Masculinity In Beowulf

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My topic for this paper is analyzing how great Beowulf was as a King and a Warrior and how he represents masculinity. Scholars are in complete disagreement over how Beowulf represents masculinity; however, despite their disagreement on how it should be accomplished, all scholars place masculinity as the goal. Scholars agree that Beowulf is about masculinity and the different separations of gender, but are disagreeing on how he shows it. I believe that Beowulf represents masculinity by doing what he did like every great man has done in history, he stepped up to the plate and lead by example and didn’t let the power go to his head. So, I will analyze both articles and show where the dispute occurs, but at the same time showing that both Morey …show more content…

As Morey says in his introduction, “The eponymous hero himself is most memorable in his capacity as the masculine warrior and king” (Morey 486). In this journal, Morey goes through the actions of characters and how they are loyal to each other and how this bond of masculinity even leads to Beowulf going to fight Grendel because of the bond to help each other. Such as, “Beowulf emphasizes his loyalty to Hygelac with the boast that his king had no need to recruit warriors from neighboring nations” (Morey 490) and this is where the scholars are starting to differ from each other. I believe that Morey could have also met in the middle as well and considered a couple of speeches and not just about all the action that takes place within Beowulf. “Beowulf is, as Gillian Overing has observed, “an overwhelmingly masculine poem” (Morey 486) and if this is so obvious then both should be able to agree and not be able to have an argument. I feel like I could use Davidson’s article more to relate due to the fact of looking at the action which is a little easier for me to understand and relate to. “And his deeds as thane and king-at least as reported by the poem-are often violent and always in keeping with expectations of heroic male conduct” (Davidson 496) this evidence is able to show how both Morey and Davidson are able to agree on masculinity. So, in conclusion, I have given an in depth look into Beowulf and how this story is all about Beowulf being the image of masculinity. I also was able to show how scholars differ on how Beowulf is defined as

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