Theme Of Isolationism In The Seafarer

The Wanderer and The Seafarer coincide through their spiritual and emotional longings to escape the changing society and exile themselves to the sea.
During the Anglo­Saxon time period commoners of this dreary and gruesome time were often surprised with viking raids and the threat of a rapidly changing pagan society. In both poems The Wanderer and The Seafarer we are introduced to the idea of two humble individuals setting themselves apart from their own society and exiling themselves to the sea. The recurring theme in both poems is the obliviousness in the land inhibitors, depicting them as little minded and lacking values in which both The Wanderer and The Seafarer are trying to maintain. "Who could understand, In ignorant ease, what we others suffer As the paths of exile stretch endlessly on?" ( The Seafarer , lines 55­57) In accordance to our first theme, we also become acquainted with the everlasting reference of moving out of our own realm and into the next through death. "How one by one proud warriors vanish From the halls that knew them, and day by day All this earth ages and droops unto death." ( The Wanderer , lines 55­57) Overall both Anglo­Saxons set forth in exploration to perhaps escape the unknown …show more content…
The shift of religion, materialism, and loss of family and friends has sent both into a content state of mind and reveals a change in mood. No longer do they reflect so much on the tragedies, but rather on making it through the rough patches. Lines sixty­four through sixty­seven in The Seafarer refer back to the mutual belief in God and abolish the idea of earthly possessions stating, "The wealth Of the world neither reaches to Heaven nor remains." ( The Seafarer , lines 64­67). After losing their loved ones it becomes apparent that life is no longer about what is in possession, but the people around