ious why Gawain accuses himself of "cowardness" (ln 2508) and "untruthfulness" (ln.2509), but why would he charge himself with "covetousness" (2508)? Hills recognizes that in order to understand why Gawain as well as what the poet is trying to tell us we "must examine the medieval concept of covetousness" (313). Hills quotes St. Thomas Aquinas from Summa Theologiae:...covetousness can be variously understood. In one sense, it is an excessive desire for riches.... In another sense, it means an excessive desire for any temporal goods whatsoever.... In still another sense, it can mean some inclination of a corrupt nature to excessively desire corruptible goods. And thus they say that covetousness is the root of all sins, by analogy with the root of a tree, which draws its nourishment from the earth, for in the same way all sin grows from the love of temporal things. (314-315)Gawain reacts as he should if living in the world of Aquinas, because he has tapped into the root of all sin. Gawain senses that his being has been usurped by his sin, and he will begin rotting from the inside out. Along this same path of medieval thought, covetousness is the "antithesis of charity" (315). It is a love of the world which is not a love directed toward God, but rather covetousness is love directed towards the self:Covetousness is the element in all sin which is due to loving oneself more than God and seeking...a consolation which has no consolation.... So no matter how much the human soul contains, it is never full unless it can hold God, whom it can always hold. O covetous man, if you wish to be satisfied, cease being covetous, because as long as you are covetous you cannot be satisfied. (318) Hills states that "It is essentially a spiritual disease" (319) and Gawain freaks out when he accepts that he has contracted the disease. By defining covetousness in this way we open up a whole new way of looking at the significance of Gawain's fault. Hills takes ...
