I found the end of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to be a curious triumph for Sir Gawain. Gawain seems to display noble behavior throughout the poem, he steps up and somewhat courageously takes the Green Knight’s challenge, he keeps his promise and seeks out the Green Knight a year later, and he honors his deal with Lord Bertilak until the green girdle is introduced.
To me the green girdle is a humanizing moment where he follows human instinct instead of perfect knightly behavior. It seems as though fear was always in the background (who wouldn’t be at least a bit afraid of a beheading Green Knight?), however it wasn’t the authority directing Gawain’s decisions—he was pursuing the Green Knight regardless. It seems in the moment he decides to take the green girdle he went from being idyllic—a sort of other—to human. And perhaps this complexity is one of the brilliant achievements of this poem, Gawain who is a type of other becomes one of us.
In the end, although Gawain’s life is spared, we aren’t presented with a traditional triumph or tragedy. There is no fight, no blood, no struggle. Again, this pulls Gawain closer to human than was the dragon slaying Beowulf, perhaps. It’s almost ironic that it all ends in Gawain realizing that he was acting on human instinct, not living up to the reputation of Arthur’s knights. These ironic strands of Gawain’s shame are teased even further when the court laughs and all decide to wear a green sash in honor of his adventure. Perhaps this is the poet revealing his suspicion of ideal Knightly behavior.
I agree with you, Megan, that the moment that Sir Gawain accepts the green girdle is an interesting one because it undermines his "knightly" behavior up until that point. And I like the way you characterized that moment as humanizing him - we don't have a courageous and bold knight in this moment but a man who is showing perfectly normal fear at the thought of possibly dying at the hands of the Green Knight and, consequently, he accepts the gift and he lies about it by not offering it up per the terms of his deal with Bertilak. Not exactly ideal "knightly" behavior but definitely a human one.
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