It is believed that sir gawain and the green knight was written in the late 1300s, as the age of chivalry began to wane. Though legend has it that gawain was one of Authur’s finest and most loyal knights, the gawain poet depicts him as flawed. Why might the gawain poet have portrayed gawain this way?

- "is not only a luminous passive watcher in the night sky, but it is a powerful force.

it does symbolizes love,   lust   and dreaming and is seen as a power symbolic force that determines and affects human behaviors and reactions.

in the context of the question it does remain you that he events are only taking place at night and the reader of the passage of time."

cockroaches and rats often are a symbol for things that are disgusting or vile. though i don't know which play you are talking about, i hope this !