

However, Lady Bertilak herself possesses an ambivalent role as a temptress that leads towards reform. While her husband is away, she entices Gawain with seductive conversation in his bedroom and forces him to make a decision in either shutting down her advances or indulging in desire. Her role as an evil temptress is heavily implied throughout the conversation: Gawain refers to himself as a “prisoner” and the Lady lightheartedly says he’s being “tricked and trapped” (1219, 1210). The dynamic between captor and captive initiates a significant development in Gawain’s character. Furthermore, the lady addresses Sir Gawain with his name and knightly title in the bedroom scenes to “exert power over him”; the power she holds by knowing Gawain’s identity gives her control of the conversation  (Jucker 16). Her reference to his social status as she seduces him is exactly what reminds him of his responsibilities as a knight. As she tries to play into his chivalry to seduce him, he remembers the knightly importance of piety (Jecker 16-17). As the Lady tries to corrupt Gawain, he is forced to remember his knightly code, and he finally stops indulging in her games. Her very presence as a form of temptation proves Gawain’s morality by compelling him to act against it. Thus, despite her contrast to the Virgin Mary, she, too, is used as a path towards nobility and righteousness. Instead of acting as a means of protection from harm, Lady Bertilak forces him to come face to face with temptation. Gawain needed to experience seduction in order to truly understand how to overcome it. Thus, her contradictory nature is essential to the growth of Gawain and the plot. 

Additionally, Morgan le Fay’s appearance at the end reveals the relationship between her and Queen Guinevere, dichotomizing the conflicting nature of women in SGGK and establishing their significance. Morgan’s destructive plan is disclosed in the final moments of the romance, including her desire that “grieving Guinevere would go to her grave” (2460). The evil Morgan le Fay represents and creates directly contrasts Guinevere’s implied reverence as a person of nobility. Morgan creates trouble for Gawain to conquer and overcome, and Guinevere represents the eminence Gawain could obtain through this journey. The two women come to epitomize good and evil, and thus, their significance is undisputed. 

The opposing roles women have only heightens their impact, and the text begins to feel female-dominated. Morgan le Fay’s desire to harm Guinevere “redirects the real danger away from the male knights of Camelot and toward the women of the court” (Yeo 259). Her ill intention towards Guinevere creates a deep and rich plot amongst the women of the romance and indirectly cuts Gawain out from the actual conflict. He was only in danger because he put himself in danger; in reality, it was Guinevere that needed to survive the encounter with the Green Knight. Additionally, Gawain does not face the typical trope of needing to save a woman. In fact, “Arthur, Bertilak, Merlin, and Gawain himself (as well as all the named biblical characters) are all humbled in the face of female power.” (Sweeny 171). Women catalyze the plot and continue to guide it throughout the entire romance, and Gawain forces himself to follow along. Women cause problems, lead the way to solve them, and provide distractions in between. Removing the female roles in the story means getting rid of the story itself, and their conflicting roles only heighten their necessity. Both “temptress” and “reformer”–to use Michelle Sweeny’s terms–are essential to the development Gawain must go through on his quest.

However, female dominance can not exist because the women in the poem are subject to a second layer of contradiction: their power becomes hidden through passivity and a lack of agency that forces them into the background. Guinevere and Morgan le Fay’s implied conflict remains implied due to their lack of presence or dialogue. Guinevere’s first appearance in the text describes her as a painting placed solely as decoration. She was “gloriously framed/ at her place on the platform, pricelessly curtained/ by silk to each side, and canopied across/ with tasteful tapestries” (74-77). The use of the terms “framed”, “curtained”, and “canopied” convey an objectification of Guinevere. She is a beautiful entity covered with priceless silks and luxuries used to heighten the sense of nobility within the Round Table. Her lack of dialogue only intensifies her position as an attractive symbolic figure to the lavish life of the knights. Her passive existence forces her to be gazed upon, stripping her of any agency or ability to act. She is not given any opportunity to act against the attack from Morgan le Fay, despite her being the only named target. Similarly, Morgan le Fay is also stuck in a passive position despite her prominence to the plot. In the final reveal, it was not Morgan herself that disclosed her plan, but Lord Bertilak. Her first mention in the text was by Lord Bertilak, who proclaims, “Yes, ‘Morgan the Goddess’/ I will announce her name” (2452-2453). He is given the role of presenting arguably the most crucial point of the plot, despite Morgan actually causing it. Her actions are placed into his dialogue, cutting her out of her own narrative. Her existence is forced through a funnel of Lord Bertilak’s words, and she is forced into the background. Morgan le Fay stripped of any dialogue and only exists as a figure that feels distant and disconnected; she becomes a character Gawain and Lord Bertilak point blame towards rather than a powerful goddess taking responsibility for her actions. In this way, both the women who are involved in the conflict are simultaneously left out of it. 

The women in the romance are stuck in a series of contradictions that lead to dissonance within the text. Their roles as both the problems and solutions to Gawain’s character development are hindered as they get shoved to the background of the story. This coupled with Gawain’s misogynist monologue towards the end creates a severe amount of tension. After Morgan is revealed to be the true antagonist, Gawain begins to delve into the “wily womankind” that he places blame on for men’s misfortune (2426). His explicit mention of women, though with a negative context, forces the reader to acknowledge their necessity. However, it becomes a challenge to actually find them throughout the text. After analyzing the work, it becomes clear women are essential to the plot, but many of these roles are hidden and implied. Gawain’s woman monologue becomes the closest part to an explicit mention of that power. The discordant text tries to inform its audience about its dynamic women while simultaneously pushing them behind the scenes. 

Despite the tensions within the text, the 2021 film The Green Knight recovers the double contradiction by placing the women at the forefront and equipping them with the means to act. They are no longer passive objects without a voice, but distinct characters with dialogue and screen time. Their conflicting roles as “reformers” and “temptresses” still exist, but they have the agency to perform those roles freely. For example, just before the Green Knight appears in the castle, the movie jumps back and forth between two contrasting shots: Arthur, Guinevere, and Arthur at the Round Table and Morgan le Fay along with other “witches” in a tower. The cross-cutting reaches its peak as King Arthur announces a speech to his subjects while Morgan completes her summoning of the Green Knight. The ominous music and tone set along with cuts of Morgan’s ritual completely offset the king’s speech, emphasizing Morgan le Fay’s influence on the entire scene. King Arthur’s originally positive message celebrating his kingdom and his people becomes warped through a series of cuts from his dialogue to the witches actions. He says “friends” and “brothers and sisters”, and scenes of the witches preparing the ritual flash across the screen (The Green Knight, 13:02-13:14). The word “blessed” is immediately complemented with an ancient language presumably used to summon the wicked Green Knight (13:21). When King Arthur praises his subjects by saying they lived in a “land shaped by their hands”, the witches’ hands are seen grabbing ingredients for the ritual (13:41). At the word “peace”, the scene actually cuts away from the witches, implying there is no peace in their intentions as they work in the tower (13:57). Morgan le Fay’s sheer power is demonstrated in this scene as she parallels and almost overpowers Arthur during his own speech. As he stands in his manmade castle, Morgan deals with strong elements of nature that increase the tension. He talks, but she acts, using her time on screen to display her prowess and corrupt the entire scene. Her parallel to King Arthur heightens her status, and her contrast emphasizes her contribution to the main conflict. The film invents scenes in order to establish Morgan le Fay’s place in the plot, and using film allows for a vivid display of events without need of dialogue. 

The scene speaks for itself as the film shows a Macbeth inspired event that throws the women into the spotlight, as Lorraine Stock observed. The intertextuality between the “weird sisters” of Macbeth and the coven in The Green Knight creates a better understanding of the narrative in the film. In the original text, Morgan le Fay supposedly works alone; the explicit addition of the two other women forces a connection to Macbeth’s three witches. Connecting the Shakespearean understanding of the Weird Sisters to Morgan’s coven links the role of one group to another (Brînzu 252). The Weird Sisters are catalysts to Machbeth’s actions, but “it is not their prophecy that pushes the hero into committing crime after crime in a murderous frenzy of evil, but his own ambition and greed” (Brînzu 256). In the same way, the coven does not force Gawain to stand up to the Green Knight; he acts himself. His desire to become as noble and brave as his fellow knights is actualized once the coven pushes him towards it. However, the dark and ominous tone the coven shares with the Weird Sisters is contrasted by the way Morgan le Fay hopes to help her son. Witches are an inherently feminine concept, and the use of the coven to reform Gawain acknowledges women’s influence to the narrative from the very start. 

Lady Bertilak’s monologue about the Green Knight places the biggest themes of the story into her hands explicitly. She poses the question: Why is the Green Knight green? Her distant gaze and eerie tone create a dark scene questioning the balance between civilization and nature. The panel slowly zooms in on her, pointing the focus not only towards her words but Lady Bertilak herself (1:26:08- 1:28:01). She contrasts the red color of lust to the green color of nature, claiming “whilst we’re off looking for red, in comes green” (1:26:46-1:26:50). Green is the aftermath of lust and passion, staining the heart and soul. Nature and temptation are essential components of the story, and Lady Bertilak meshes the two together by describing their relationship. Such an explicit mention of the themes is not present in the original text, so the Lady’s words are unique to the movie. It is essential that she relays this message to the audience due to what she represents. Lady Bertilak is the epitome of lust and desire as she sexually tempts Gawain during his stay In the original text, the two do not have intercourse, but in the film, he succumbs to her and flees the castle in shame. This notable distinction, along with the monologue itself, proves Lady Bertilak’s influence and power over Gawain’s quest. The green girdle she gives to Gawain is the “green” that stays after the “red” lust Gawain possesses for her. She is essentially the center for the major themes that run the plot, and her monologue gives her the agency to perform as such. 

Guinevere’s character grows from a decorated object to an important figure in the essential movie scene that reveals the Green Knight. Although she is known for her beauty, the film depicts her as old and weakening, with red circles under her eyes and a frail complexion. The change makes her more human than object, and it actually better depicts nobility than the text due to the respect her and King Arthur must receive acting as long-reigning monarchs. The monarchs and their subjects are drawn to a silence as the Green Knight first approaches the Round Table. Unlike the text, he does not speak at all to begin with, and he only hands a letter to King Arthur. Guinevere takes the letter from him, and becomes possessed after opening it. The Green Knight’s raspy and low voice overlaps with Guinevere’s distorted one as the two speak about the game that triggers the entire journey Gawain will embark on. The entire scene is filled with green lighting and Guinevere’s eyes are flooded with the same green color. She continues to state the words of the challenge without even reading the letter, a subtle note which emphasizes the state of possession. Finally, she finishes in a very weakened state once the note is completely read, almost falling to the floor shortly after (16:37- 18:26). The scene provides Guinevere more focus than the text, and even in a possessed state, she displays more significance than ever before. The implied conflict between Morgan le Fay and Guinevere is revealed as the witch’s creation takes over and weakens the queen. The movie successfully depicts the intention to put “grieving Guinevere” in her grave, displaying the female-dominated conflict that hid in the background of the romance. Additionally, this scene conveys the main plot through Guinevere, showing how the story makes its way through the words and actions of women. 

Therefore, the movie stabilizes the text’s tension by highlighting the feminist undertones of the original text. Trying to understand the text through a feminist lens requires the reader to ask both “particular questions” and “broader theoretical ones” (Robertson 75). Not only should the actions of the women be examined, but what those actions mean in a male-dominated society. Using these concepts to analyze The Green Knight and its textual counterpart helps the audience better understand the tension between women’s actions and meanings. In the text, the women do not actually “do” much; their actions are hidden in the background, but they intensely impact the story. They lack particular action in the romance, but in a broader sense, the women are given huge control over the story. The film fixes this problem by not only using women to guide the story, but by providing them with the particular actions and scenes to do so. This changes the way we understand the story by readjusting it to better encompass the way women are intertwined with it. Women guide Gawain on his quest, but they are also involved in the quest themselves. 

The women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are reborn in the 2021 film, The Green Knight. In the text, women characters are trapped in their conflicting roles of helping or harming Gawain with little free will to show their true potential. Their significance is belittled as they are pushed to the background, and there is significant difficulty in finding these women throughout the romance. However, understanding their role in the film adaptation solves this issue by reinventing the original women and displaying the traits that were otherwise underlying. Key concepts such as lust, nature, civilization, temptation, and reform are all performed by the women in the film. It is essential to understand the revitalization of SGGK’s women in the film in order to realize how significant their role in the story is. The dissonance is finally solved, and it transforms the way women exist in the narrative. 

Endnotes

1. Lorraine Stock, remarks given at The Green Knight panel discussion, University of Houston, March 25, 2022.

References

Armitage, Simon. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. NewYork, W. W. Norton & Company, 2008.

Brînzeu, Pia. “Hidden Esotericism: Postmodern Witches and the Cauldron of Intertextuality.” European Journal of English Studies, vol. 15, no. 3, Dec. 2011, pp. 251–65. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/10.1080/13825577.2011.626954.

Jucker, Andreas H. “Courtesy and Politeness in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Studia Anglica Posnaniensia: An International Review of English Studies, vol. 49, no. 3, 2014, pp. 5–28. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/10.1515/stap-2015-0007.

Robertson, Elizabeth. “Medieval Feminism in Middle English Studies: A Retrospective.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, vol. 26, no. 1, 2007, pp. 67–79, https://doi.org/10.2307/20455306. Accessed 11 Apr. 2022.

Sweeney, Michelle. “Lady as Temptress and Reformer in Medieval Romance.” Essays in Medieval Studies: Proceedings of the Illinois Medieval Association, vol. 30, 2014, pp. 165–78. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mlf&AN=2015394710&site=ehost-live.

The Green Knight. Directed by David Lowery, performances by Dev Patel, Sarita Choudhury, Alicia Vikander, and Kate Dickie, A24, 2021.

Yeo, Jayme M. “‘Dere Dame, to-Day Demay Yow Neuer’: Gendering Fear in the Emotional Community of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, vol. 28, no. 3, 2016, pp. 248–63. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/10.1080/10412573.2016.1178453.