It does this conceptually, emphasizing human nature over chivalry, and it does this narratively through Gawain's failure as a knight and the Green Knight's illegitimacy as a true villain. In the traditional romance of this time, the protagonist could not have wavered in chivalry; Gawain's "losses of courage and honor...are highly atypical of the chivalric conduct we find illustrated with such humiliating identity in medieval history" (Shedd 245). But this is because the Green Knight is not the real villain; the real conflict is Gawain's struggle against his own human nature. While the Green Knight appears to be a classic antagonist in the first part of the poem, he is shown to be merciful and forgiving in the final part, stating that he does not blame Gawain because it was only because "[he] loved [his] own life" that he failed the test ending (95). Rather than simply take Sir Gawain's head, the Green Knight gave him the opportunity to prove himself "flawless" (95), or above his human nature, to "[purge] the debt" (96) Just as Shedd argues, the shift from external to internal conflict in the poem distinguishes Sir Gawain and the Green Knight from other works of medieval romance. by Shedd, Sir Gawain's conflict is with the duality of human nature, not with the Green Knight. His idea that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight break the traditions of medieval romance is particularly interesting