Sunday, September 18, 2011
Almost all novels, short stories, and so forth include a protagonist and an antagonist. In the longest surviving Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, the monstrous beast, Grendel is exemplified as the antagonist. He terrorizes the men that make a massive amount of noise at night and dare to disrupt him. Although not directly stated in the poem, characters like Grendel exist to show the evils of everyday life and the consequences of killing someone. After the killing of Grendel, Beowulf also proceeds to killing his mother. Every person has emotions and even the beast, Grendel had a family of his own who suffered upon his death. The author of the poem gave Grendel humanlike traits to symbolize the people in the world that take part in bad deeds. He did it in an indirect way to catch the reader’s attention and show the similarity between Grendel and humans. After the killing of Grendel, Beowulf also proceeds to killing his mother. There was no need for him to prove his pride once more, his killing of Grendel should have been enough to satisfy him and make him feel empowering and glorious. Beowulf’s actions show the savagery of men and how greedy they can be. Grendel’s mother was a prime example of a mother and her love for her child. In present day society, most mothers would stop at nothing to ensure their children’s safety and mourn if something was to happen to them. Grendel’s mother wanted revenge upon her son’s murder and a mere reminder of him by taking his annihilated arm. Evil lurks all over the world, but it is mostly present in uncivilized humans. Grendel went about murdering people in the wrong way; however Beowulf did the same by killing his mother. The actions of both characters united them and made them similar. Grendel and Beowulf thought they were doing right by murdering, but their reason behind the gruesome killings was merely selfish. Beowulf wanted to be seen as a hero, whereas Grendel found it entertaining to see people die. Hence, evil is evident in humans to this very day and Grendel and Beowulf embody the individuals whom commit malicious crimes or partake in other awful deeds.
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Hey Klara! I think the way that you talked about how love exists in both heroes and villains was really interesting. Usually, people focus on why villains exist in the first place, and your idea was really refreshing. I also see Beowulf and Grendel as being somewhat similar because they are both murderers. Though their methods and reasons are different, they are both killers to a certain extent. I do think you could have made your statements a bit more direct. For example, you state the similarities between Grendel and Beowulf, but do these likenesses make them both evil? I think if you had made some sort of concluding statement about the traits that the similarities between Grendel and Beowulf express regarding each of the characters, your point would have been more definite. Overall, I thought your ideas were very interesting and your approach was, as I said before, very refreshing!
ReplyDeleteKlara, I really agree with your statement, "There was no need for him to prove his pride once more, his killing of Grendel should have been enough to satisfy him and make him feel empowering and glorious." I elieve the same thing, Beowulf just needed himself to be noticed and did it simply so he could feel better about himself. Do you think perhaps Grendel and Beowulf are mere metaphors for the evil in the world, and not only uncivilized beings are evil? In my essay, I talk about how the characters represent humans, and how evil is a manmade characteristic, but everyone has their own opinion. Also, your points on Grendel's mother make sense; her death was senseless.
ReplyDeleteHi Klara, I was really intrigued by your essay. I see that you focused on how Grendel is the epitome of evil, yet presents human-like characteristics that are relate-able to humans in Garner's novel. His mother yearning for revenge presents a maternal instinct, which only proves your theory. When you stated, "Evil lurks all over the world, but it is mostly present in uncivilized humans," I think you could have elaborated more on that along with the "monsters" inside everybody. All in all, I think you did a great job on making it evident that your topic was about evil, but I was disappointed that you didn't explain why there is evil in the world.
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