Gawain Perceval Gawain and Perceval Essay

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As Pearsall indicates, in discussion on a French retelling by Chretien De Troyes, "Perceval's quest receives only 200 lines: he loses faith, meets some penitents on Good Friday who expound to him succinctly the meaning of Christ's sacrifice and goes to a hermit from whom he hears the explanation of the grail and from whom he himself receives communion." (Pearsall, 37) This may be perceived as a statement that Perceval had given his identity largely over to a quest that, once completed, had exhausted his purpose to either his world or the broader legend. One may also take the liberty of interpreting this to mean that the preoccupation of the Holy Grail was precisely that. Perhaps the diminishing relevance of Perceval with the passage of the grail story may be seen as a critical response to the religious aggression that is part and parcel to the crusades.

Indeed, Perceval is almost a device used to push forward the story of the grail and its affiliated critical observations. His behavior on the quest tends to reinforce this estimation of his otherwise minimal personality. To the extent, we are told that "Perceval begins with an almost lunatic single-mindedness in pursuing what he understandings to the ideal of knighthood, pure prowess, but is gradually civilized into a fully understanding of the ideas of chivalry.

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" (Pearsall, 38)

Gawain's role is similar, insofar as diversions to follow his adventures seem to function as catalysts for events of distractive irrelevance to either the search for the grail or the continued glory of the crown. Indeed, in the forward to the Malory text, a quick recounting of events relating to Gawain reveals him to be something of a well-liked but obstructive knight. Accordingly, the text tells that "a typical Arthurian blood feud begins with King Lot's death at the hands of King Pellinore. Sir Gawain (a hotheaded but endearing character) kills King Pellinore. In reply, King Pellinore's son, Sir Lamerok, seduces Queen Margawse. Sir Gawain and his brother kill Sir Lamerok. Sir Lamerok's cousin, Sir Pynel, tries to poison Sir Gawain b but another knight eats the apple by mistake." (Malory & Baines, xv) The events here set off would hinge on Gawain's behavior as much as they would hinge on a foolhardy and self-defeatist tradition of chivalry.

In drawing our attention away from the weighty and, as the story of Lancelot intercedes, increasingly dark story of King Arthur, such adventures as those by Gawain and Perceval help to establish a human correlation to such driving features as religious crusading and chivalrous violence without approaching a moral connotation or value judgment.

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