Beowulf vs Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

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Beowulf Verses Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Many a time heroes usually represent the ideologies of their cultures. For instance, Beowulf symbolizes the warrior of Anglo-Saxon. On the other hand, Sir Gawain depicts the chivalric codes of the medieval period. The difference between the two heroes gets told in the manner in which they tend to demonstrate their qualities (Weston 1-10). For instance, Beowulf encountered the evil monster that symbolizes the opposite of the warrior code that included Grendel, the mother as well as the fire dragon. Unlike Beowulf, Gawain’s test is not meant to contest towards the evil but rather to showcase his integrity. His opponents are not treated as the evil antagonist. This aspect gives Gawain an ample opportunity to showcase his hidden characters. Interestingly enough, Beowulf is seen defeating the evil monster unlike the case of the Gawain, who cannot validate that he is perfect (Weston 5-10). Although Gawain gets closer to perfection, he is still a failure as he could not take the green the lady of Castle offered him.
FURTHER COMPARISONS
Gawain demonstrated various traits ranging from the chivalric knight and hero, some of significant of which are, modesty, commitment, temperament, courage, and honesty. He indulges his life in some of the activities that define someone to become a hero. These activities/challenges were meant to proof Gawain’s worth. He gets focused as an actor who never dreamed of committing any evil even a single error or mistake.

This man is a hero that is beyond the reproach. Conversely, Beowulf is portrayed as an absolute hero and a king.
The reader gets to review his entire heroic life taking into account his earlier age of which he proved his worth to bear the labels of epic tales (Moran 8). In him, the reader can conceptualize two kinds of heroism that comprised of a younger heroism, older, mature and wiser warrior by then. Notably, in Beowulf youth stage, his physical traits are projected and are overemphasize. He gets depicted as having gone through the physical accomplishments that no any other man could have performed. Such feats demanded adequate strength and courage. In his older age, he is depicted as being subtle and possess intellectual achievements. Many readers wonder why he still have to battle. This scenario is the point he brought a disgrace to his people and died. The most significance comparison between the two heroes is that they both went on the journey, defended their kingdoms, had high strength, were brave and possessed a sense of justice.
Differences: Unlike Beowulf, Gawain demonstrated absolute cowardice in his attempt to hide the girdle that was given to him by the Lady Bertilak while seducing him. He is seen showing some greediness. Additionally, the story of Gawain shows a heroic figure who possess all the outstanding abilities of the chivalrous knight (Moran 5-7). The poet depicts Sir Gawain as brave, smart and mannerly. In his entire life, he tends to hide some of his traits like the sexual passion and affinity. However, one can hardly tell the physical threats as the author asserts that the threats geared to an individual character are more dangerous than the physical threat. In Beowulf story, the author demonstrated a hero king that faced various challenges both physical and moral. Such challenges threatened his life throughout (Weston 1-3). Just like the Gawain, Beowulf also demonstrates noble traits and always geared towards protecting and safeguarding his reputation.
To him, he is not aware when the fight should end in his life. He gets depicted as fighting even after attaining the older age. This aspect of inflicts a feeling in our mind that the struggle to maintain and safeguard one’s identity is that lifelong and will never end. This aspect also depicts that the fight towards the evil will never end even between humanity and the Satan. Some of the outstanding differences between these heroes was that Gawain, who was an Arthurian hero, got attached to Christian faith unlike Beowulf from the pagan history attributes his strength from his devotion to the joyful mysterious of Rosary.
In the last part of the stories, Gawain is seen to have performed bravely and done a lot as compared to other Knights. However, to him he still felt like he is a failure. His adventures get manifested in our modern life that human beings should struggle for perfection even when things do not seem to work out.
Conclusion: Ideally, the scenes that show the legendary in both the work of Sir Gawain and the Green Night as well as Beowulf get treated as dramatic as their lessons remain realistic even in our contemporary societies today. It is true that what drives the comparison between these characters in their personality, what others think about them, and their takes to ensure their heroic traits persist.
Works Cited
Moran, Daniel. Cliffsnotes on White’s the Once and Future King. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001. Internet resource.
Weston, Jessie L. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Courier Corporation, 2003. Internet resource.