Gender Stereotypes In Beowulf

In literature, gender stereotypes are used to fabricate the perfect person that follows the gender expectations of their culture. The gender expectations of a male in old british literature is to be honorable, and strong. He needs to essentially be the hero. Beowulf, despite contrary belief, is the hero of his own story. He protects his people, but chooses to not use over force to fight his battles. “I would rather not/ use a weapon if I knew another way/ to grapple with the dragon and make good my boast/ as I did against Grendel in days gone by” (lines 2518-2521). Beowulf refuses weapons when he first fights the monster Grendel, but when he goes to fight the dragon he recognises that the dragon has an advantage on him and he acts accordingly.

he will fight the dragon alone... He dies of his wounds” (Ruud, 1-2). Not only does Beowulf fight the dragon to protect his people, he fights it single handedly in order for no one else to get hurt. Beowulf shows the most heroism when he is finally on his deathbed after once again saving the people. One would expect the hero to live a long life, but his life is cut short because of his actions to protect his people. Beowulf is a strong, and self assured hero, who was the ideal man of the time. While Beowulf is the ideal man, Blanche Ingram from To the Lighthouse appears to be the perfect woman. Blanche is beautiful, has a reasonably high social class, and some sort of dowry. She does not talk back, she does not argue, she is the typical housewife of the time. Blanche Ingram was the perfect woman for Rochester to marry, and Miss. Ingram had intentions of marrying him. She was the ideal wife for the time period, and also had the social status and money required to marry well. It is said that,“...Miss Ingram was known for her beauty, her wealth, and her interest in Rochester” (Bloom,