I wasn’t very surprised that the Green knight ended up being the host because it spent so much of the poem at the host’s place that I knew there was some significance. I think that Gawain responded appropriately because he immediately was repentant for his “sins”. One of the major themes of the poem is repentance and Gawain seems to seek it a lot in the piece. Knights are supposed to strive to be the best version of themselves and when they fail, they are supposed to repent for what they did wrong and learn from it. Knights are also supposed to be pure of heart and that is shown through Gawain’s response despite the green knight complementing Gawain on the fact that he must be the purest knight ever. Instead of taking that comment and being prideful, Gawain acts again as a pure knight and tries to see how can be even better. Gawain survives the green knight by being almost completely chivalrous and pure when he is at the green knight’s palace, and then repenting for what little wrong he did (taking the green corset from the host’s wife).
I like how you focused mainly on the Green Knight. I was looking at the story and chivalry as a whole, but it’s interesting to see the perspective of just the green knight. I agree with what you say about the knights. They are supposed to be pure and chivalrous, and I like how you focused on that.
I love how everyone had suspicions about Bertilak (even if everyone wasn't sure what that would mean). On the repentance angle--we talked about this a bit on Wednesday, and while I think you're right to point out that repentance is central to the poem; doesn't Gawain take that to the extreme? He says he'll never be able to atone or repent, which, apart from raising serious theological issues, is just suggestive of a troubling attitude towards his mistakes.