Theme Of Patriarchy In Beowulf

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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.

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