The 14th century feudalism and chivalry faced a decline due to drastic social and economic changes. In this context, Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are one of the most significant works in medieval English Literature representing medieval English Romance and features knights, kings, distressed ladies, motivated by love, religious faith, lust for power, romance, mystery, fantasy or desire for adventure.

By positioning The Virgin Mary as the singular female model representing spiritual love, obedience, chastity, and life against Morgan and Bertilak's wife who represent the traditional female archetypes of courtly love, disobedience, lust and death, the Gawain poet points out the conflict between courtly love and spiritual love, which he thought, had significantly undermined the religious values behind courtliness. As such, the poem is a warning to its Aristocratic readers that the traditional religious values underlying the feudal system must be guarded so as to avert obliteration of their way of living.

The author depicts the mistrust of women by the church. However, women appear to exercise great power. Bertilak's wife is operating unassisted against Gawain in the bedroom as the hunter and aggressor. Morgan is the instigator of the plot which begins the story. The Lady "becomes the ambivalent mirror in which the knight pictures his own potential for moral achievement or moral failure in terms of the male warrior ethos such literature was designed to glorify" (28).

However, the poet never intends to present a world where women are powerful. To a certain extent, these women form an image for other anti-social forces and dangers outside the control of feudalism and chivalry. Sir Gwain and the Green Knight have three major women characters: Guenevere is Arthur's wife and queen, renowned as the one of the most beautiful women in the world, identified with sinfulness and adultery. The lord (Bertilak de Hautdesert)'s wife, or 'The Lady' of the castle. Morgana le Fay is a witch who intends both to test the truth of the fame of Gawain and the other Knights of the Round Table, and to frighten Guenevere.

Mary is identified as the model of female behavior representing meekness and submission to God in her role as the Mother of God in Christianity. The positioning of Mary on one side represents spiritual love, chastity, obedience and life and Lady Bertilak on the other as the epitome of both courtly love and biblical temptress with associations of lust, disobedience and demise.
The author warns that women may look beautiful, but they can also lead to death and decay. 'For if the one was winsome, then withered was the other" (951). Rather than just representing the vicissitudes of time, the comparison is a moral statement about women and their association with sex, sin and death.
 

The character of women as depicted by the author has various implications. First, as a lady- as a love token made with her own hand, symbolizing female sexuality. Then, it becomes a slip endowed with the magic to protect his life. Comparatively, Beowulf gives insights into the Anglo-Saxon view of women and their role in society. Good Anglo-Saxon women are passive and unassertive. Wealhtheow, the queen of the Danes, represents a typical subservient Anglo-Saxon woman. In comparison, Grendel's mother is a burly and bellicose fiend whom Beowulf must kill. By looking at these two characters in Beowulf, treatment and mistreatment of women in Anglo-Saxon society can be envisaged. The author of Beowulf generally supports the traditional Anglo-Saxon views of women by admiring Wealhtheow, reproving Grendel's mother, and showing the need to suppress feminine forces like Wyrd.

There are six women roles in Beowulf: Wealhtheow, Hygd, Freawaru, Hildeburh, Grendel's mother, and Thryth. Wealhtheow and Hygd are both queens and, as hostesses. Hildeburh and Freawaru are both unsuccessful peace weavers. Grendel's mother and Thryth are in the end disciplined, one through death and other by marriage, respectively. The author writes, "Then Wealhtheow came forth / folk-queen of the Danes daughter of Helmingas / and Hrothgar's bedmate. She hailed all of them / spoke her peace-words stepped to the gift-throne / fetched to her king the first ale-cup" (ll. 612-6). However, as queen, Wealhtheow shows her brains and ability to control men, despite her narrow powers, accordingly, the author expands her role from that of a traditional Anglo-Saxon woman to a gift-giver and guardian of the throne. Grendel's mother ignores the role of traditional Anglo-Saxon female by being powerful and aggressive, but her craftiness makes her a stronger rival than her son. The main difference between Wealhtheow and Grendel's mother is that Wealhtheow's power is much more delicate and passive than that of Grendel's mother.

Other female characters in Beowulf suggest a masculine fear of female rebellion that requires forcing no conventional Anglo-Saxon women into their distinguished roles. The author sets up a parallel between Grendel's mother and other evil. Like Grendel's mother, the evil woman remains unnamed and must be forced into compliance by a much-glorified Anglo-Saxon male. The author praises King Offa for putting the woman in her proper role, which reflects a masculine fear of female rebellion.
The author believes in male dominance and that insurrectionary females ought to be suppressed. Like Wealhtheow, females should only exert least power and influence. In both the writings, there is an obvious idea of women’s inferior role in the feudalist and chivalry culture. But there is also a depiction of women playing influential roles, which were not welcomed by male ego. Also, women must behave in the moral context of Mary’s life and that any violent tactic must be severely dealt with.

Works cited
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Bloomfield, Josephine (1994) "Diminished by Kindness: Frederick Klaeber's Rewriting of Wealhtheow." Journal of English and Germanic Philology
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