Afternoon of Alterity - Nazareth College

and draped in damp, shaggy moss, and bedraggled birds onbare, black branches pipe pitifully into the piercing cold.(Armitage 740-747)The woods are dark, unfamiliar, and wild. This leaves Gawainunable to reconcile his identify. Gawain’s identifies himself withinrelation to the castle. Gawain has never envisioned his life on theoutside of the castle. Without the castle Gawain is in a constant stateof confusion. He begins to question his existence and the chivalriccode. Gawain’s detachment from the castle leaves him without a truesense of self. Gawain does not know where he is in the woods. Hebecomes reckless because his physical space has been disturbed andhis identity has led him into a state of confusion.Gawain has created his identity through the existence of thechivalric code. According to Jeanne Moore: “Amidst the comfort,home has also been represented as a place full of obligations andprison” (209). Gawain looses his identity when he leaves the castlebecause of his obligation to the king and the court. Without dutyGawain does not know who he is. The physical space of the castledictates the role that Gawain plays within the court, which alsodefines who he is in life. Paul Lichterman states that, “people usewords and gestures collectively and individually to articulate whothey are and are not” (85). This argument parallels Gawain’s existencethrough the firm belief he holds of the chivalric code, which closelyties him to the physical space of the castle. Gawain tries to hold ontohis identity through the practice of the chivalric code. He cannotbring the physical space of the castle with him, but he can stillparticipate in acts that he associates with the physical space. LordBertilak questions Gawain’s identity as a chivalric knight.Thenne he carped to thy knight, criande loude: ‘Ye handemed to do the dede that I bidde. Wyl ye halde this heslaura lucyshyn 149