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Women And Mourning In Literature
In English literature it is not unusual to encounter a character who is mourning a loved one’s absence. A genre has arisen which explores this type of lamentation expressed exclusively by female characters- the frauenlieder. Often in the mode of poetry, these songs of separation evoke the heartache felt by the female mourner and evidence much of the cruel and unjust aspects of the society in which she lives. In the Old English poem “Wulf And Eadwacer” the female speaker laments the estrangement of her former lover. In Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart Of Darkness, Kurtz’ Intended, a woman whom Kurtz has not seen for quite some time because of his tenure within the African jungle, also mourns for her man. These two grieving women are hardly similar; in fact, each manifests her grief in a distinct, unequivocal manner that altogether distinguishes her character from the other, thus giving depth to, and insight into, the genre of mourning women. And with an examination of Grendel’s mother in the epic poem, “Beowulf,” one can see that the frauenlieder undergoes a shocking metamorphosis. Grendel’s mother represents an atypical character in English literature: a female who laments in a very warlike fashion. This genre depicts women in similar situations who nonetheless express not a collective voice of suffering but rather individualized notes of pain. The speaker in “Wulf And Eadwacer” and Kurtz’ Intended do share similar circumstances. The object of each woman’s lamentation is a man who is separated from society. Wulf is in exile (Hope has wandered in exile, with Wulf line 9), presumably because of Eadwacer’s intrusion, and is forced to dwell on an island that “belongs to bloody barbarians” (line 6). Kurtz is an ivory trader who is stationed deep in the heart of the Congo jungle, and news of his death exacerbates the Intended’s grief considerably; this is evident when Marlow, the story’s narrator, visits Kurtz’s i... Please login to view comments from other users.
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