Beowulf Gender Roles

Gender role is one of the typical topics that literature has described all time, from 8th century Old English literature like “Beowulf” (translated version by Seamus Heaney) to 18th century modern English literature like” Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen. Both authors are precise and sharp observers of the society’s gender stereotype at their times; and they were able to denounce that practice in their fiction stories by the reconstruction of the whole society with all types of character in their literature works. Both authors do not forthrightly criticize the unfair gender roles practiced in the community; instead, they give characters space and time to develop their own personalities, thoughts, and point of view towards the subject. There
are many evidences and conflicts found within both stories that are virtual and supportive to the above issue that the authors wanted to convey to the audience.
By comparing all these examples in both stories, one can interpret the similarities in many aspects of gender role that both authors perceive in their societies. “Pride and Prejudice” bears a resemblance to “Beowulf” in the way both authors use conversations as a tool to create similar male dominated societies and their associated stereotype towards different genders, as well as the way they create different female models exist in the societies to make their stories more realistic.
With attention to the narrative styles that both authors utilize in their works, readers can concede the similarities in the way they use conversations between characters as the main tool to recreate the whole societies. In Pride and Prejudice, Austen uses progressive characterization, in which characters are allowed to express themselves through thoughts, attitudes, and mainly conversations to reveal the differences in man and woman roles in the 18th century. In the same fashion, Beowulf’s author continuously creates lengthy dialogues as a mean of characterization in order to attain the same purpose. As an illustration, in the argument about Mr. Bennet visiting Mr. Bingley
for the first time, Mrs.
Bennet’s words to Mr. Bennet illustrate that a woman is not allowed to do certain things without permission of her husband. She said “Impossibile, Mr. Bennet, impossible, when I am not acquainted with him myself,...” and “ …I knew I should persuade you at last.” (Pg9) Here, according to Mrs. Bennet, it is impossible for her to introduce herself to Mr. Bingley unless Mr. Bennet meets him first; and secondly, she expresses her happiness when she successfully convinced her husband to go for the visiting trip. This depicts that men are superior in the society and they have more power in the family. Another equally important example found in Pride and Prejudice is when Mr. Darcy refuses to dance with Elizabeth at the ball, he speaks “She is tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.”(Pg13) This again makes it visible to the audience that men are at higher position and they can choose their women. Mr. Darcy consciously
puts himself in a higher position than Elizabeth and she is not worth for him to waste his time. According to examples shown above, Austen is successful in recreating a society, in which men are more important and have more rights than woman. He uses dialogues as a mean of characterization to express the idea that this is a male dominated society. Comparatively to the examples in “Pride and Prejudice”, “Beowulf” also portrays the similar stereotype between man and woman using mainly conversations between male and female characters. The most compelling evidence in this literature work is that when Beowulf is asked to identify himself upon his arrival to the kingdom of the Danes, he immediately introduces himself as follow: “my father was a famous man, a noble warrior-lord named Ecgtheow,…” (line262-263). Every man in the society is known by the father name and history, rather than their mother’s. This demonstrates that women in the society are not as important as the men, and that they have less voice and attention. Moreover, the author intentionally describes the male characters with all their fames and heroic histories but never to mention female characters good characteristics. In brief, by allowing the characters to interact and communicate to each other in dialogues, both authors are able to portray the society as a whole with its existing unequitable favoritism of men over women.
Supportively, there are many similarities in the way both authors create the incidents of women being mistreated by the society; they are relevantly used by both authors to reinforce the idea of the observed stereotype between man and woman discussed above. First thing to notice is that the society in Pride and Prejudice has a certain set of rules of women, on another hand there are none for men. Throughout the story, one can see that it is important for women to have a sensible and rational manner. For this reason, when Lizzy shows up with dirty clothes at Mr. Bingley’s house to visit her sister, it becomes a remarkable issue to Miss. Bingley and Mrs. Hurst. These two ladies in this case represent the society as a whole; they discussed “I could hardly keep my countenance, very nonsensical,…her hair so untidy, so blowsy!”, they asked Mr. Darcy “..you would not wish to see your sister make such an exhibition.”, and Mr. Darcy answered: “Certainty not” (Pg 36). This shows that to the people, it is wrong for a woman to have such an unsuitable manner; women should be clean, beautiful, and presentable at all times. Moreover, women also have to be well educated in art. Indeed, in the conversation between Lady Catherine and Elizabeth, Lady Catherine is so surprised when hearing that only one out of five of the Bennet sisters know how to play piano and none of them knows how to draw. She inquires: “What, none of you? That is very strange.”(pg 161) In short, there are requirements that the society set for women that they must obey. Austen also creates conflicts, which support the idea that it is very important for women to keep their virtue and good reputation unless she will not be able to find a good husband for herself. As a consequence, a woman without a husband means she will have a very poor life and undesired future. This conflict can be observed in the incident of Lydia having affair with Wickham before marriage. Lydia’s relationship with Wickham is disgusted by the society and by her own family but there are no judgment upon Wickham even though Lydia is seen as the victim and Wickham is the culprit. Her family tries their best to make Wickham to marry Lydia because they know that no other man will want to marry Lydia because of her bad reputation. On the other hand, this shows the inequality and maltreatment of society upon different genders; Wickham can do wrong while Lydia cannot because he can easily find other girl without any dependence on Lydia for marriage. The last but not least important incident that Austen creates to expose the unfair nature of the society is that women who cannot inherit their husbands’ or fathers’ estates “due to the laws of primogeniture and strict settlement”.1 Even though Mr. Bennet has five daughters, he cannot distribute his wealth to any of them but only to the next successfully male in the lineage that he has never met, Mr. Collins. This is unmistakable evidence that emphasize the fact that society’s rules are the primary factors that differentiate roles between men and women. Without a good arranged marriage with a husband with good fortune, a woman obviously will face poverty as well as an undesired life. This demonstrates the unequal preference of man over woman in the society that Austen wants to express. With similar examples of unfair treatment of society towards different genders, Beowulf also assures the idea of the existing male dominated society. Unsurprisingly, women in Beowulf’s society are seen as less powerful and important than man. The first example is that even though Wealhtheow is the Queen of the Danes, her only role is to act as just a peace waver or a cup bearer; other than that, she have neither a voice nor the power to make a political decision in her kingdom. Upon the arrival of Beowulf to Denmark, Wealhtheow “went on her rounds, offering the goblet to all ranks, treating the household and the assembled troop until it was Beowulf's turn to take it from her hand.” (lines 620-625) In this case, Wealhtheow is seen more as a servant than as a Queen. In fact, all powerful or unbeatable creatures in the poem are male characters. For example, the physically powerful characters are Beowulf, Shield Sheafson, and Grendel; and the politically powerful character are the Kings: Ecgtheow, Hrothgar, and Hyleac. The only female character that seems to be powerful is Grendel’s mother, who is eventually suppressed and got ridded of. Thus, women have to be dominated by men, and those who do not obey this rule will be eliminated. In summary, both authors provided sufficient evidences to support their point of view that the society perceives women as weaker gender and that they should be lower and dominated by man; which is a mistreat of the society towards women.
Both authors are also very realistic writers in the way they create the societies with all different types of characters, especially different types of female models in the community. With this realistic style of writing, it is more likely for the audience to believe that their stories are demonstrating the real life societies in which stereotype of gender role is common. Notably, besides creating female characters that are being mistreated by the society, Austen in fact focuses more in developing a female protagonist, Elizabeth, as a strong opponent to the society. With a brave and intelligent characteristic, Elizabeth demonstrates a rare female model that exists in the society at the time. Her way of thinking and doing things are way ahead of the time and thus she is different from other women. As an illustration, Elizabeth does not follow the society rule that woman should marry a man with good fortune; instead, she finds herself a man with true romance and love. Opposite of Elizabeth is a second type of female model that the society expects, Jane, who is beautiful, submissive, sensible and rational. The majority of men in the society want their woman like Jane because they can easily have control over her. In addition, Austen also creates a character that can be seen as another version of Elizabeth, Lady Catherine. These two female models are similar in the way that they both have strong soul and are independent of man, but they are different in society class and way of thinking. As an example, Elizabeth continuously refuses proposals of two men who are rich and have high position in the society; and Lady Catherine raises her daughter without any help of a male character. However, Lady Catherine strictly follows the society rule of class differentiation. According to her, it is impossible for a higher class man as Mr. Darcy to marry a lower class woman as Elizabeth. In contrast, Elizabeth does not allow class difference to interfere her in making decision about marriage. As an example, at the first time, Elizabeth has good feelings towards Wickham despite of the fact that he is at lower class than her. Similarly to Pride and Prejudice, Beowulf also illustrate different types of female models at the old time. Wealtheow is similar to Jane in a way that they represent the beauty, the weaker gender, and the obedient to the society rules for women. Wealtheow is the female model that the society expects at her time. In contrast, Grendel’s mother represents the female model that does not obey the society rules. She is similar to Elizabeth in a way that she stands out from the rest of women in the society. Moreover, she has similar characteristics to Lady Catherine since she is powerful and independent of male characters. Just as Lady Catherine, Grendel’s mother raises her son without any mention of her husband. Given all these points, both authors successfully delivered to the audience the picture of the societies at their times by creating different types of characters, especially female models, making their stories more lifelike.