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Theme Of Duty In Beowulf

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In Beowulf, the most prominent theme is the duty. A duty to be fulfilled by the person that is assigned to. It gives characters in the poem unique identity because of their devotion to duty. This means the warrior must fulfill his obligations to protect the people of the land and risk his life for their king. It also applies to women, in Beowulf, a woman's duty is to entertain the men as well as to serve a symbol of peace. Duty is the force that controls how the characters in the poem and interact. The fulfillment of one’s assigned duty would bring prosperous life filled with rewards while the failure to perform one’s assign duty would result in a life of misery.
The obligation to fulfill duty is the code which warriors (thanes) in the poem embrace and adhere to. There is a clear-cut network of social duties depicted in the poem. They sail across the monstrous sea and its weather …show more content…

Another side of the story where people fails to perform their duty. Unlike other queens, Queen Modthryth was a queen that would “punish the innocent” thus failing to perform her duty as a peacemaker or a hostess. “A queen should weave peace” and not “perpetrated terrible wrongs”. She frightens the people of the land because of her unqueen-like behavior. She was married off to Offa and became “less of a bane to people’s lives. For not performing her duty, she was married off to a random man as a punishment. Her reputation as a queen will also remain tinted as a queen that “perpetrated terrible wrongs”. Another example of people that are unable to perform a duty is the coward men that left Beowulf alone with the dragon. They ran in fear of the dragon and fails to defend their kings thus failing to perform their duty. As a result, they didn’t receive any of the honor, glory, or any of the behemoth of the treasure. If they were to stay, they would be awarded and receive respect and honor, which is the fundamental thing every warrior

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