Every knight in every tale who has served under King Arthur has shown extraordinary bravery and a good heart, but of all the knights of King Arthur's Round Table, Sir Gawain exhibits the most. The story is set at castle of Carlisle where King Arthur and his court are taking a vacation from Camelot. While travelling to this new castle, the King meets a hideous woman who saves him from a Black Knight. In return for her troubles, King Arthur is faced with finding her a husband. Sir Gawain takes up this daunting task and with it, he shows his valance.
Before Sir Gawain knew of his horrifying task of marrying the horrendous lady, he showed his allegiance to the King. No matter what the quest was, Sir Gawain was ready to save his King's honour. In the tale, the Black Knight gave King Arthur a riddle of which a mysterious lady helped him answer. In exchange for the answer that saved King Arthur's life, the Loathly Lady was to marry one of the King's knights. Sir Gawain was "always the first to come forward, ever ready to put his courage to the test" (Hastings 179) and even after he saw the gruesomeness of the Loathly Lady, "his spirit never faltered" (Hastings 179). That exhibited Sir Gawain's allegiance to King Arthur.
To be able to last through the long marriage with the Loathly Lady, Sir Gawain had to be enduring. He lasted through the wedding ceremony showing no trace of remorse or disgust although everyone knew his ill-fate with the Loathly Lady. "Gawain seemed to shake himself awake, and gently head[ed] his wife into the centre of the hall, he guided her through the slow steps of a courtly measure" (Hastings 180). Sir Gawain endured the pain of dancing with his ghastly wife but still upheld respect for her and his King. With this, he showed endurance and his valance once again.
Furthermore, Sir Gawain is brave in taking the Loathly Lady's hand in marriage. With the despicable sight of his wife, he still "jumped down from his horse and knelt before the lady" (Hastings 179) in the forest and asked for her to marry him.
Essay # 4 I agree very strongly with John Donne's quote, "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." This point has been reinforced with every story that we have read. Upon reading about Authurian times, we found that the chivalrous kn...