Dr. Aldebol-Hazle
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Lesson 1
Close Reading: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Actions: Today you’ll practice close reading passages in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I
have included a sample close reading of Beowulf to provide examples of the steps you’ll go
through. You will apply these steps to the passage you’ve been assigned.
Goals: Your goal is to use the steps modeled in this handout to create your own close reading of
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The process of close reading is complex, but not mysterious.
Completing this handout will allow you to move step by step from encountering a section of text
to understanding how that section of text affects your understanding of the larger text and,
perhaps, of larger course concepts.
Outcomes: Close reading is an essential skill for literary study, and so by completing this
handout you are developing a skill that you will use in all of the written assignments for this
course.
Model steps for close reading: Beowulf
BABL p. 213 ll. 3163-3177:
“And they buried torques in the barrow, and jewels
and a trove of such things as trespassing men
had once dared to drag from the hoard.
They let the ground keep that ancestral treasure,
gold under gravel, gone to earth,
as useless to men now as it ever was.
STEP 1: DETERMINE LITERAL MEANING (WHAT IT SAYS)
This passage in Beowulf says that people buried necklaces, jewels, and other treasures in
the barrow, or grave. The treasure stays underground, covered by earth, and is useless to
men. Treasure has always been this useless to men.
STEP 2: NOTICE (WHAT JUMPED OUT)
I noticed that this passage depicting Beowulf’s memorial mound has a lot of images of
dirt/earth and also images of treasure.
STEP 3: GATHER OBSERVATIONS (PUTTING PIECES TOGETHER)
I tracked the earth imagery and identified both nouns and verbs that evoke the earth or the
ground in some way and prepositions that point to the underground.
Verbs: buried, drag from, gone (to earth)
Nouns: barrow; ground; gravel; earth
Prepositions: in (the barrow); under (gravel); to (earth)
Dr. Aldebol-Hazle
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Based on the volume of words referring to the earth and referring to ground, combined
with the references to graves (barrow), burial, and the underground, this passage seems
very interested in burial and bodies being returned to the earth.
I also tracked the treasure imagery:
Nouns: torques, jewels, trove, hoard, treasure, gold
All of the treasure words are nouns, which forms a contrast to the earth words, which
included nouns, verbs, and prepositions. Also, there are far fewer treasure words than
there were words about the earth.
STEP 4: ANALYZE OBSERVATIONS (WHAT PICTURE THE PIECES MAKE)
Most of the earth words are about burial. The repetition of both
burial words and treasure words associates the two together.
Because there are more burial words than treasure words, the
treasure seems subordinate to burial, as if burial is more
important than treasure. All of the treasure words are nouns,
which are things rather than actions, and the final line of the passage indicates that
treasure is “as useless to men now as it ever was.”
Step-bystep explanation
of my logicà
STEP 5: COMPARE (RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THINGS NOTICED AND CONTENT)
The relationship between the burial words and
treasure words agrees with the content
summary I wrote because the treasure is less
important than the burial.
ß Analysis of what we can learn
from the specific observations
just made
This passage sets up treasure as pointless for men and depicts it as lying next to a corpse
in the grave. The final line indicates that the treasure has always been as useless as it is in
the grave; the grave is simply the place where the pointlessness of treasure becomes
clear.
STEP 6: CONNECT (COMPARATIVE RELATIONSHIP TO LARGER CONTEXT)
How the comparative
relationship I found connects to the
larger context of the text. Here, I noticed
that the way that “treasure” is talked
about in this passage is really different
from how characters talk about
“treasure” in the rest of the text. à
This passage becomes important to Beowulf as a
whole because the lords are frequently
described as a “treasure-giver” or “ring-giver.”
The whole society of the Danes and the Geats
depends upon the give-and-take of the lord and
his retainers, where the lord provides treasure
and the retainers defend the lord. If treasure is
useless, though, then this society is structured
on something useless.
Dr. Aldebol-Hazle
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STEP 7: IDENTIFY BIG PICTURE (HOW LARGER CONTEXT HELPS YOU UNDERSTAND THE TEXT)
So the narrator’s description of Beowulf’s funeral mound,
ß BIG PICTURE
with its focus on burial and treasure, questions whether
Beowulf and any of the members of this society actually accomplished anything useful
throughout the text. This bleak observation is reinforced by the woman’s lament that
predicts the war and destruction about to be wreaked upon the Geats now that their lord is
dead and cannot defend them. The treasure does nothing to keep them from dying.
Your turn:
For your assigned passage, use the steps modeled above to translate the passage into your own
words, notice what’s happening in the passage, and identify how that passage affects the reader’s
understanding of the text as a whole.
Type your answers below each step and save your submission as <<LastNameFirstInitial Close
Reading>> (example: AldebolHazleK Close Reading). Attach the completed document to the
assignment submission on Blackboard.
Passages:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
ll. 1088-1114 (the game is proposed)
ll. 1200-1230 (Bertilak’s wife’s first appearance in the bedroom)
ll. 1690-1718 (Bertilak hunts the fox)
ll. 1932-1941 (third kiss exchange)
ll. 2025-2037 (Gawain gets dressed for his confrontation)
Help: Not sure what to talk about? Here are some figures of speech you can talk about in these
passages (definitions available in the glossary in your textbook, BABL 2062)
Symbol
Parts of speech (nouns, verbs, pronouns, etc.)
Imagery
Repetition
Comparison
Foreshadowing
Metaphor
STEP 1: DETERMINE LITERAL MEANING (WHAT IT SAYS)
What does the passage say?
STEP 2: NOTICE (WHAT JUMPED OUT)
What seemed striking in the passage? What jumped out at you when you read it? Do you see any
figures of speech here? Did there seem to be a lot of anything in the passage?
Dr. Aldebol-Hazle
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STEP 3: GATHER OBSERVATIONS (PUTTING PIECES TOGETHER)
Are there any patterns that you noticed in the passage? Are there any connections between the
things that you noticed?
STEP 4: ANALYZE OBSERVATIONS (WHAT PICTURE THE PIECES MAKE)
What do those patterns or connections communicate to you? For this step, don’t forget to think
about the “big picture,” or how your observations might affect a reader’s understanding of the
text as a whole.
STEP 5: COMPARE (RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THINGS NOTICED AND CONTENT)
What is the relationship between the things you noticed and the content summary you created?
Do the things you noticed reinforce the content summary? Do the things you noticed conflict
with the content summary?
STEP 6: CONNECT (LARGER CONTEXT)
How does the comparative relationship you found connect to the larger context of the text? Does
it help you understand something about a character in the text? About a recurring image in the
text? About something in the text that characters value?
STEP 7: IDENTIFY BIG PICTURE (HOW LARGER CONTEXT HELPS YOU UNDERSTAND THE TEXT)
How did the connections you outlined in Step 6 help you understand the text in a general way?
Or did it help you understand something about the genre? About major concepts from the text
(like chivalry or oathkeeping)?