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Women's Role In The Anglo-Saxon Era

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Women in the Anglo-Saxon Era
In the Anglo Saxon period did women play an important role? Literature in the Anglo-Saxon period women usually played a significant part. The roles of women impacted characters and plot points, women like Lady Macbeth with her ability to manipulate people, the old women from “The Wife of Bath” to the queen from “Gawain and the Green Knight” who gave Gawain all had an important role.
From the play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth impacted the plot and forced the main character into changing his mind set. Lady Macbeth questioned Macbeth’s man hood to attempt to convince him to kill Duncan. After commenting on Macbeth’s weak ambition Lady Macbeth stated, “When you durst do it, then you are a man; and to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man” (I, vii, 49). For Lady Macbeth to be able to convince her …show more content…

Firstly, the queen tested Gawain loyalty with seduction and gifts. For example, “she held toward him a ring of the yellowest gold […] But right away he refused it” (Pearl Poet 198). The queen wanted to test his knightly hood. Later the queen offers a green sash with great value but says, “For the man who goes to battle in this green lace […] For nothing on earth uncanny, can kill him” (Pearl Poet 232). Hearing this the queen gave Gawain enough hope to think he has a chance to survive his encounter with the green knight but in the beginning Gawain considered his life to be worth nothing. When the encounter occurred the Green knight noticed the sash and said, “But since it was not for the sash itself or lust but because you loved your life I blame you less” (Pearl Poet 259). Gawain’s loyalty was tested by the queen and then the sash was given for passing his test, which helped him survive the strike from the green knight. The fact the queen had a huge impact on the story ending which proves women have a

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In the play Sir Gawain and The Green knight there are many different times throughout the book, that involve characters using different forms of deception. However; I think the biggest use of deception is when Bertilak uses his wife in order to test Sir Gawain’s loyalty, but also to achieve his motive, which was to cause Sir Gawain to feel as if he was a failure. Bertilak’s wife enters Sir Gawain’s bedroom on a mission to make Sir Gawain fall into temptation, and of course the first thing Sir Gawain really notices is Lady Bertilak’s beauty. “Her Face was sweet, Her skin was white and Pink; she spoke like birds, Singing, and her small lips laughed” (Page 95). This makes the point that beauty can be very deceiving, explaining why Bertilak would use that to his advantage.

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