A Girl with Rizz: Lady Bertilak

This week we're looking at Lady Bertilak's seduction of Gawain!

For this week’s edition of Curiosity Killed the Kat, there is only one character who warrants a blog post: Lady Bertilak! She is a character featured in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which is our literary selection for EH 570 this week! Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an interesting Authurian story for several reasons, such as the emphasis on nature and its unique portrayal of Sir Gawain. While both of these details would warrant an engrossing exploration, I am sticking with my theme of discussing women this semester and diving into Lady Bertilak! 

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Lady Bertilak attempts daily to seduce Gawain–giving him kisses and eventually, her girdle because she is instructed by her husband to help test him. However, the interactions between the pair in the bedroom scenes are so forward and explicit at times that one cannot reduce her actions as merely instruction from her husband. The bedroom scenes speak to larger issues of identity and gender. Through Lady Bertilak’s interactions with Gawain, she pushes the gender binary and the expectations for the female gender. 

In medieval times, women were representative of desire. Lady Bertilak is no different. In the initial descriptions of her character, the narrator describes her as beautiful and tempting. He states, “Fairest was she in skin, in figure, and in face / Of height and eye colour too, in every way so fair / That e’en Gaymore, the queen, might scarce with her compare.” In this initial description, the narrator paints her as the standard for Medieval beauty. He continues this in her first bedroom interaction with Gawain. The narrator states, “Her chin and cheeks were sweet / In red and white devise, / Gracious, she doth greet him / With laughing lips and eyes.” Here, she is the perfect representation of female desire. The narrator objectifies her in a way that aligns with medieval beauty. During this time, women were ornate and physically representative of their desire rather than acting or implicitly encouraging it. 

However, her behavior as she “tests” Gawain showcases her moving beyond what is considered appropriate and typical for feminine desire. She takes a forward, masculine approach as she encounters him in the bedroom and sits on his bed. It is also worth noting that Gawain would have been naked in his bed due to the popularity of sleeping nude in the middle ages. As she sits on Gawain’s bed, she tells him that is being held captive by her. The narrator writes, “Now are ye trapped and ta’e, as ye shall truly know / I’ll bind ye in your bed ere the ye hence shall go.” Here, Gawain is “trapped” by the lady and forced to display his courtesy to her. Although Lady Bertilak only traps Gawain because of orders from her husband, she appears to enjoy testing Gawain and her interactions with him. Here, she assumes a more forward position than granted to woman. She imposes her desire rather than being an object of desire. 

The narrator supports this later with the language that he uses in his depiction of Lady Bertilak presenting the girdle to Gawain. He states, “She pressed on him her gift, and urged him loud and still / He granted her grace, she gave it of good will.” The language here in this translation supports the idea of her moving beyond traditional medieval feminine desire. The word “pressed” implies that she demands Gawain to take the girdle. Here, and in the earlier scenes, she encourages desire beyond the expectations of her gender and likely the command of her husband. She insists that he take her girdle, which grants him immortality from the Green knight. 

The narrator’s description of Lady Bertilak shows her as a figure that embodies medieval desire. As a woman, she is objectified and praised as she fits the standard of beauty. However, her interactions with Gawain in her bedroom allow her to transcend the restraints of feminine desire and move into a more masculine role. Her forward nature in these scenes allow her to test Gawain’s status as a knight and his morality in a a way that is unavailable to her if she had abided by the expectations of her gender. Although one could argue that the Green Knight’s green beard or immortality makes for the most interesting aspect of the story, I find Lady Bertilak’s interactions with Gawain to be the most fascinating as her behavior challenges the expectations of her gender and feminine medieval desire. 

That’s all for now. My coffee (lavender soy iced latte) is finished, and I’ll see y’all next week to discuss The Saga of the People of Laxardal!