Sarmiento's Play 'Women In Beowulf'

In Beowulf play, women are considered equally as men and they do not seems to centered around male action but they exist in order to make their city a better and more peaceful place to live for the peasants. As Sarmiento mentions in the essay, “men were referred to as wæpnedhealf (weapon-half) or sperehealf (spear-half) and women were wifhealf (wife-half) or spinelhealf (spindle-half)”, which indicates that both women and men are working together instead of making the men to dominate over the women. Additionally, the female character, Wealtheow, represents the wisdom and power in Beowulf play because in the play, she smartly uses her wisdom to defeat the evils and overcomes the tough tasks that the citizens face; and after Beowulf defeats Grendel’s mother, Wealtheow gives Beowulf a lot of valuable things that also build her as a powerful character.

For example, in the original text it describes Wealtheow as “noble lady” but it turns out that she is “passing only as either giving men drinks or silently sitting beside Hrothgar”. Also, Sarmiento states Laws of Aethelbert in his essay that shows the equal social status of both men and women during Beowulf’s era and it is true that in Beowulf, typical female character such as Wealtheow can make any decision she wants without having to ask her husband, so that I think Beowulf play does not have the stereotype of