Sex and pleasure are vital parts of human nature, and creating life is an essential rhythm of the natural world, but humanity constantly struggles against nature, trying to master it and sometimes corrupting it.
Lowery places sex and human desire front and center in his bold adaptation of a medieval epic.
More than anything, Gawain is driven by a desire to gain notoriety, power, and the trappings of knighthood that he sees reflected in King Arthur’s court and the men of the Round Table.
Most obviously, Dev Patel as Gawain exudes sex appeal, and that sexual attraction hits the audience first in every scene, drawing a sharp contrast to his boyish demeanor.
The Green Knight’s take on morality is much more contemporary and separate from tradition — Lowery isn’t preaching that nature and pleasure are temptations that should be completely rejected.
He must learn to distinguish for himself when the desire to be recognized and admired gives way to the temptation to seize power, or when love is tarnished by lust.
He’s cavalier about sex, about his lover Essel , about his own body, and about how all three have gotten in the way of him meeting his commitments.
Even after listening to her story, Gawain reaches out to stroke her face and asks what he will receive in return for his services, and she has to scold him to set him back to his purpose.
The most sexually charged scene in the film, and arguably its pivotal encounter, comes when Gawain spends a few days in a remote castle with a noble .
Being masturbated with a garment that simultaneously represents maternal protection and reckless desire is the final word on Gawain’s quest: The comforts of childhood and adolescence will ultimately hold him back from his development as a man and leader.
She asks to be the lady of his heart, and spins out a fantasy of their life together.
It is now a yoke of shame and a burning reminder of his selfishness, which is why it is essential for him to discard it when eventually facing the Green Knight.
In symbolic but direct terms, she’s telling him that behind every flash of desire is a consequence, and instructing him on the importance of shedding reckless passion in favor of a life lived with honor.
Christmas falls near the Celtic winter celebration of Yule, and it appears that the Green Knight is modeled, symbolically and in appearance, after the Celtic Greenman, or Holly King, a figure from Yule celebrations who rules over the darker winter months.
Read through this lens of Celtic paganism, the Green Knight represents a clear picture of the year Gawain waits before traveling to the Knight, and the ways the journey lets him become a worthy leader.
In the deciding moment, he is willing to let go of the comforts of childhood and the hot-blooded passions of youth, and submit himself to something greater.
The sensual nature of The Green Knight takes the traditional model of the exalted hero — a person who’s above humanity’s basest impulses — and returns him to earth.