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The portrayal of women in literature
Portrayal of women in literature
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The poem Beowulf has been written from a male point of view and has a dominant sense of masculinity in its form. It has male principal characters and a heavy influence of male-centric themes like violence, valour and prowess. However, a re-evaluation of women’s roles in Beowulf indicates that they have contributed significantly to its narrative (Beowulf). The women in Beowulf play social roles like that of a peace weaver and a hostess including that of a mother which cannot be fulfilled by men. Queen Wealhtheow plays a successful peace weaver, by actively encouraging people and offering treasure to her heroes. On the other hand, Queen Hildeburh is presented in a different contrast to Wealhtheow as she fails to successfully portray this role …show more content…
and is shown as more passive since she doesn’t say anything throughout the narrative. Irrespective of whether queens are successful in their role or not, their gender impacts the poem’s narrative.
Wealhtheow holds together the Scyldings-Beowulf relationship and is a perfect hostess while Hildeburh is the focus of the lay song that describes her account. On the other hand, examples of unsatisfactory hostesses are. However, an interesting point is that though both Queen Modthryth and Grendel’s mother fail to meet role expectations, but Grendel’s mother is the one who is shunned. This brings to light the fact that she is a monster who does not belong to a normal functioning society (Beowulf). The relationships in society are deciphered by the female role of hostess which highlights poem’s prejudices. The role of Grendel’s mother inflicts a huge impact on the readers. Due to her motherly bond, the poet evokes empathy for a monster that has descended from Cain. Grendel’s mother becomes a warrior and a leader, which is generally a position held by men traditionally. She also challenges a stereotypical passive female while taking on Beowulf along with his men at Heorot Hall. Wealhtheow safeguards her interests by pushing Hrothgar into taking Hrothulf as heir and to take the reins of the kingdom for the sake of her
sons. Moreover, Queen Hygd portrays leadership role while delivering the kingdom to Beowulf after her husband’s death in the battle. Beowulf can be regarded as a poem that advances on men’s actions but does not directly exclude women. The women portray such roles that they could assume as part of functioning of a normal society. It can be seen that though women in Beowulf meet expectations of their gender roles, but in doing so, they tend to overstep the boundaries and venture into roles that are considered stereotypically masculine (Beowulf).
Queen Wealhtheow and Queen Hygd served as excellent role models for the courts in which they served. They exemplified the mannerisms and etiquette of the noble people. Queen Wealhtheow showed excellent poise from the very beginning of both texts. She was admirable as she passed the mead bowl around Heorot. The offering of the bowl was symbolic, being that the bowl was first given to Hrothgar and then passed to Beowulf, as if she presented him with her trust. Beowulf gave Wealhtheow his guarantee that he would be successful or die in battle. After she presented Hrothgar and Beowulf with the mead bowl she served the Scyldings, and did so as if they were her own people. She was not a Scylding, nor did she desire to be one, but she never made her unhappiness known, as described in Grendel. There is not great detail on Queen Hygd in Grendel, but from what the reader can gather from Beowulf, she is as much of a female role model as Queen Wealhtheow. She was young but very intelligent. In fact King Hygelac felt intimidated by Hygd’s intelligence.
The women in Beowulf are barely discussed and seem to exist solely for the use of the men. They are weak and portray none of the legendary qualities that the men display. Wealhtheow, the Queen of Danes and Hrothgar's wife, is the only female character in the epic that talks. In a speech to her husband, we are able to see that she is a strong woman, who is able to speak her mind. She tells the king that it is good that he adopted Beowulf, but reminds him that he already has two sons. However, her speech is made while she carries the drinking goblet to all of the men in the room, "Wealhtheow came in,/ Hrothgar's queen, observing the courtesies./ Adorned in her gold, she graciously handed the cup first to Hrothgar, their homeland's guardian,/ urging him to drink deep and enjoy it because he was dear to them" (612-618). When she is given the opportunity to talk, she only praises the men and plays a role defined by their society.
The fictional world of Grendel has great divides between male and female characters. While the novel is written in a fairly contemporary society, the world that Gardner constructs still follows under the same logic and principle as the ancient writings of Beowulf. The men are overtly masculine and tough, and the women are constructed with extreme passivity; there is marginal middle ground in both worlds. The constructions of how certain genders act are crucial to interrogate in order to understand one’s bias and become cognizant of the variety of gender roles men and women can endorse. The world of Grendel is full of symbols that construct men as violent, sexual creatures and women as passive objects.
Grendel's mother arrives at the hall when all the warriors are sleeping and kills Aeshere, Hrothgar's chief adviser and good friend. Beowulf, offers to div...
Within the poem, the central function of these women is to assume the role of hostess by offering the mead cup to their husbands as well as his guests in the mead hall. Through this seemingly frivolous action, the women become an extension of their husbands’ power. The offering of the mead cup through his wife is a display of the King’s hospitality, generosity, and graciousness. By offering the communal mead cup to every single person to the entire body of the King’s people and to foreign guests, as Wealhtheow does when Beowulf joins the Danes (Beowulf 43:620-640, 84:1191-1214), a sense of equality is created and peace is formed within the community as well as foreign tribes. Through their marriage, Wealhtheow and Hygd represent the ideal, moral Germanic woman who is loyal to their husbands, hospitable, well-tempered, gracious, and bearers of peace. Grendel’s mother, on the other hand, is the polar opposite of these
With any great society, there is a strong and invincible structure supporting it. This structure is made up of various factors and variables that when added up together equal something much grander than ever imagined. No matter how microscopic the part is presumed to be, anything can drastically alter the course of time and the people involved. One example of this is the Anglo-Saxon society that is ever present in the literary work Beowulf. Throughout the epic the strong sense of community and brotherhood are present; yet, one very important aspect of their world is swept under the rug and undermined. This would be, of course, the favorable effect women have in the society and how their roles, although presumed by many as minute and insignificant,
Wealhtheow is Hrothgar's queen and the mother of his two sons. Wealhtheow portrays the role of a traditional Anglo-Saxon woman at the time. When Wealhtheow is first introduced to the audience, she immediately falls into her role as peaceful greeter and cocktail waitress. 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). Wealhtheow then proceeds through the meadhall "offering hall-joy to old and to young / with rich treasure-cups" (ll. 621-2). When Wealhtheow first approaches Beowulf and the Geats, she "bore him a cup / with gold-gleaming hands held it before him / graciously greeted the Geats' warleader" (ll. 623-5). The author then reinforces that she is a member of the weaker gender by directing Wealhtheow to her proper pos...
As a man fascinated with the role of women during the 14th Century, or most commonly known as the Middle Ages, Chaucer makes conclusive evaluations and remarks concerning how women were viewed during this time period. Determined to show that women were not weak and humble because of the male dominance surrounding them, Chaucer sets out to prove that women were a powerful and strong-willed gender. In order to defend this argument, the following characters and their tales will be examined: Griselda from the Clerk's Tale, and the Wife of Bath, narrator to the Wife of Bath's Tale. Using the role of gender within the genres of the Canterbury Tales, exploring each woman's participation in the outcomes of their tales, and comparing and contrasting these two heroines, we will find out how Chaucer broke the mold on medievalist attitudes toward women.
The middle English poem Beowulf also defines the important ways in which the feminist heroine is part of an ancient poetic tradition in the depiction of empowered women in patriarchal society. For instance, the plot of the story revolves around Beowulf’s indoctrination into the court of King Hrothgar, since he has been chosen to destroy to the monster Grendel. However, an unusual break with patriarchal tradition finds Wealhtheow, the wife of King Hrothgar, passing the mead cup to Beowulf as part of this indoctrination. In this ceremony, the tradition of the king passing the mead cup has been disavowed due to the power of the Wealhtheow in the royal court: “Wealhtheow came in,/ Hrothgar’s queen, observing the courtesies./ Adorned in gold, she
Within the pages of the well-known epic poem are many extraordinary and warring narratives of the Middle Ages. Beowulf is important because it is one of the most ancient European epics written in the vernacular, or native tongue. The seemingly super natural heroes of this exciting and famous writing have a great impact on the typical roles of their women. As declared through out the many lines of the astonishing poem, the women have many purposes and serve a variety of roles. Wealhtheow, Hygd, Hildeburh, Freawaru, and Grendel’s Mother give examples of the historical roles that are expected of the women of this ancient time. The women in “Beowulf” have the significant roles of hostess, peaceweaver, and mother.
In history, evil men have reigned supreme across many cultures. Some people say that being evil is inherent in every human. If this is true, then writing may be the ultimate way of releasing hatred of the world without hurting anyone. In Beowulf, all of society's evil men can be personified within the demons of Cain. The main demon presented in Beowulf is Grendel. Grendel personifies the exact opposite of what the Anglo-Saxons held dear. Beowulf, the story's hero, is the embodiment of what every Anglo-Saxon strove to become in their lifetime. Grendel is constantly angry, afraid and unsure of himself; while Beowulf is fearless and loyal to his king.
Gender expectations have been withheld throughout time, and also throughout culture. In different genres of literature, the reader sees these gender expectations displayed through the characters with examples and nonexamples of the expectation. The anonymous Anglo-Saxon era author of Beowulf provides an excellent example of the culture. Hero comes in and saves the village numerous times from three different villains in the poem. Beowulf ultimately comes to his end on his last battle against a dragon. Beowulf is seen as the medieval male expectation. William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth was to be performed for King James I. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth strive for power regardless of moral values. The rise, and eventual fall, of Macbeth was fueled
In one line of the poem it states, “A queen should weave peace, not punish the innocent” it becomes easier to see the importance of the role of the limited woman. In Beowulf, the woman plays the role of a mediator, someone who is well kept and is useless in the eyes of the male society. The figure of Grendel’s mother doesn’t act as peaceful women but rather follows the male-based perspective of revenge and war, which fall back in the category of if women are not peacemakers than bad things will happen.
The obsession with patriarchal history manifests itself throughout Beowulf, which opens by tracing Hrothgar's male ancestry and constantly refers to characters as the sons of their fathers. An awareness of family lineage is one way in which the heroic code integrates itself into the warriors' most basic sense of identity. By placing such an emphasis on whom their fathers were and how their fathers acted, the men of Beowulf bind themselves to a cycle of necessity governed by the heroic code.
With regards to the development of the plot, Wealhtheow also plays a prominent role in achieving a brief state of joy and celebration before Grendel’s mother’s attack. After the ungodly beast Grendel terrorizes the people of Heorot,