Gender Roles In Beowulf

Have you ever read a book that you really enjoyed? And then you watch the movie only to find that the directors decided change it up a bit, well in the Beowulf poem and movie, there were many similarities and differences that we can explore. The Beowulf poem is one of the oldest told stories in the world, the poem was originally told verbally by the Anglo-Saxon scops and not translated until much later, and was altered in some ways. The poem told of a brave, honorable, loyal and truthful hero who travels across the sea, to rid the land of monsters and creatures. He gloriously slayed all the monsters and died an honorable death after slaying a dragon. In the Beowulf movie and poem, there are many similarities and differences in the gender roles, …show more content…
In both the poem and movie the role of women are quite similar, both gave women somewhat of a subservient role, as they were referred to as the keepers of the mead in the poem and in the movie the women always serve the soldiers and even Wealhtheow acted as servant to the Hrothgar and Beowulf. The men were also shown as strong warriors, while the women were depicted as frail and weak, which reflects the mistaken ideas of both the Anglo-Saxon and modern societies where the men are favored. Although the role of the women were pretty similar, in the movie the women were given bigger parts in the movie. For example, in the movie we noticed a theme where the women were more seductive to get the men to do things, like when Grendel’s mother seduced both Hrothgar and Beowulf in order to secure her safety. You can notice a lot of comparison between the movie version and the modern way we act, which the directors were trying to appeal …show more content…
In the poem Beowulf is the absolute hero, he’s brave, honest, strong, loyal and more, he fought courageously for the glory of god. Unfortunately his behavior alters a bit in the movie, which could be the directors trying to appeal to the modern audience. Some similar behavior traits of Beowulf is the way he would boast about his accomplishments, for example in both the movie and poem Beowulf tells the stories of the monsters and creatures that he has slain to impress the people in Herot. This reflects both societies because the Anglo-Saxons were known to boast to their fellow warriors and tell stories of the thing they did, in the modern world we notice somewhat of the same thing with athletes but with a little more humility. Unlike the similarities, Beowulf’s behavior had many differences, in the movie we see a hero who lies and isn’t quite loyal. In the poem Beowulf defeats Grendel’s mother and rids their land of evil, but in the movie Beowulf becomes seduced by her and lies to Hrothgar and the Geats, boasting of the epic battle between the two, even though the evil witch lived unharmed. In our modern society we see a lot of examples of men who change their behavior for a women, in this case Beowulf’s behavior is changed in the movie due to the sexual influence from our modern