s. He approaches the conception of man as a god, and thus he transcends and represents a perfection of both his society and the natural world. Other characters and elements in his environment are aligned either for or against himâ€"there is no middle groundâ€"and consequently, as in all allegory, they take on a more abstract or idealized meaning. In the romantic mode the model for society is theocratic in the sense of one governed by a divinely authorized agent. The romantic model for nature implies a similarly transcendent power that gives the world a mysterious coherence and meaning (15).
             Most characters in the narrative romance or either good or evil, they do not follow some middle ground filled with shades of gray that most of us mere mortal follow. The hero is transcendental in that their actions are important in ways "our ordinary conceptions of existence cannot explain. They challenge us with the thought that, as John Updike once wrote, everything rests upon an intense radiance we do not see because we see nothing else'â€" (51). Because of this "higher callingâ€" the hero goes through a quest typically withed with adventure in order attain their final reward.
             One such tale is the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It is a story that combines two distinct types of adventureâ€"the beheading contest and the temptation to commit adulteryâ€"with repeated tests of Gawain's truthâ€"the-- exchange of blows and exchange of winningsâ€"as
             ...