Beowulf is a story that leaves the reader no pause between climaxes. Beowulf is a non-stop barrage of action. However, as any epic tale, Beowulf provides important insight into the early Anglo-Saxon culture. Just as the great Greek tragedies provide Greek beliefs of Godlike traits and Godlike behaviors, Beowulf provides an insight into the role of women in society.
In Beowulf, good Anglo-Saxon women are viewed as the ultimate homemaker. They are unassertive in their demeanor, ask very little and have the job of serving guests and warriors in the mead hall. There are two female figures we see in this story, Hrothgars wife, Queen Wealhtheow and Grendel’s mother. Queen Wealhtheow is viewed as the atypical Danish woman. She is subservient and sticks fairly close to the guidelines of a “good” Danish woman. Her foil Grendel’s Mother (we’ll call her Mary for convenience) is a monster and is strong, assertive and to top the list, a murderer. The author/composers view on the subject is fairly obvious. He (I am assuming it was a he) praises Wealhtheow, but condemns Mary. By doing so, the author is showing the need to suppress feminine forces. He does, however, offer some criticism of these views by creating sympathy for Mary, allowing Wealhtheow to assert herself in the interest of her husband and children, and revealing masculine fear of feminine power.
Wealhtheow is a stabilizing factor in an otherwise tumultuous world. The term “peace-keeper” has been extended to mean “stabilizer”. 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. When the author first introduces Wealhtheow to his audience, she immediately falls into her role as the model woman. The author writes:
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The evolution of men and women, how the roles in society have changed. Over the last five hundred or so years women have come a long way. We have seen in the Sixteen hundreds arranged marriages where the woman had no say in the union, and the relationships were is based on money or prestige (Shakespeare 1668). Presently we see love is the driving factor. In 1997 a study was done to say forty-six ...
“Then the lady of Helminngs walked about in the hall, offering the precious ornamented cup to old and young alike, until at last the queen, excellent in mind, adorned with rings moved the mead cup towards Beowulf.” (612-6).
The author then reinforces that she is a member of the weaker gender by directing Wealhtheow to her proper position beside the king, her lord. When the queen is not serving drinks or greeting the hall guests, she may usually be found obediently following Hrothgar throughout the meadhall and “waiting for hope-news”.
However, as queen, Wealhtheow shows her intelligence and ability to control men. Following Beowulf’s fearless victory over Grendel, Wealhtheow offers a toast to the Geats and gives Beowulf rewards for his heroism. She tells Beowulf:
“May you, Beowulf, beloved youth, enjoy with all doog fortune this necklace and corslet, treasures of the people; may you always prosper; win renown through courage, and be kind in your counsel to these boys; for that I will reward you further. ” (1204-8).
Wealhtheow cleverly uses this opportunity to safeguard her two children from the outsider Beowulf and to ensure that they will be the heirs to the throne. During her toast to the large crowd of Danes and Geats, Wealhtheow turns to the king and announces:
“I am convinced that gracious Hrothulf will guard our children justly, should he outlive you, lord of the Scyldings, in this world; I believe he will repay our sons most generously if he remembers all we did for his enjoyment when he was a boy.”(1170-5).
In this display of cunning, Wealhtheow cleverly brings up the subject before a large crowd. This almost compels Hrothulf to take care of Wealhtheow’s children. Wealhtheow also produces emotions of guilt/sentiment in Hrothulf when she makes the comments on line 1170-5.
This sentiment of love by Wealhtheow leads us to Mary. Beowulf robbed her child from her, an act that invokes love for her children much like Wealhtheow’s. In a society of honor and code, she is only trying to do what is righteous. When Beowulf kills her son why doesn’t he pay her Wergild? Her only method of revenge is through attacking the town again, and Beowulf kills her for this. The author lets us know this by invoking some feelings of sympathy for her. The bulk of concern, however, is directed toward Beowulf. Mary, by taking the physical action instead of following Wealhtheow’s passive methods immediately becomes a monster and an “anti-role model” to Anglo Saxon women.
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History Mary Rowlandson was an Indian captive, and also an American writer. She was born in England approximately 1637-1638. She immigrated to Lancaster, Massachusetts with her parents. Joseph Rowlandson became a minister in 1654 and two years later he married Mary. They together had four children, one whom died as an infant, but the others were Joseph, Mary, and Sarah. On February 20, 1676, Mary ...
However, just as we saw a bit of Mary in Wealhtheow (when she takes action to protect her children) we see a bit of Wealhtheow in Mary. Despite the clear favoritism toward Beowulf, the book invokes feelings of sympathy toward Mary by accepting her motive for blood and suggesting a close mother-son bond. When Mary is first introduced she is described as “And then Grendel’s mother, mournful and ravenous, resolved to go on a grievous journey to avenge her sons death”(1265-7).
Therefore, Mary attacks for the sake of revenge, which is certainly more understandable and acceptable than her son’s mindless serial killings. Again, it is important to remember that this culture was indeed one that believed strongly in “getting even” either through the Wergild or through killing another equally prominent member of the family. The book builds more sympathy for Mary by presenting her with a clear emotional bond with her son.
While this might not be something we would expect to see from a book written in a male-dominated society. By giving Mary the gift of emotion, the book makes her seem like a woman, something that should not be associated to such gruesome females. Without this comparison drawn, however, Mary would seem foreign to us. If she was not sorry for the loss of her child or did not lift a finger, she would seem monster than mother. However, when we see her as a woman and then see her being crushed, we realize that the author(s) of this book achieve their goal by
These types of observations leads us to the conclusion that the role of women, while not so rigid as to limit them to only certain actions, restricted them considerably. The book clearly believes and whole-heartedly supports the idea of male dominance. As in an patriarchal society, the book also believes that insurgent females (like Mary) must be suppressed (she was killed).
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Who was Mary Wollstonecraft? Mary Wollstonecraft was a very complex person and to try to completely describe who she was would be impossible. However it’s not impossible to share her life and what she accomplished. Mary was born in 1759 in London; she was the second of six children. Her father was an alcoholic and her mother was a battered house wife. Wollstonecraft tried to protect her mother ...
Like Wealhtheow, females should only exert minimal power and influence, but they should always keep the drinks coming.
