Female Characters in Beowulf

The author shows this through Grendel's mother's unending commitment to the battle against Beowulf, "Up again quickly, she gave him hand- payment/ with a terrible crush, again grabbed him tight" (lines 1541-1542). .
             Because of the negative treatment women were shown during this time, all they could do was accept it and to get right back up after being put down for their gender. Along with being shown as ferocious and uncared about, the author also shows that the only important job women fulfilled was to raise the children in the family. During this age, women were expected to obey their husbands, provide all meals for the family, and care for the children. Men were seen as too powerful to be the caretaker and relied on their wives' to do all of the household work. The author uses Grendel's mother to show the little power women had through her fighting scene, "She sat on her hall-guest and drew her broad knife,/ a sharp weapon, to buy back her son,/ her only kinsman" (lines 1545-1547). The author uses the knife to symbolize the only little power Grendel's mother had as a woman against man. This portrays the idea that women are seen as less and only had the power to fulfill their role as the caretaker for their children. .
             Along with Grendel's mother's actions, the characteristics that were given to her, and also to Beowulf himself throughout the passage, display how women were seen. During this fight, Grendel's mother is given savage characteristics while Beowulf, on the other hand, is described as a prince who cannot lose. First of all, the mother is said to be "war- thirsty" and "fierce and kill greedy" which when one hears those characteristics, would never think of a as woman possessing them (lines 1497-1599). As the two are fighting, "she snatched him up, seized the good warrior/ in her horrible claws" (lines 1501-1502). Note that the author uses 'good warrior' to describe Beowulf in the same line as Grendel's mother having 'horrible claws' to portray how men were seen to be looked upon women and to always have a higher status.