SOURCE: Clein, Wendy. ““Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” and Its Readers. ” In Concepts of Chivalry in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” pp. 3-14. Norman, Okl.: Pilgrim Books, 1987.

In the following essay, Clein contends that the Gawain-poet deliberately made the message of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ambiguous, seeking a wide and changing range of responses in his readers in order to encourage them to think critically about ethics.

Only when we finish reading a work can we evaluate its meaning as a whole, the way in which its parts fit together. At the conclusion of a tale, the quest to discover what happens next ceases. We discover whether our predictions are accurate, whether the work meets or violates our expectations. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight concludes in a way that thwarts our desire for resolution. The poem withholds motives and explanations until the...