Sir Gowther Literary Elements

Middle English romantic text / poem

The story is set in the Roman Christian Empire as Germany is defending herself from Arab invaders.

The narrator is a third-person speaker and tells the story both from the point of view of an onlooker and also later from Sir Gower's perspective.

At the start, the tone is murderous and threatening, with a mood of shame that is overwhelming. After absolution, the tone is one of penitence, and the mood is optimistic and hopeful.

Sir Gower is both protagonist and antagonist in the story.

The major conflict is between the army of the Emperor of Germany and the invading hordes of the Sultan.

The Emperor's daughter awakens miraculously as her funeral is about to start. She brings a message from God that tells of Sir Gowther's forgiveness and she and the brave knight are able to get married.

The fact that Sir Gowther is sired by a mystical figure foreshadows his dark and murderous nature and the fact that he is to be used as a tool of wizardry.

No examples. In fact, the violence and murder described in the text is more hyperbolic than understated.

The text alludes to the threat perceived at the time from the Ottoman Empire and the Arab invaders.

The imagery is actually very violent and bloodthirsty as Sir Gowther commits brutal crimes that we are able to both visualize and imagine using our senses of hearing and smell. The burning of the convent with nuns still inside is a prime example of this sensory overload.

The Duchess of Austria believes that finding out the identity of his birth father will make Gowther even more murderous and brutal. However, it has the opposite effect and inspires him to ask for absolution and to become a more godly man.

There is a parallel between the muteness of the Emperor's daughter and that of Gowther.

The "hordes" is the term used to describe the Sultan's army.

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