Role of Women in Beowulf
As an epic tale of heroes and monsters, Beowulf gives its readers much excitement and adventure, but Beowulf's importance is more than just literary. It offers many insights into the beliefs and customs of seventh-century Anglo-Saxon culture. Among these insights is the Anglo-Saxon view of women and their role in society. Good Anglo-Saxon women are peaceful and unassertive, greeting guests and serving drinks to the warriors and other men in the meadhall. Wealhtheow, the queen of the Danes, represents a typical subservient Anglo-Saxon woman. As a foil to Wealhtheow, Grendel's mother is a strong and combative monster whom Beowulf must kill. By analyzing these two characters in Beowulf, we can understand the treatment and mistreatment of women in Anglo-Saxon society. The author of Beowulf generally supports the traditional Anglo-Saxon views of women by praising Wealhtheow, condemning Grendel's mother, and showing the need to suppress feminine forces like Wyrd; however, he does offer some criticism of these views by creating sympathy for Grendel's mother, allowing Wealhtheow to assert herself in the interest of her husband and children, and revealing masculine fear of feminine power.
The author creates Wealhtheow to embody the role of a traditional Anglo-Saxon woman, and he presents this role as the only appropriate one for Wealhtheow to fulfill. She serves as a peacekeeper in the ever-tumultuous Heorot meadhall. When the author first introduces Wealhtheow to his 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 / spo...
... middle of paper ...
...st darkness" (l. 73) to restore peace and order. Wyrd works to bring disorder and doom to Beowulf and the warriors of Heorot, just as Grendel's mother wages her war of destruction and death on Hrothgar and his kingdom. Beowulf subdues Grendel's mother permanently by killing her, but Wyrd can only be avoided temporarily, not destroyed once and for all. This suggests that the struggle against female authority and uprising is timeless, and the only way to deal with this problem is on an individual basis.
The author's views on women may never be fully revealed, but it is clear that he believes in male superiority and that insurgent females ought to be suppressed. Like Wealhtheow, females should only exert minimal power and influence, but they should always keep the drinks coming.
Work Cited
Beowulf. Trans. Frederick Rebsamen. New York: HarperPerennial, 1991.
The movie “Philadelphia” shows our society in the workforce and the discrimination that can take place because of an illness or sexual orientation. In this movie Andy Beckett, a fully competent Philadelphia lawyer, is fired from the firm wheeler & Co. because he has AIDS and because he is homosexual. According to the statutes, the American with Disabilities Act, it is unlawful for an employer to fire an individual because of a terminal illness such as cancer or in this case AIDS. Moreover in the movie Andy was diagnosed with HIV, and he does not tell his supervisors in the firm for his sickness and that he is homosexual. However this does not impede the man’s performance, and if the illness does not impede in the performance in the job, the employer has not reason to fire you. Which in this case is not true because more often the law and morality are not one and the same. For example in the movie Charles Wheeler, the senior partner who assigned Andy a very important case in which a very important letter of that case was misplaced, so they accused Andy for that incident and they also ...
A more thorough investigation of The Great Gatsby is necessary to uncover a well-disguised theme by Fitzgerald in this work. Upon a simple read through one would probably not notice the great similarities of Jay Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson, but the two characters seemed to have the same agenda for their lives. While Gatsby took the route of acquiring money at all costs to join the upper class of society and to be acceptable in the eyes of a woman, Myrtle chose to make her way up in society at the cost of her marriage by attaching herself to money. The underlying question is who had the most success.
Such as in Fig. 5 where we can see a blue backlight that illustrates a lone figure walking down a path and a lit streetlight at the front depicts a mood of isolation and evokes uneasiness in the audience as though the figure is being
Beowulf outlines turmoil between three opponents: Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the Dragon. These separate discords each serve to fulfill different metaphoric purposes. Grendel’s character epitomizes the adverse persona of how an Anglo-Saxon warrior should not be. His mother represents everything that a woman during the time era should seldom be. Lastly, the Dragon embodies all the values that an Anglo-Saxon king should not dare retain. Without a doubt, the symbolic implications of the monsters in Beowulf bring the context to a new level of understanding.
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
There are three prominent monsters in the Beowulf text, Grendel, his mother, and the dragon. While the dragon proves to be the most fatale of foes for Beowulf, Grendel and his mother do not simply pose physical threats to the Germanic society; their roles in Beowulf are manifold. They challenge the perceptions of heroism, a sense of unrivalled perfection and superiority. Moreover, they allow the reader to reconsider the gender constructs upheld within the text; one cannot help but feel that the threat that these monsters present is directed towards the prevalent flaws in Beowulf’s world. Moreover, what makes these monsters is not their physical appearance; it is what they embody. Both Grendel and his mother have humanlike qualities yet their monstrous appearance arises from what their features and mannerisms represent. The challenge they pose to societal paradigms makes them far more terrifying to our heroes than any scaled flesh or clawing hand. These monsters provide the ‘most authoritative general criticism […] of the structure and conduct of the poem’. Their presence provides contrast and criticism of the brave society (Heaney 103).
King Hrothgar once again looks toward Beowulf to take care of another monster. To get ready for this battle Beowulf wears armor and uses the Horting sword which has never lost in battle. Once again Beowulf shows his courage by deciding to go to the bottom of the monster filled swamp and fight alone. Fighting off monsters on his way down, Beowulf reached the bottom where he was met by Grendel 's mother. He tried to cut her head off with Horting, but she is too strong. Beowulf takes a sword made for giants off the wall, and uses his super strength to cut the mother 's head off. As a trophy of this battle Beowulf finds the body of Grendel in a corner and decides to take his head back to the mead hall. Hrothgar celebrates another victory by once again throwing a large celebration where they gave more gifts to Beowulf and the Geats. After two battles, Beowulf decides it is time for him and his men to head back to their homeland. Continuing to show courage, honor, and strength Beowulf states that if the Danes ever have anymore problems with monsters he will help protect
Some may argue that the quality of medical treatment and technology are the most important attributes to a successful recovery. Relman stayed at two hospital facilities during his recovery. The first was Massachusetts General Hospital, and the second was the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Cambridge. Both facilities belonged to the Partners Health System and, therefore, had similar technologies available. Relman mentions multiple times that his care at Spaulding, as opposed to Massachusetts General, was “sometimes excellent but often inadequate.” (Relman) He came to these conclusions based on how he was personally treated as a patient, rather than based on the quality of the treatments. At Spaulding, multiple physicians treated Relman. His main physician went on vacation so multiple associates stepped in to check up on him throughout his stay. None of these associates made him feel comfortable as a patient. They tended strictly to his dire needs and did not spend much time with him beyond primary...
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.
It is often misread that women in Beowulf are presented as compliant to men, displaying them as the weaker gender of the human species. In the world of Beowulf, women serve as peace-weavers, cup-bearers, gift-givers and even monsters, all of which at first glance appear as inferior roles. Many examiners of Beowulf, who have touched on the role of women, have criticized on the words of Gillian R. Overing who believes they are "marginal, excluded figures." Although the women in Beowulf aren't as prominent as men are, they are not "excluded" from the picture as a whole. In fact, the roles these six women presented in Beowulf have, can be compared to real Anglo-Saxon women who held together nations, bring heirs and future generations into the world, all qualities that are necessary for the Anglo-Saxons to continue to strive. Wealhtheow and Hygd play the role of cup-bearer along with the political stance of queen allowing them to have equality among men. Freawaru and Hildeburh are what Anglo-Saxons consider peace-weavers which mend together nations if handled the right way. Then there are Grendel's mother and Modthryth who are described as monsters due to their aggressiveness as women, which is sought to be an unnatural trait that only males should hold. Lastly we have the few unnamed women that play roles similar or equal to the ones mentioned above but with little coverage or knowledge from the author for them to have no name. This essay will go further into the world of women in Beowulf and how their roles play in not only the poem, but also in Anglo-Saxon culture using Seamus Heaney’s translation.
Beowulf is an epic tale written over twelve hundred years ago. In the poem, several different female characters are introduced, and each woman possesses detailed and unique characteristics. The women in Beowulf are portrayed as strong individuals, each of whom has a specific role within the poem. Some women are cast as the cup-bearers and gracious hostesses of the mead halls, such as Wealhtheow and Hygd, while others, Grendel's mother, fulfill the role of a monstrous uninvited guest. The woman's role of the time period, author's attitude, and societal expectations for women are evidenced throughout the poem.
and not act out what he saw on the videos. Through the steady diet of grotesque
...y protect their tribe or community, women maintained peace and order in the absence of the men. In reading Beowulf, the portrayal of women could be as servants to the men. In reality, this was just the custom of the culture, and as seen throughout the piece women are addressed with respect and praise on many occasions. Women that received isolation and opposition were those that stood on their own without men to do the “dirty work” of violence. With regards to this, one can assume that women of this time period were seen to hold purity, delicacy, and compassion. In serving men and remaining home, men protected women from the inhumanity in war and loss of beauty in grace. This could all be seen rather than women having the mere role of insignificant slaves. In the Old English tale of Beowulf, the customary position of women in society is in respectfully serving men.
The more lighting, composition, and color are understood by the photographer, the easier it becomes to create photographs that evoke emotions from the viewers. Once again, all of the different aspects of color that are included in one photograph would not be possible without the element of light. These elements combined also enables the photographer to share one’s vision with others. Like most disciplines, once these techniques are routinely used, they become second nature for the
A fundamental introduction to understanding lighting seems to recurrently rely on the interpretation of the eye in relation to light. Several books and articles primarily introduced the subject of lighting by allowing the reader to understand the relativity between the eye and light which allowed me to appreciate why we adapt to light in certain ways. I will further delve into how this effect our mood in the forthcoming paragraphs.