Analysis Of A Wife's Lament

542 Words2 Pages

Submissive to the to the man, Women in Anglo Saxon culture “endure arranged marriages, abuse and male dominance”(Stelmach). Marriage was mandatory for a women in order to receive their “status and economic security” (Stelmach). A Wife’s Lament expresses the emotions a wife encounters when she loses her husband. The elegiac poem, A Wife’s Lament, displays the female role and how grieving and separation can cause one to shift to a more optimistic outlook. The speaker in A Wife’s Lament expresses her feelings about her grief she experiences from her exile. When her “lord went out away from his people” (6), her anxiety and heartache effectes her psyche and causes her to become uneased . Her desperate actions depict “his power over her” (Brookbanks). She allows her melancholy feelings to control her actions, and sets forth a “friendless exile”(9) to satisfy her “sorrow’s need” (10). The possessive use on “sorrow” personifies how her emotions are shaping her thoughts and influencing her to believe her actions …show more content…

Despite listening to his orders, “the speaker is portrayed as recognising her ability to act against her husband” (Brookbanks) later on in the poem. Living with her husband has made her realize her beloved has concealed his mind for he has murderous thoughts. Her longing heart develops a true reason to grieve now. When they vowed that “death alone would part [them]two/naught else”( 22-23), she realizes he literally meant these exact words. . In addition to dealing with her personal emotions, she endures her husband’s emotions of anger towards her. Their relationship shifts from a loving one to “as if it never were/ [a] friendship” (24-25). All their cherished memories no longer define their relationship. Although not physically separated from her husband in lines 15-26, she suffers from separation from him mentally and

Open Document