Femininity In Beowulf

In medieval works such as Le Morte Darthur, Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Book of Margery Kempe, it is clear that the social restrains represented in the literatures that were imposed on women had undergone a drastic change through time. Since Grendel offers an alternative view on the epic poem of Beowulf by narrating through the eyes of the “monster”, its portrayal of women’s role in society should be a reflection of the social system during the middle age. During the early period, women’s roles were very mundane and they were not given much responsibility beyond the confines of their home. As time goes on, however, the female role progressively became more prominent as women learned to be more opinionated and began to …show more content…
These unrestricted women are seen as rebels, who are undermining an older order of gendered behavior and are demonstrating that they can take on the same tasks and think on par with their male counterparts. Similarly, in canonical fairy tales, females represented by the protagonists are portrayed as traditional and likable figures to the extent that the heroine enjoys the much coveted “femininity” that brings rewards of its own. As seen in The Sleeping Beauty, many of Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm’s female characters are "passive, silent, industrious, and rewarded with riches and a man to support them, while male models [are] destined to seek out adventure and take as their reward passive, silent, industrious females." (Jarvis, l06). A typical female audience may associate herself with the character for the reward the heroine obtains; in this sense, The Sleeping Beauty denotes a promise for females to dream and to continue dreaming to be "saved" by the prince one day. Thus, the everlasting dream of "living happily ever after" is passed down from one generation to the next, as a form of