Analyzing the character of Queen Modthryth (post #3)


For my third blogpost, I have chosen to analyze lines describing Queen Modthryth. I chose to write about her for my close reading because she is my favorite character so far in this story, even though she seems evil. The first thing I found interesting was from lines 1940-1941, “Even a queen outstanding in beauty must not overstep like that.” This quote reveals that the idea of the perfect woman at this time was very shallow. I believe it is shallow because the men basically said if Queen Modthryth was not attractive then her behavior would be unacceptable. In this culture, looks prove to be very important for the women. Next, I wanted to address the following lines, “A Queen should weave peace, not punish the innocent with loss of life for imagined insults.” To apply this to today’s culture, woman definitely do not enjoy being cat called, in fact it angers us. I feel that Queen Modthryth feels angry because men that she does not want attention from are bothering her. Obviously, I am not saying it is ok that she is murdering the men but I do think that there is a similarity there that the men from this time are ignoring. They believe that all women want this kind of attention and the Queen of Modthryth is the only woman depicted that is willing to stand up to it. Also, the men of this culture are killing machines, people are being killed left and right in this story in gruesome ways. This is a very violent culture but the woman are restricted from acting as violent as the men do. So, obviously then the men have to put a stop to the Queen’s behavior. Also, the men must stop Modthryth because she is woman and cannot being acting as violent as the men do. In conclusion, I just find this part of the text to be hypocritical.

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 14, 2017 at 7:37 PM

    I agree, I think it's very interesting that Beowulf is allowed to just go into another kingdom and volunteer to kill their enemies for them, including Grendel's mother, just because she retaliated for her son's murder, but Queen Modthryth is terribly overstepping. I wondered while reading that if those men really weren't just looking; if perhaps something more was going on. You bring up culture, and I wonder too if when Modthryth is married off to another king and suddenly becomes known for her goodness; maybe there was a cultural difference, and maybe Modthryth didn't change at all. Or, what I think is more likely, if the men Modthryth killed in her homeland really had wronged her, maybe she changed in marriage only because she was able to get away from the people who had hurt and abused her, and then ignored it and blamed her for being a terrible, overstepping woman.

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