What Are Gender Roles In Grendel's Unsuccessful

Mothers in film are often seen as monstrous because they are at the apex of critical analysis. In both the text Beowulf and the film Kill Bill: Volume 1 there are fierce mothers that seem to be monstrous. Although the roles they play as mothers are not ideal, it is evident that they have love for their children and seek vengeance on those who have taken their child’s lives. Both of these mother’s appear to be monstrous in their own ways. However, they are not monstrous mothers but they do have monstrous qualities. The monstrous is defined as: diverging from the norm, seeming evil or having ill-intent, emotionless, hateful, unremorseful, uncontrollable, immoral, and characterized by appearing unattractive, having an ugly or frightening appearance, acting inhumanely, evil, or wrong, frightening actions, seeming uncontrollable and irrational. …show more content…
Women who do not adhere to these mothering roles are considered monstrous or bad mothers. In Beowulf, Grendel’s father is only mentioned and he clearly plays no role in Grendel’s life and seems not to matter at all. However, Grendel is the monstrous one and so is his mother because she is blamed for the turn out of her son and no blame is ever put on the absence of Grendel’s father. It is mentioned that Grendel’s father may have been a descendant of Cain or Cain himself, so Grendel has “the mark of Cain” but his monstrosity is still blamed on his mother. His father’s existence is almost completely neglected throughout the