A Head for a Head: A Testamental Template for 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' and 'The Wife of Bath's Tale'

Author / Editor
Arthur, Ross G.

Title
A Head for a Head: A Testamental Template for 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' and 'The Wife of Bath's Tale'

Published
Florilegium 6 (1984): 178-94.

Description
The historical development of an Old Testament law can be applied to "Sir Gawain" and WBT. WBT, which begins with a "lawless, violent rape and ends with the free gift of fairness and fidelity, progresses by the efficiency of a statute (cf. OT 'eye for an eye' justice) of a 'head for a head'."

Chaucer Subjects
Wife of Bath and Her Tale.