Comparison Between Beowulf and Twelve Nights

By examining the characterization of the hero in the poem Beowulf, we learn about the important aspects of culture in the Anglo-Saxon society. The characters that make Beowulf a hero must be crucial to this society. According to the poem, Beowulf is respectful to his ancestors as well as to his father. Moreover, he is honorable and brave “beloved by his people” (54)”. He believes his great victories and good deeds are his avenues to immortality that is the society will remember him. Even though he appears to the reader as arrogant, he sincerely respects others and at the same time he acknowledges the role of fate in the society. The poem also discloses the instability of life in Anglo-Saxon society. The Anglo-Saxon society had no governing system such as the police force and central government. Then kings were not like the kings we think of today. Knights were not known of as we may think of them or as they appear in the myths of King Arthur’s. All in all, there was instability in the Anglo-Saxon was society.
On the other hand, twelfth night by William Shakespeare depicts a society that is stratified that is people are placed into ranks. The play scorns Malvolio’s fantasies of climbing the social ladder. When Viola cross-dresses as Cesario, she disguises not only her gender but also her social class “…till I had made mine own occasion mellow, what my estate is. (1.2.45-46)”. The lack of determinacy in the sexual identity of Viola and Cesario illustrates that femaleness and maleness are not absolute somatic characteristics, but rather they are just features of a role that can be acquired through learning.

The three interesting literary devices used by Beowulf to communicate their ideas includes kennings these are phrases that are used to represent other things they mostly serve as a memory device in the poem for the poet. An example of kenning in the poem Beowulf includes “whale-road” to represent the sea, “battle-sweat” to represent blood and “blood ember to represent axe. Alliteration is another literary device that is used to communicate ideas in the poem Beowulf. Alliteration is characterized by the reiteration of consonant sounds in different lines of poetry. Alliteration serves the poem for mood, tone, and rhythm. Examples from the poem include “…he slipped through the door and there in silence snatched up thirty men, smashed them…” (Line 36-37). The other literary device used in the poem is caesuras these are breaks in the line of the poem. An example of caesura include “… swaddled in flames, it came gliding and flexing and racing toward its fate (719-720). On the other hand, twelfth night uses personification and metaphor to communicate its idea. For instance in response to the mourning of her brother Olivia’s says “what a plague means my niece, to take the death of her brother thus? I am sure care’s an enemy of life. (Act 1, scene3). In reality, Olivia does not have a plague. However, she has succumbed to sorrow. In the line where he says “care’s an enemy of life,” he implies that she should not be afraid since worrying will not do her good. Another literary device used in the play is personification the author uses personification to describe his clothes when asked to confine “within the modest limits of order” he says “… confine! I’ll confine myself to finer than I am: these clothes are good enough to drink in and so be these boot to they be not, let them hang themselves in their own trap (Act 1, Scene3). The personification comes out clearly in the portrayal of boots hanging themselves in real sense bots cannot hang themselves boots are not people.

Beowulf is an example of an epic that talks about the glorious past. However, it is not just I the past for 21st-century reader this piece of literature is set in the distance past. Beowulf was set in an environment with different tribes the Danes, the Geats and the Swedes. These tribes lived in constant warfare amongst themselves. In the setting of this piece of literature revenge killings and blood-feuds were common. The heroic conduct was the most important aspect of these tribes as warriors were highly treasured. Twelfth night, on the other hand, is set in an imaginary dukedom. Twelfth Night is set in Illyria initially known as the Adriatic Sea. The period the play was set is not obvious to the reader. The play is based on a typical story that was prevalent during Shakespeare’s time of two family member separated and the misunderstandings between them. The setting of this play has so many celebrities such as Lady Olivia single heiress, the famous bachelor and Duke Orsino. The personal lives of all these celebrities are aired just like dirty laundry for readers to see. Even though is set in the land of nobility the places assumed by Olivia often look more of streets of New Orleans. The mood in this unlikely settings is zany, festive and rebellious.
Works cited
Early English Aloud and Alive: Language of Beowulf, Chaucer, and Shakespeare. Films Media Group, 2005.
Shakespeare, William, and Elizabeth Schafer. Twelfth Night. Cambridge UP, 2009.