Beowulf And The Wife's Lament Analysis

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Comparative Response Beowulf and The Wife’s Lament Some may argue that the Old English roots do not refer to women much or usually have them to be authors of poetry but I believe that Beowulf has enough female characters and that The Wife’s Lament is indeed the voice of a woman. With this being said are the men and women interrupted with the same perception in both Beowulf and The Wife’s Lament? This is a question that will be answered by comparing these gender roles. I have come to the conclusion that each gender role is perceived the same way in both poems. The women seem to take on the role of a supporter, aid, and peacemaker while the men are portrayed as strong brave warriors battling to protect their family and land. As I reviewed…show more content…
The wife portrayed her husband as the decision maker with a strong dedication to his land and people with the bravery of being a warrior. And in the story of Beowulf the men are discussed as being warriors, strong in fierce battles to protect their kinsmen. There is great importance placed on loyalty and violence. Beowulf describes his violent battles to show his bravery to Hygelac and goes on to explain his intensions of defeating Grendel to gain trust. In line 20 of The Wife’s Lament it does not state where he is but the wife says “secretly minding murder in his heart.” this shows that violence and battles are important. Both poems show great acts of bravery and heroism for the people and land. Both Beowulf and The Wife’s Lament shared many of the same personas about the gender roles during their frame of time. Regardless of which gender wrote the poems they are still perceived with the same context of what the gender roles are. What I envision is strong brave warriors wanting to serve and protect their kinsmen and land with fierce battles to show their great loyalty while women were used as peacemakers with in marriages and between tribes. How do you envision each gender role in these Old English
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