Previous chapters have concentrated upon descriptions of an object or scene; if an object, the narrative is suspended; if a landscape, the protagonist moves through the scene as it is described. The point of view is that of a participating observer, who expresses curiosity, wonder, delight, fear. In Gawain it is the courtiers who study the Green Knight closely and with anxiety (‘Ther watz lokyng on lenþe’ 232); Gawain himself observes the shield (‘þay schewed hym þe schelde’, 619), the castle (‘þe haþel auysed’ 771) and the Green Chapel (‘he seȝ’ 2170). In Erkenwald the Londoners peer at the mysterious letters on the tomb (‘auisyd hom many’ 53). Alexander surveys the ceremonial pageant laid on for him and ‘heues vp his eȝe’ (Wars 1712) at the bishop's headgear. In the dreams of Mum and the Sothsegger and Pearl the vision is a projection of the dreamer's concerns, as in Mum (‘mette I’ 871, ‘I totid aboute / Beholding’ 885–6), insistently repeated in Pearl (‘I bere þe face’ 67, ‘me lyste to se’ 146, ‘con I stote and stare’ 149). So, too, in Arthur's two dreams in Morte Arthure, verbs of dreaming (‘Hym dremyd’ 760, ‘he mett’ 3223) are reinforced by verbs of seeing (‘to beholde’ 760, ‘merked’ 3238), but in these cases we subsequently have a second point of view besides that of the dreamer – that of the interpreter of the dream.

Generally the observed object or scene is an enigma that requires interpretation, so that enigma becomes a narrative device to replace action: ‘what will we understand next?’ replacing ‘what happens next?’ We need, however, to be alert to the possibility that the observer's interpretation is not necessarily reliable. Arthur's courtiers do not know what to make of the Green Knight, but they suppose him to be supernatural; the sudden appearance of the castle comes as a surprise to Gawain, welcome but possibly threatening; Gawain is quite wrong to suppose the Chapel is the devil's place. The citizens of London are entirely mystified by the tomb, whose secret is revealed only with the help of their bishop. The Pearl dreamer has no idea where he finds himself: ‘I ne wyste in þis worlde quere þat hit wace’ (65).