Page "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" Paragraph 3
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According to medieval scholar Richard Zeikowitz, the Green Knight represents a threat to homosocial friendship in his medieval world.
Zeikowitz argues that the narrator of the poem seems entranced by the Knight's beauty, homoeroticising him in poetic form.
The Green Knight's attractiveness challenges the homosocial rules of King Arthur's court and poses a threat to their way of life.
Zeikowitz also states that Gawain seems to find Bertilak as attractive as the narrator finds the Green Knight.
Gawain's embracing and kissing Bertilak in several scenes thus represents not a homosexual but a homosocial expression.
Nonetheless, the Green Knight blurs the lines between homosociality and homosexuality, representing the difficulty medieval writers sometimes had in separating the two.
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