Beowulf lines 1390

In Beowulf, I have reached the point in the plot where Grendel's mother arrives and kills a man. The other men awake to this horrible tragedy and are reacting to the death of a dear friend. Hrothgar, the king, even remarks that the man who died was "a soul-mate to me, a true mentor, my right hand man,... everything the world admires in a wise man and a friend." (1324-1330) It is clear that this sudden and brutal death is traumatizing for the men. However, the immediate reaction is to avenge the death with a show of violence. The line that I really want to analyze is 1384-1385: "Wise sir, do not grieve. It is always better to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning." Throughout the novel, the themes of toxic masculinity were very prevalent. However this line being such a bold and overt statement sort of caught me off guard. Beowulf explicitly states that the men should not be sad over the death of a dear friend, and should instead react with violence. This reinforces the stereotype that men should not be sad, and the only emotion they can freely express is anger. Beowulf begins his speech with those lines, and closes with "Bear up and be the man I expect you to be." (1396) This line is all too reminiscent of the phrase still in use today: "man up", used to discourage boys and men from showing any emotion, even in a situation in which an emotion such as sadness would be warranted.

Comments

  1. Abbey CurranSeptember 11, 2017 at 2:48 PM

    I couldn't agree with you more! Ever since the beginning, it is clear that gender roles are not only defined in terms of male and female, but these roles are shown in primarily extremes throughout this text. For the most part, we do not encounter a character, male or female, that truly embodies traits of the opposite gender. The intensified gender roles lead, especially male characters, to indulge in the ultimate extremes of masculinity that often include violence and displaying themselves as dominant in any given situation.

    In reality, we know that mourning is natural, especially with the tragic and sudden loss of a loved one. I'll be interested to see if at any point in the text, we see a man who is allowed to mourn and show more emotions.

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