Define honor, using details and concrete illustrations. Is honor suffering today? Does it mean less than it did in the time of this poem? Prior to the "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" poem, knights were portrayed as chivalrous and flawless. While Sir Gawain is still a good example of chivalry, he does exhibit a flaw. What is it? What happens to make you think this? Provide citations from the poem to support your opinion. Perhaps the poet back then is saying that chivalry is dying out? Or could he be making another statement? Organize your thoughts re: honor and write a well-developed para essay (one-page paragraph) answering these questions.

This question requires you to consider your own feelings about what honor is and how it is defined in the modern day. However, an excellent place to start, given the context, would be to use the illustrations given in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as to what makes Gawain an honorable man. The pentangle in this poem, for example, is a motif that represents the five virtues of Gawain: his chastity, charity, courtesy, fellowship, and generosity. Are any of these elements still things that would be expected of an honorable person? 
The dictionary defines honor rather vaguely—honor involves "knowing and doing what is morally right," while someone with honor is "held in great esteem." These are subjective definitions that depend on the society in question, but there are still some factors in the Pearl poet's definition of honor that are recognizable to us. Should an honorable man still be charitable, generous, friendly, courteous, and chaste? Another question is, does it matter if the qualities we expect to see in an honorable person change as society changes? The idea that chivalry might be "dying out" was one common to many Middle English and Middle French romances; Chretien de Troyes, for example, toys with this concern in Yvain, in which a knight betrays his wife's trust and then must make amends. Could it simply be the case that, as society changes, there is an anxiety about how these changes will affect our perception of honor?
Another element of honor that is emphasised in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is that of truth and keeping one's promise (again, something that would probably still mean a person would be held in high esteem today). Gawain promises his host, Bertilak, that he will give over to Bertilak everything he has personally received that day. If Gawain has one flaw, it is surely that, as the stakes in this shared game grow higher and higher, Gawain holds back the girdle Bertilak's wife has given to him because of regard for his own life. By the rules of their game, he should have rendered the girdle to his host as a "cost," but Gawain knows that the girdle will protect him from death when he faces the Green Knight himself in battle. From the poem: 

But it was not for its richness he wore this girdle,nor for pride in the pendants, though polished they were,and though the glittering gold gleamed at the ends,but to save himself when it behoved him to suffer,to abide baneful stroke without battling with blade or knife.

Gawain's guilty conscience betrays him, and he flinches when the knight swings his axe, despite the fact that the green girdle he is wearing should protect him from harm. The knight declares: 

‘You are not Gawain,’ quoth the man, ‘held so great,that was never afraid of the host by hill or by vale,for now you flinch for fear ere you feel harm.Such cowardice of that knight have I never heard.

When the knight reveals that he knows about the girdle, he goes on to say: 

I sent her [my wife] to test you, and truly I think youthe most faultless man that was ever afoot.As a pearl beside whitened pea is more precious,so is Gawain, in good faith, beside other good knights.But here sir you lacked a little, wanting in loyalty

Gawain then resolves to wear the green girdle forever as a reminder of his sin, and to help him never repeat it. In writing your essay, you might consider the fact that the story of Sir Gawain is not about a man who is flawless from beginning to end; the idea that honor can be lost is surely contrary to the moral here—even the most honorable man can commit an error, but as long as he learns from it, he remains an honorable man. The poet seems to argue that there is only dishonor in not caring about the mistakes we make and failing to seek self-improvement.
https://www.lexico.com/search?filter=dictionary&query=honour

https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/English/GawainAndTheGreenKnight.php