Life Is Not Easy and Everyone Faces Difficulties

As we advance through life, it’s expected for one to face sorrow and hardships as life isn’t meant to be easy. These obstacles are expressed similarly in both “The Wanderer” and “The Wife’s Lament”, although the underlying plots are slightly different. Through the feelings of isolation and loneliness, the speakers are both challenged with seemingly crippling despair, leading them both to make great journeys in search for happiness: one by choice and the other by obligation.

Although both speakers face exile from the familiar and their happiness, they eventually come to different conclusions on how to accept the Anglo-Saxon concept of fate. As the Wanderer is able to find solace and faith in God’s fate, the Wife chooses to let her pain overcome her, and she declines her fate, eventually losing her ability to seek happiness for herself.

In “The Wanderer”, the speaker is ultimately aware that it’s his fate to go to sea despite his reluctance to do so. He follows the commands of his lord and begins to allude to the obstacles he faced throughout his life including the slaughtering of his kinsmen; the speaker states that “the earth-stepper spoke, mindful of hardships, of fierce slaughter, the fall of kin: Oft must [he], alone, the hour before dawn lament [his] care” (6-9). He’s essentially being consumed by grief and self-pity as there isn’t much else for him to think about. Because of his isolation, the speaker repeatedly ponders his sadness and loneliness.

Order custom essay Life Is Not Easy and Everyone Faces Difficulties with free plagiarism report

450+ experts on 30 subjects Starting from 3 hours delivery

Get Essay Help

His isolation means that there’s no one around for him to confide in, leaving him to contain his feelings and drown in his sorrow; in the case that there were peers to seek comfort in, he understands that it’s too dignified for a man to share his emotions. Leaving home with coldness in his heart, he’s expected to go off to sea in search of a new lord after the death of his kind lord. Sailing in search of this new lord, the Wanderer yearns for relief and solace from his hopelessness; He hopes that a new mead-hall “might accept [him] affection, or on [him], friendless, might wish consolation, offer [him] joy” (28-29). As the tale continues, the reality of the speaker’s lack of friends and joy consumes him with despair, and he claims that any man who has lost a lord would understand the great sadness he’s currently enduring.

Comparing the speaker of “The Wife’s Lament” to that of “The Wanderer”, the Wife expresses that her sadness and despair ultimately stems from loneliness following the departure of her husband. Feeling tortured by her isolation from her lord, she expresses her misery and feels consumed by the anxiety of her husband’s unknown location. When her husband sails away, her feelings of isolation spiral out of control to the point where she feels obligated to search for her lost lord. She states, “When I set myself in my sorrow, a friendless exile, to find his retainers” (9-10). Not only does she feel isolated from the man she loves, but she’s isolated from her old friends due to the move to a strange, new land with her husband. She feels like she’s lost everyone she connected with, leaving her feeling lonelier than ever.

Although she didn’t lose her loved ones through death as the Wanderer did, she still experiences a similar feeling of loss and sorrow. The Wife begins to reflect on the happier times in her relationship, she realizes that she’ll never feel love from her lord again as he’s planning to commit mortal crimes. The wife seeks shelter “under an oak tree in an earthen cave” that’s described as gloomy and bleak, similar to the gloomy nature of the sea the Wanderer is surrounded by (28). As she continues through her journey for her lord, it’s clear that her and the Wanderer are both consumed by the reality of their friendlessness and emptiness inside.

The theme of exile throughout “The Wanderer” is expressed in great detail through his thoughts and emotions, describing himself as someone as being forced to travel far and alone. At the beginning of his narrative, the speaker explains how all of his kinsmen were brutally murdered in war and how he lost his beloved lord as well; he has no other choice but to go on a great journey in search of a new lord who is essentially the only person capable of providing the speaker with means of physical and mental survival. Traveling with the burden of sadness is enough to handle, but the fact that the speaker is unable to express his grief to anyone only aids to the depression and sorrow of the situation; he’s aware that he’s truly alone and feels devoured by this isolation.

The speaker describes his journey and exile as paths, revealing that he’s alone on his personal journey, but others before him have had to accept the same fate as he. The experience of the exile and the realization of the loss of his joys in life sets him up to understand that his sorrow is only transient. The speaker explains that he’s aware of his fate to feel these emotions and to travel on this great journey as “...he who keeps faith, nor too quickly his grief from his breast makes known, except he, noble, knows how beforehand to do cure with courage” (113-115). His thoughts begin to shift from that of sadness to thoughts of wisdom as he acknowledges he’s able to take comfort in God; He is the one responsible for fate. If it weren’t the speaker’s destiny to experience grave loss and cross harsh waters, God wouldn’t have lead him to his journey through the death of the speaker’s lord and kinsmen. This ultimately comforts the speaker as he accepts his fate.

The feeling of exile from “The Wife’s Lament” varies from that of “The Wanderer” as the source of isolation is different; instead of tragic death, the Wife is first exiled from her friends due to moving away with her husband. After having to face a strange land with no one familiar but her husband, the Wife is then exiled by her own husband. Essentially, her lord abandons her with no explanation, leaving the Wife filled with anxiety and worry about her husband’s whereabouts and safety. She’s tortured by her lord’s actions and seeks for answers, as any wife would if their husband just mysteriously got up and left. As she embarks on a quest for answers, her lord’s kinsmen purposely try to keep her away; they don’t want the couple to reunite. They even state that they’re trying to keep the two on opposite sides of the wide world.

Just like the Wanderer, the Wife uses her grand journey to search for her happiness; in contrast, the Wanderer was searching for something new while the Wife is searching to gain back the happiness she previously had. The Wanderer is able to eventually seek comfort in his thoughts by alluding to lessons he’s learning due to his experiences, but the Wife is unable to shed the same light on the situation; all she’s able to think about is how happy couples can “lie in their bed, while [she walks] alone in the light of dawn under the oak-tree and through this earth-cave” (34-36). At this point in her lament, nothing can distract the Wife from the fact that happiness now seems forever unattainable.

At the conclusion of “The Wanderer”, the speaker’s old kingdom is said to rot, become covered with serpents, and lack music and powerful weapons. Winter is dreadful, and it leaves the men that reside there helpless and afraid. Although hope seems to be gone, the speaker understands that life can be extremely difficult at times and accepts that he’s going to face obstacles in many different forms. He wisely explains that everything that happens in life is up to fate and feels that a real man is one that never strays from his faith. As long as one is calm and open to whatever God pitches, everything will be okay in the end.

The speaker ends by advising men to seek comfort in God by putting faith in His fate. By the end of “The Wife’s Lament”, the Wife alludes to her husband again as she explains she still is unaware of where her husband is or if he’ll ever return. She believes her lord is constantly reminded of the loss of his happy home and that he’s filled with anguish; she fears he’s longing for her even though he left in such a mysterious manner. She concludes that grief is always present when one is separated from a loved one, and one could infer that the Wife has lost all hope in finding any source pf happiness.

These two endings contrast greatly from one another. On one hand, the Wanderer emphasizes that faith in fate will comfort the soul, and he sees the light at the end of the tunnel despite the terrible hardships he’s just faced. On the other hand, the Wife pretty much gives up, accepting a lifetime of misery. She even says herself that she’ll essentially never be happy again until she’s reunited with her love, a seemingly unlikely event in her fate. Although both experience similar feelings of isolation and loneliness, one chooses to triumph over his pain and have faith in a brighter future while the other is too blinded by grief to overcome her sorrows.

The Anglo-Saxon concepts of exile and fate are clearly expressed in both “The Wanderer” and “The Wife’s Lament” through the expression of their isolation and agony as they face tremendous hurdles in life. From the death of a lord and kinsmen to the mysterious disappearance of a husband, the speakers both allow their sadness to vastly overcome them. While traveling on quests to seek comfort and solace, the Wanderer finds the ability to brush off his sorrows and accepts God’s fate for him; the light at the end of the tunnel shines bright as he wisely learns that a man doesn’t stray from his faith.

On the other hand, the Wife allows her remorse and longing for her lost husband to shadow any faith in God or her fate that He’s provided for her. From both of these stories, one can learn the right and wrong way to handle the challenges of life; hopefully, happiness can be achieved and life can be more successful by striving through hardships rather than crumbling under pressure.

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Run a free check or have your essay done for you

Check my essay Hire Writer