Gawains Departure from the Peregrinatio :: Essays Papers

Gawains deviance from the Peregrinatio The tour that Gawain takes from Arthurs court to Bertilaks castle, then to the Green Chapel, and book binding to Arthurs court clearly fits the pattern of a medieval peregrinatio. Writers of the Middle Ages utilize the peregrinatio or pilgrimage to describe spiritual progress through a worldly metaphor. The motif is utilize by Dante in the Divine funniness (w present the narrator, on his move around through life, is diverted from the earthly world to a pilgrimage through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise) and Chaucer uses it in the movement of his pilgrimage from London to Canterbury. Dantes journey to Beatrice and Chaucers from the sinful Tabard Inn to the tomb of St. Thomas Beckett a place w here(predicate)(predicate) the pilgrims quarter receive absolution for their sins obviously represent spiritual as salutary as literal movements in the usageal peregrinatio. The Gawain-Poet, clearly familiar with the customs duty of peregrinat io as we tail see by his use of it in Pearl, uses it here not to demonstrate his heros movement toward spiritual perfection (which was traditionally the engineer of the itinerant), but rather to parody the notion of the possibility of such progress. Gawain is purportedly the purest of Arthurs knights, yet his preoccupation with Christian doctrine and with Mary (both shown in the thingmajig on his shield and inhis frequent Christian prayers) is undercut by his to a greater extent urgent concerns retaining his life and his worldly reputation. In the Gawain-Poet s handling of the peregrinatio motif, Gawain falls short of his reputation as a faultless knight and fails in the goal of his journey. Yet as he comes less to embody majestic ideals, he becomes more than individual and finally can represent, if anything, only a picture of a solitary human being in a difficult world. In the disjunction between the conventions of the peregrinatio and the actual events of Gawains journe y is revealed a shift away from the pilgrimage fable towards realism, a movement likewise discernable (as Sacvan Bercovitch shows1) in the romance elements of the poem. It will be useful here to sketch briefly the traits and various ramifications of the peregrinatio motif in the Middle Ages. though the motif was used literally, it was more often described in righteous terms. Every mans life is a journey from birth to death, from the temptations of the world to ones emblematic reward, from a bodily to a spiritual existence, from sin to salvation (or damnation).Gawains Departure from the Peregrinatio Essays PapersGawains Departure from the Peregrinatio The journey that Gawain takes from Arthurs court to Bertilaks castle, then to the Green Chapel, and mainstay to Arthurs court clearly fits the pattern of a medieval peregrinatio. Writers of the Middle Ages used the peregrinatio or pilgrimage to describe spiritual progress through a worldly metaphor. The motif is used by Da nte in the Divine clowning (where the narrator, on his journey through life, is diverted from the earthly world to a pilgrimage through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise) and Chaucer uses it in the movement of his pilgrimage from London to Canterbury. Dantes journey to Beatrice and Chaucers from the sinful Tabard Inn to the tomb of St. Thomas Beckett a place where the pilgrims can receive absolution for their sins obviously represent spiritual as tumefy as literal movements in the traditional peregrinatio. The Gawain-Poet, clearly familiar with the tradition of peregrinatio as we can see by his use of it in Pearl, uses it here not to demonstrate his heros movement toward spiritual perfection (which was traditionally the bearing of the itinerant), but rather to parody the notion of the possibility of such progress. Gawain is purportedly the purest of Arthurs knights, yet his preoccupation with Christian doctrine and with Mary (both shown in the widget on his shield and inhis frequent Christian prayers) is undercut by his more urgent concerns retaining his life and his worldly reputation. In the Gawain-Poet s handling of the peregrinatio motif, Gawain falls short of his reputation as a faultless knight and fails in the goal of his journey. Yet as he comes less to embody majestic ideals, he becomes more individual and finally can represent, if anything, only a picture of a solitary human being in a difficult world. In the disjunction between the conventions of the peregrinatio and the actual events of Gawains journey is revealed a shift away from the pilgrimage fable towards realism, a movement too discernable (as Sacvan Bercovitch shows1) in the romance elements of the poem. It will be useful here to sketch briefly the traits and various ramifications of the peregrinatio motif in the Middle Ages. though the motif was used literally, it was more often described in honourable terms. Every mans life is a journey from birth to death, from the temptations of the world to ones typic reward, from a bodily to a spiritual existence, from sin to salvation (or damnation).