ve who was cursed to have children and grow old as punishment for her sins. The moral decline of Gawain can be clearly seen following his association with the Lady. On Christmas morning, for example, instead of finding comfort in the spiritual meaning of Christmas, Gawain finds comfort being seated with the lady. The bedroom scenes, however, depict the true moral battles of Gawain. During the three-day period, there is a spiraling trend. The events keep happening in the same way on a higher and higher level until Gawain is forced to give in to her desires. While he is able to see that his chastity is more important than his courtesy, he is still desperately trying to balance the two (DeRoo, 314). His inability to choose between them leads him to accept the girdle. While Mary, representing his spiritual love and faith, saves him from losing his chastity, “great peril between them stood, unless Mary for her knight should pray” (Adams, 241). Gawain still denies his love for her when faced with the love of the lady. Gawain’s loss of devotion is the key to his downfall, for it was his faith in Mary, which gave him strength and courage. By giving up the pentangle in exchange for the girdle, which supposedly has magical powers that will protect him, Gawain becomes torn between chivalry and religion. At this point things start to get a bit “knotty”: Gawain, religion and chivalry become equivalent, intertwined and interdependent. The concept of knots can also be applied to the icons in this story. The pentangle is a knot that has no beginnings or end, symbolizing Mary as bearing complete and unbroken love. The girdle, on the other hand, is not endless, but is broken and needs to be tied and untied, which symbolizes Lady Berthelac’s “love” for Gawain (DeRoo, 323). The consequence of Gawain’s acceptance of the girdle is that he must not tell Bertilak that he has acquired it, whi...
