Manly Men, Or Not: Comparing Masculine Strength and Weakness in Beowulf and Of Mice and Men

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Societal gender norms tell us men that are supposed to be strong, virile and masculine. They are not supposed to be weak, indecisive or-god forbid-sensitive.

At least that's what stereotypes and gender binaries tell us. But such norms are human conventions, and humans are of course imperfect beings. One should always consider the source where they get their gender roles from.

Yet, this mythologized concept of masculinity is commonplace in nearly all of the world's civilizations for millennia. Even today, in our post-feminist world, the uber-masculine with its unfettered sexual prowess and penchant for violent action films (again, stereotype) still saturates our daily lives. Take a look at an alcohol ad sometime and you'll see what we mean: barely clothed women, sport themes and manly men. Yep. It's pretty brash.

If one were to search the literary epitome of Dos Equis "Most Interesting Man in the World," one would easily come to Beowulf. Beowulf, the old English epic poem about a heroic warrior who slays dragons, menacing monsters and even their overbearing mothers, is laden with ancient testosterone. It's certainly no surprise Hollywood producers thought to make Beowulf into a feature film and cast a sexy Angelina Jolie-even though she's supposed to be an ugly monster. Beowulf's masculine vibe is, of course, sourced from his strength, skill and success. In fact, strength is a major theme of the poem. It would have to be, if the warrior of the story needed to live at the end. Beowulf the man goes to extreme lengths to prove his ability and strength-he swims to the bottom of lakes, saves entire towns and even violently slaughters Grendel in hand-to-hand combat when he could have just used his sword. He's a bit a of a showoff, but you gotta flaunt what your mama gave you.

While Beowulf stands as the man's man of English literature, gender and strength become more complicated as time goes on in literary canons. For example, take John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. In the novel, the men are constantly undermined or made to appear weak, creating a tension-ridden story and plot in the equally disempowering Great Depression. Lenny, though extremely strong of body, is also extremely weak of mind. His buddy, George, is financially powerless in achieving his dream of owning his own ranch and Curley? Well, Curley's got an Napoleon complex that causes him to overcompensate for his short stature with endless bullying and pugnacious behavior all in effort to assert his manhood, even though the former boxer's hand is later symbolically crushed like a soda can.

These weaknesses, of course, feed into the novel's overall psychological and social commentary of the time when the country's economic woes left a once powerful and daresay masculine nation weak and unstable. What's more, the male weaknesses also reveal the security and pride men are believed to derive from the masculine abilities. They pay for sex or obstain from female relations at all, like George, suggesting a lack of virility that comes with manliness. They are essential powerless, the antithetical situation to masculinity. They are all striving to be Beowulfs, but end up being Lennys and Georges. Whether it's a gang like in The Outsiders or a pack of impoverished men in the great depression, they all want to feel like Beowulf. At least that's what social gender norms tell us.

Paul Thomson is an avid reader of English Literature. His areas of expertise include Of Mice and Men, Beowulf and The Outsiders. In his spare time, he loves to participate in online literature forums and promote reading for youth.

Who Really Wrote Wuthering Heights?

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Emily Bronte, right? More than likely, but how much of the book did she write? Assuming she wrote in a linear structure then, once she'd killed off Cathy Linton (nee Earnshaw), she was left with a male protagonist; Heathcliff. And writing from a man's point of view, even when the man in question is your own creation, is difficult to convey with any degree of integrity. Particularly when you, as the writer, are posing as Mr. Ellis Bell. Content needs that ring of truth, that sense of genuineness. Writing from experience, from the heart, opens the potential for that unique connection from writer to reader that we long to achieve.

I believe that Patrick Branwell Bronte, the much maligned brother of the wickedly talented Emily, Charlotte and Anne, wrote most of the second half of the novel, taking over the storyline from Emily after Cathy Linton died (page 203, Wordsworth Classics, 1992 edition). If we accept that much of the input after this point was Branwell's, is it not fair then to claim co-authorship on his behalf? That is the basis of my argument.

Branwell may not have been published, as his sisters were, but he was a writer; he contributed to the stories of Gondol and Angria along with his sisters and, as with Emily, he wrote poetry. How much input did he have with Wuthering Heights? They were both at Haworth at the time the novel was written (between 1845 and 1846) so his contributing was always a likelihood. The question is, how much did he contribute?

Emily knew a man who was just like Heathcliff and she'd certainly, physically at least. based him on her brother. Patrick Branwell Bronte, from his rare portraits, could be described as Emily described Heathcliff; wild, dark hair, a low brow, penetrating eyes. He too had an affair with a married woman, he was dissolute and wild, he drank too much, gambled and even had tried to go abroad after his affair came to nothing. Emily's brother, Patrick Branwell Bronte, was Heathcliff.

It is interesting to ponder how much influence he exerted over his sister as she sat in her kitchen at Haworth, creating Wuthering Heights. Certainly the coincidental evidence mounts up; Heathcliff had an affair (or at least a relationship so uncomfortably close that Cathy's husband Edgar banned Heathcliff from Thrushcross Grange); Branwell had an affair with his employer's wife, Mrs. Robinson of Throp Green and was expelled from the property. Heathcliff went abroad for three years; Branwell placed an advert in the Halifax Guardian for a position which would take him abroad. Heathcliff drank heavily and gambled, winning the deeds to Wuthering Heights as a result; Branwell drank and gambled; although was to become heavily in debt. Heathcliff could roam the moors all day long; no doubt Branwell enjoyed the freedom of the moors on his doorstep his sisters could only taste within the limits of the chaperoned curtailment common for women of the day.

If Emily were to choose a collaborator for Wuthering Heights, who better than the primary character himself? She would need someone who could take the Heathcliff character and run with him, particularly after Cathy had died. This was Emily's first novel, she was not an experienced writer as Charlotte was. However her sister's style was completely different - tamer, more spiritual. Charlotte might have preferred a romantic ending and that wasn't what the book was about. Cathy, wild, tempestuous and utterly selfish was no meek Jane Eyre. And as for Heathcliff, the remaining, now central, character; he was certainly no fluctuating Professor and was a far darker personality than Rochester, who's motives could at least be traced back to logic and reason, albeit skewed logic and vague reasoning. Heathcliff was not based on the character of a gentleman, but was as untamed as the moor, as feral as a wolf and as dangerous as a panther. Emily had created a character unique in literature, a man ungovernable except by Cathy,

Also, consider this; Emily has created a group of characters, foremost are Cathy and Heathcliff, with the majority of the tale being provided through the narrative of the housekeeper, Nelly. This devise provides the writer with the female perspective necessary to convey real, truthful women, under the drama, with whom other women, the readers, can relate. However, when it comes to getting under the skin of Heathcliff, his degenerative state of health, both physical and mental, his heavy drinking, the affair with a married woman (although Emily wasn't specific on this aspect of Cathy and Heathcliff's relationship) who could be more adept than her own brother, Branwell? Bearing in mind also the assumed masculine persona of the writer, Ellis Bell, this would be a necessary consideration for reasons of more than just the integrity of the book. If it was supposed to have been written by a man, as it was when it was published in 1847, then the male perspective becomes necessary or the voice of the writer becomes confusing, muddled.

To bring another argument in, although this is just as an aside, we do know that the Brontes, as a family, knew the value of a shilling. Charlotte's friend Mrs. Elizabeth Gaskell reported how, following Charlotte's death in 1854, Charlotte's father cut up his daughters letters into strips to sell to interested members of the public. The idea of retaining the concept of three brilliant sisters who wrote novels is perhaps more of a money-spinner than two brilliant authors and Emily, who co-wrote with her brother. It just doesn't have the same 'kerching'. Perhaps this is too cynical; but it's worth considering. Art for art's sake, money.... Charlotte and Ann had revealed the true identities of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell to their publisher, going down to London for the purpose, in 1848.

Branwell Bronte was only 31 when he died of chronic bronchitis / consumption on 28th September 1848 at his home in Haworth. Just a few short months later, on 19th December of the same year when she was just 30 years old, Emily too died at Haworth. Heathcliff, and Wuthering Heights, live on.

Great Expectations and the Bildungsroman Genre

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Charles Dickens's Great Expectations (1861) charts the growth of its protagonist Pip from childhood to adulthood. The narrative mode Dickens has adopted aligns his novel with the Bildungsroman genre of literature. The term Bildungsroman is a German word meaning 'novel of formation' or 'education novel'. The following analysis explores some of the episodes within Great Expectations which illustrate the conventions of the Bildungsroman form. The excerpts are from the Oxford World's Classics 1998 edition of the text.

A Bildungsroman novel frequently puts an emphasis on the moral and psychological development of its protagonist. Morality is an important theme in Great Expectations, particularly in relation to Pip's attitude towards other characters. The story's opening immediately establishes the protagonist's orphaned status with the young Pip contemplating the graves of his dead parents. The figure of the 'orphan' illustrates Dickens's innovative engagement with the Bildungsroman genre, as Pip could be viewed as a blank slate, or 'tabula rasa', in that his mind isn't informed by any external psychological influence from his parents. Instead he is being raised by his shrewish older sister and her husband, the kindly and unassuming blacksmith Joe Gargery.

Initially Pip is content with his humble surroundings, although his class consciousness receives a rude awakening on his first visit to Satis House. Here he encounters Miss Havisham and her ward Estella, the latter of whom takes delight in continually reminding the protagonist of his lowly status. When Estella remarks on Pip's 'coarse hands' and 'thick boots', and his habit of calling knaves 'Jacks' when they are playing cards together, she is expressing her contempt of his background. Even though Pip is hurt by her taunts, he still becomes infatuated with Estella, and it is this attraction which triggers his own animosity towards his origins.

Sometime after Pip has come of age and has been working in the forge with Joe, the lawyer Jaggers informs him of an anonymous benefactor who wishes to make the protagonist a gentleman. Incorrectly Pip assumes this benefactor to be Miss Havisham, and starts to entertain the belief that the old spinster intends him for Estella. This episode heralds a great advance in the protagonist's own snobbery and delusion, as he sets off for London, putting his origins in the Kent marshlands behind him.

While Pip is enjoying the leisurely life of a gentleman in the capital, he receives a letter from his old acquaintance Biddy, stating that Joe has come up to London and would like to visit him. Pip's disdain for the blacksmith is revealed in his reservations concerning such a prospect: "If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money" (pp.215-216). When the protagonist returns to his hometown for his sister's funeral, his snobbery is further evinced on his insistence at staying in the Blue Boar inn in town, as opposed to the forge with Joe.

A pivotal episode in the novel is when Abel Magwitch, the escaped convict of whom Pip had assisted when a boy, pays a sudden visit. The protagonist is utterly horrified and his shallow world comes crashing down around him when Magwitch reveals that he is his benefactor. Pip learns that the former convict has since successfully established himself in a profitable business after being transported to Australia and never forgot Pip's kindness to him on the Kent marshes. Pip meanwhile admits that his "blood ran cold within me" (p.316), when the convict discloses that it was he who made the protagonist a gentleman.

After this shocking revelation Pip's snobbery slowly subsides and he sets about redeeming himself, first by attempting to assist the imperiled Magwitch in escaping the country, second by making his peace with Joe. His actions are evidence of the Bildungsroman narrative's preoccupation with moral and psychological development. Pip's final exchange of wealth and status for friendship and humility indicate how he has matured as a protagonist.

Visit The Literary Index for more literary criticism of books by Charles Dickens, as well as links to academic essays I have found on the net discussing the works of hundreds of other authors.
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