Identify specific situations throughout his life in which Beowulf has created and maintained alliances with individuals and with other tribes. Explain how these situations reflect the Anglo-Saxon code (for example, wergild, revenge, and any others)

For your first essay exam you are going to analyze Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Le Morte d’Arthur.  You have two questions to answer.  The first question should be answered by each of you.  For the second question, you have a choice between two options.

 
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Question One (you must answer this one)

Examine the role of women in Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Le Morte d’Arthur. 
Because this topic is broad and your space is limited, you must limit the topic so that your thesis focuses on a particular point ABOUT women in the assigned works.  Although you should do your own original thinking and not limit yourself to the following questions, they might help you generate a thesis and/or main points to support your thesis.  Do NOT, however, try to write about several different questions.   This essay should be between three and four pages in length.

1. What character traits, actions, motivations, or problems are most often attributed to women in the assigned works?
   
2. What types, categories, or stereotypes of women appear in the assigned works?
   
3. On the whole, are women depicted positively or negatively?  as round or flat characters?  as sympathetic or unsympathetic characters?  as strong or weak?  as complex people or as stereotypes?  (Choose ONE of these options.)
   
4. Given that all of the assigned works are written by men, how do the works reflect men’s attitudes toward women?  What are these attitudes?      
   
5. What do the assigned works reveal about the roles of women in English society?  To what extent do women’s roles remain constant throughout the years represented by these texts?  To what extent do women’s roles change as we progress from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance?
   

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7. What functions do women characters and/or references to women serve in the assigned works?
   
8. How does the portrayal of women in the assigned works compare with the portrayal of men?
   
9. What kinds of relationships do women have with men and/or with other women?  How do women respond to men and/or to other women? 
   

Question Two (choose one of the two options)

Option One:
Identify specific situations throughout his life in which Beowulf has created and maintained alliances with individuals and with other tribes.  Explain how these situations reflect the Anglo-Saxon code (for example, wergild, revenge, and any others).  This essay should be between one and a half and two and a half pages in length.  Make sure you review these lines as well as others of your choice:

1799-1839

2148-2171

2354-2379

2724-2816

Option Two: For this option, focus on
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
and Morte d’Arthur.  What are the qualities most prized in chivalrous knights?  Be sure to cite and discuss specific passages that reveal these qualities.  Second, compare and contrast Sir Gawain and Sir Lancelot (as presented in these works only) as representatives of the chivalric code.  Which is the better representative?  This essay should be between one and a half and two and a half pages in length.

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