In Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, the character of Sir Gawain is skillfully brought to life by an unknown author. Numerous observers in the poem credit Gawain to be a noble knight who symbolizes everything a knight should be. He is loyal, honest, and most importantly, courteous. As the story progresses, Gawain is subjected to a number of tests of character. His reactions tell us a great deal about his character.
             At the beginning of the poem, Gawain is idealized. As with any ideal, he is larger than life. His character unfolds through the testimony of witnesses or is implicit in the tests he faces. By the end of the poem, we sense that we have come to know Gawain as he really is. Though still a commendable character, he is somehow more real, more human, more capable of mistakes, - large in life, but not larger than life. However, we also realize that nothing short of perfection is acceptable to him. He aspires to an impossible ideal.
             Our first glimpse of Gawain occurs when the Green Knight suddenly appears at Camelot. He arrives with a challenge:
             If any in this house such hardihood claims,
             Be so bold in his blood, his brain so wild,
             As stoutly to strike one stroke for another,
             I shall give him as my gift this gisarme noble,
             This ax, that is heavy enough, to handle as he likes,
             And I shall bide the first blow, as bare as I sit ...
             So you grant me the guerdon to give him another,
             sans blame.
             In a twelvemonth and a day
             He shall have of me the same;
             Now be it seen straightway
             Who dares take up the game.
            
             The daring and directness of the challenge initially stuns those who hear it. After an embarrassing pause, King Arthur accepts it. But Gawain intervenes, "I beseech, before all here, That this melee may be mine." Through his words, we begin to see Gawain as the noble figure he is. We cannot imagine a more courageous action. Gawain is offering his life for that...