How to Lose Sir Gawain in Ten Days

​Throughout literature and film, writers have frequently addressed the idea of a test: a test of courage, strength, passion, loyalty, or any other cherished ideal has evidently been on the minds of writers for thousands of years. In both Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, this “test” serves as both a main focus and driving force of the work. Lady Bertilak and Andie Anderson both put the male protagonists to the test by seducing them for reasons other than purely sexual gains in their respective works; in addition to revealing the shortcomings of the male population, the seduction of men to essentially prove points about the male population in different times shows that women are, in fact, strong and powerful characters who are more than simply sexual beings.
​In both of these works, the most important similarity is that the female characters put the leading male characters to a kind of test in order to prove something about the males living at that time. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Lady Bertilak seduces Sir Gawain in order to assess his adherence to the knightly code of chivalry and the laws concerning courtly love, which, in this poem, are presented as conflicting ideas; therefore, the Lady tests Sir Gawain by seducing him and seeing if he respects either the code of chivalry by resisting her temptation and being loyal to her husband—the lord whose castle he is in—or the laws of courtly love that state that “So good a knight as Gawain is given out to be,/ And the model of fair demeanor and manners pure,/ Had he lain so long at a lady’s side,/ Would have claimed a kiss, by his courtesy” (141). This quote reveals that, according to the laws of courtly love, it is required that he do whatever the Lady asks, which, in Sir Gawain’s case, means granting her a kiss and, later, taking her girdle. Prior to going to find the Green Knight, although Sir Gawain respects Lady Bertilak by taking her girdle, partially out of his fear of death, he simultaneously betrays the Lord, as he does not give him the girdle despite their covenant to exchange their winnings. Therefore, in the end, Sir Gawain is proved to be dishonorable by the Green Knight, who is actually the Lord. In this poem, it is evident that the purpose of the Lady’s seduction was to examine Sir Gawain’s morality and his virtues and prove that despite all of his praise as a reputable knight, Sir Gawain—and, therefore, most of the men living at that time—was subject to failing in his duties. Lady Bertilak’s test in this poem was done for more that simply gaining sexual favors; in actuality, it is done to prove that despite a man’s overwhelmingly principled nature, he is still able to be disgraceful.
​Similarly, in How to Lose a Guy In 10 Days, Andie Anderson puts the male lead, Benjamin Barry, to the test. In this movie, Anderson, a “How-To” columnist decides to write a piece, as the title suggests, about how to lose a guy in ten days. In order to do so, Anderson first picks Barry out at a bar and proceeds to seduce him. Once she believes that she has him seduced and falling in love with her, her personality changes immediately, and she begins to do all the wrong things that women tend to do in relationships in order to get Barry to break-up with her; Andie acts possessive, controlling, clingy, disruptive, and, at times, selfish in order to make Barry leave her so that she can essentially be able to prove the true superficiality of the men living at her time, her main purpose for writing her piece. However, while Anderson has told her boss that she can make a guy break up with her in a matter of ten days, Barry has told his boss that he can make any woman fall in love with in him ten days. Therefore, despite her persistently obnoxious behavior that drives Barry insane, he stays with Anderson anyway in order to win his own bet. In the end, however, both of the characters reveal their true motives, and the two characters realize that they truly do love each other. Although Anderson does not succeed in losing Barry in ten days—because he is determined to win his own bet—, her pestilent behavior reveals his shallowness throughout the beginning of the movie. For example, after Anderson takes Barry to a Celine Dion concert instead of a New York Knicks basketball game, Barry rants to his friends of how he wish he could break up with Anderson because she is incredibly infuriating, and, had he not been involved in the bet and had she not been so attractive, he would never have stayed with someone so aggravating. This scene in the movie shows that Barry is incredibly shallow, as he wants to break up with her cause she is annoying, but is only staying with her to fulfill his bet and win an advertising deal and because she is good-looking. Although Anderson’s test did not fully succeed—she was not able to completely prove that the men of her time were very shallow and ready to break up with females who are even slightly obnoxious because of Barry’s bet—her test did reveal that he could, at times, be superficial, a shortcoming of man, so long as he was with his male friends.
​In both of these works, the writers depict the female as an incredibly powerful character. In the poem and the film, the female character wields a great deal of power, as she is the one putting the man to the test and trying to determine his true virtues and morals. The works show powerful women who are able to manipulate males in order to test and prove something about the men of their respective eras; by shifting the control to the women in the stories, the writers undermine the power of the men and bolster that of the women in the patriarchal societies in which both female characters live in. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the girdle is a symbol of the feminine power that emasculated Sir Gawain, and, in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, the article that Anderson publishes at the end of the movie serves the same purpose. Both the poem and the film not only reveal the faults of men, but also reveal that incredibly strength and power that women have in a society.
The biggest similarity between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and How to Lose a Guy in 10 days is the test that the female characters impose on the male characters. The tests of the women reveal both some innate failings of man and the power of women. As these two ideas are referenced in plots written thousands of years apart, it is evident that, in both societies in which these pieces were written, authors were concerned with the oftentimes underrepresented power of the female. The idea of the strength of the female is reinforced in both works not only by the fact that the women test the virtues of man, but also by the fact that the men are shown to have their faults. In both of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, the idea of a female conducted test on a male protagonist reveals the authority of the woman.