Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Human Nature

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a Medieval poem written in Middle English sometime around the year 1400.
The text tells the story of Sir Gawain, a knight of the legendary King Arthur's Templar, who is approached one night with a strange challenge; to behead a man who by all appearances is no normal man and if unsuccessful, to seek out that same man and face his own beheading.
There are several themes in the story as it is riddled with symbolism, most specifically carried through the text; the use of the colour green and nature. While critics have  associated the use of the colour green with physical, earthly nature, the use of the colour also alludes to the spiritual nature of human beings. This is further supported with the testing that Sir Gawain faces unbeknownst to him, at the hands of the same strange knight who had challenged him twelve months before. Ultimately any reader who has the pleasure of reading this text, is faced with  looking deeper into their own nature and perhaps gleaning a deeper understanding of the human condition; which is a journey filled with victories and trials.