In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,
Lady Bertilak (Bercilak) is the wife of the Green Knight. She tries to seduce Gawain on
her husband's behalf as he attempts to test Gawain's sense of honor. Without her
presence in the story, there would have been no tale to tell, as ascertaining if Gawain
is a "true and gentle knight" is the purpose of the
poem.
[Lady
Bertilak] comes to Gawain's bed around dawn [each morning], when Gawain is sleeping, and
she plays elaborately witty games of courtship and seduction with him....she plays a
quintessential role in testing Sir Gawain’s honour, loyalty, and most importantly his
honesty through her sexual innuendoes, where she becomes “a potent threat to the
exclusively masculine code of knightly
behaviour.”
Queen Guinevere
is seen in contradictory ways depending upon which version of the Arthurian legends you
read. In most cases, she is tied to Lancelot, one of Arthur's most trusted knights, when
they enter into an adulterous affair.
Guinevere has been portrayed as everything from
a weak and opportunistic traitor to a fatally flawed but noble and virtuous
gentlewoman;...[in some versions] she is praised for her intelligence, friendliness, and
gentility, while in [other versions] she is a vindictive adulteress, disliked by the
protagonist and all well-bred
knights.
Morgan le Fay plays
an important role in the Arthurian legends as well.
Early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate her
character beyond her role as a fay or magician. She became much more prominent in the
later cyclical prose
works...
In later works,
Morgan has a more prominent role in the Arthurian
legends.
...in later stories she becomes an adversary of
the Round Table when Guinevere discovers her adultery with one of her husband's knights,
she eventually reconciles with her brother, and even retains her original role, serving
as one of the four enchantresses who carry the king to Avalon after his final battle
at Camlann.
Of these three
women, while Lady Bertilak appears to be a seductress, she is actually loyal to her
husband and only testing Gawain on her husband's behalf. Queen Guinevere, depending on
the version you read, is either a woman who inspires loyalty from Arthur's knights, or
strong dislike. What seems to be common in the stories is that she has an adulterous
affair—in some stories, it is this that was supposed to led to the destruction of the
Round Table. Morgan le Fay has the reputation of being Arthur's antagonist, but in some
stories they reconcile, and she even leads him to his final resting place in Avalon.
However, she is the only character whose function within the story does not revolve
around an affair (or attempted affair) with a
man.
Additonal
source:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/
SirGawainAndTheGreenKnight
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