Dr. Amy Fahey Explores Form and Meaning in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Faculty and students at Thomas Aquinas College, New England, gathered in Dolben Auditorium last Friday evening for the second installment in this year’s St. Vincent de Paul Lecture and Concert Series, a lecture about the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Guest speaker Dr. Amy Fahey has her doctorate in English and American literature from Washington University and has particular interest in studying and teaching medieval literature, writing, and poetry. She teaches at Thomas More College and is the wife of its president, Dr. William Fahey. 

“The delight of literature is anything but an escape,” began Dr. Fahey. “The delight of great literature is at once an imaginative delight, an aesthetic delight, and an intellectual delight.” She illustrated the importance of form and meaning in literature, as well as the value of the ability to recognize these. Contrary to the contemporary concept of good literature having an identifiable theme, the attentive reader should look for the meaning — “the embodiment of the story itself” — as opposed to the individualistic and self-determined “theme.” Reading good literature can thus be work instead of an escape, but certainly a delightful kind of work. 

With meaning explained, Dr. Fahey turned to form and its correlation with the former. She explored passages of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in both modern translations and the original Middle English, examining the significance of the words used and the general form of the work, stressing the importance of translation true to the original words, as the words bring understanding of the meaning of the story. “There is a certain suitability to good words,” she explained, “which can hardly be replaced by ‘recognizable’ speech without losing some of the meaning.”

In the poem, the author refers to his work as one of “the best books of romance,” and Dr. Fahey spoke on the truth and rationale behind this bold claim. Contextually, the word “romance” takes on the archaic meaning, as simply a story of heroism or adventure. In this light, the poem can be viewed as one of the best books of romance, and Sir Gawain as being the best knight. Within the story, he follows the human and Christian arc: sin, repentance, forgiveness, renewal. There is transformation in redemption, and as Gawain is faced with temptation in the poem and overcomes it, “he passes the great knightly test” and proves his position as a member of the Brotherhood under Christ.

Thomas Aquinas College students read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in their sophomore year, so they were intrigued to hear Dr. Fahey’s astute observations about the poem. “I thought it was interesting,” remarked Gabriel Stec (‘27). “Dr. Fahey showed that, by not taking into consideration the intention of the story, you’re not as able to read or judge the piece itself, because you’re too blinded by your own ideologies.”