Boewulf
The section entitled "Further Celebration at Heorot" opens
after Boewulf has slain Grendel's mother. This becomes
acceptable adult behavior when you realize that Grendel and
his mother are both monsters from the same evil metal. Beowulf has
returned to King Hrothgar's beautiful Heorot Hall to celebrate his victory
over evil Grendel.
Beowulf's boasts illuminate his heroic deeds. His crowing
declares the mead hall now safe for all the thanes to drink
in once again. Hrothgar, the honorable king of the Danes,
is grateful for the monster's slaughter that Beowulf has done
but is also reflective. Drawing on the experiences of a long life, he
confides in Beowulf that he should not be quite so full of himself. He states:
"Keep yourself against that wickedness, beloved
Beowulf, best of men, and choose better-eternal
gains. Have no care for pride, great warrior. Now
for a time there is glory in your might: yet soon it
shall be that sickness or sword will diminish your
strength, or fire's fangs, or flood's surge, or sword's
swing, or spear's flight, or appalling age; brightness
of eyes will fail and glow dark; then it shall be that
death will overcome you, warrior."
Hrothgar is a wise and noble king. He is much older than
Beowulf and sees much of his former self in the young warrior.
Having lived and learned many lessons from the thousands of
experiences that Beowulf has yet to face, with great affection for
Hygelac's thane, Hrothgar tries to use his wisdom to help and
Beowulf on the difficult road ahead. To illustrate his point,
Hrothgar recounts the story of Heremod, a miserably notorious
king, who stayed from the codes and procedures of that warrior
caste. The evil one's main failure was a lack of respect for his
people. As Hrothgar explains, "He grew great, not for their joy,
but for their slaughter." Not only did Heremod fail to share a
portion of the wealth and power that God has given him with
his loyal retainers. he performed the most heinous of crimes,
the killing of his own clansman. In the end, this king, having
failed to live a just life, had few friends and died unhappy.
Then his people, without longing for their departed king,
advanced someone else to the office.
Beowulf does not have any fear that Hrothgar's vision
is in his future. He is confident of his amazing courage.
His states, "Sometimes fate can save the undoomed man
if his courage is good.
In Beowulf, the protagonist Beowulf is shown as a hero with extrodinary strength. This is not what makes him a hero. By definition, a hero is a man of exceptional quality. However this term does not do Beowulf justice. His self-imposed purpose in life is to help others, and eventually sacrifices his own life in doing so. Beowulf’s battle with the dragon serves as a critique of the notion that Beowulf is a hero. The Dragon section displays many of Beowulf’s heoric characteristics. Beowulf establishes himself as a hero by fighting the dragon, exemplifing strength and courage when fighting the dragon, and sacrificing himself so that others can live.
Beowulf is an epic poem telling the story of Beowulf, a legendary Geatish hero who later becomes king in the aforementioned epic poem. While the story in and of itself is quite interesting, for the purpose of this paper it is important to look at the character more so then his deeds, or rather why he did what he did.
Beowulf is so competitive that he spends five night in raging sea almost killing his life to prove that he is better than someone. To be accepted by Hrothgar he begins talking about himself. "Thou Hrothgar, hail! Hygelac's I, / kinsman and follower. Fame a plenty / have I gained in youth! (“Beowulf” 408-410.”) Beowulf is very self-absorbed and thinks him boasting is the best way to be known. Beowulf awaits 5 nights in cold sea not for the intention of helping people, but just to prove a point and he could have told Hrothgar he wanted to help but he had to tell him how infamous he was as a
Once Grendel and his mother are killed, the king showers Beowulf in gifts. Beowulf shows humility and accepts the gifts, and quietly returns to his home. He does not want to bask in his glory. "So they went on their journey, and Hrothgar 's generosity was praised repeatedly"(Beowulf 1885-86). This quote symbolizes the relationship between the King of Danes and Beowulf, because he is constantly thanking him for the gifts. It is not just seen as a business deal where Beowulf has come to provide a service, and collect his reward. There is much more to his actions, he genuinely provides services to the king for the greater good. He is humble in nature, where he is not looking for attention. He does not gloat that he is truly the best warrior he sort of just thanks the king. The king of Danes states to Beowulf "In all things you are even tempered, prudent, and resolute"(Beowulf 17056). It is already known that he is a great warrior, so there is no need for him to overly express
In 1977, Psychologist Albert Bandura adopted the Social Learning Theory making it an influential and important theory. Bandura believed that direct reinforcement could not account for all types of learning capabilities. Bandura argued that individuals could learn new information and behavior by watching other individuals and the type of leanings can be explained by a wide variety of behaviors. This theory acknowledges that just because something has been learned, it does not mean that it will result in a change in behavior. However, the influence from others can cause a change in
Throughout the epic Beowulf attempts to introduce himself as someone worthy of glory by boasting of his skills and deeds. These boasts show Beowulf’s glory seeking tendencies. One of these boasts
Beowulf is a epic retold for many generations from father to son, warrior to child, and it serves its name very well, epic! It starts off by explaining a newly built mead house, created by the lord of the Danes, Hrothgar. This mead house is massive and used by all of the Danes. But these people are now plagued by a terrible force, Grendel, a terrible monster who comes into the town and massacres its people. In a distant land, a prince hero Beowulf, hears of this terrible monster and decides to prove his worth by fighting and destroying it. Beowulf comes to the land of the Danes, and meets with Hrothgar to ask permission to slay the beast, it is then granted. When Beowulf first meets Hrothgar, he strips down taking off all of this armor that he wears for protection in battle and states that he will kill Grendel without his armor to prove his worth. That during the mead hall celebration, Grendel arrives and strikes a few of Beowulf’s soldiers dead, but then grabs a hold of Beowulf. Grendel then is scared for his life, for he has never felt that much strength in one human being, he struggles throughout the fight and soon Beowulf gains the upper hand, literally. He pulls Grendel’s arm out of its socket, ripping it free from his body. Mortally wounded, Grendel retreats back to his cave where he then dies. In the second part of this epic, it is Grendel’s mother who is the monster who comes for revenge of her son’s death. By this time Beowulf has left the land of the Danes and is going back home to the Getes when he finds that he is needed again by Hrothgar. He ventures back, and pledges to kill Grendel’s Dom just as he did with Grendel, just with protection this time. He goes to h...
Cloning has been in nature for thousands of years, a clone is a living thing made from another consisting of the same DNA. For example identical twins are clones because they have the same DNA but the differ because the twins begin after conception when a zygote, a totipotent stem cell, divides into two, some plants self-pollinate and produce a seed, which in turn, makes plants with the same genetic code (Hyde). According to the Human Genome Project there are three types of cloning, DNA, therapeutic and reproductive; DNA cloning involves transferring DNA from a donor to another organism, therapeutic cloning, known as embryo cloning, involves harvesting stem cells from human embryos to grow new organs for transplant, and last is reproductive cloning which creates a copy of the host (Conger). One of the earliest cloned animals was a sea urchin by Hans Dreisch in the late 1800’s. Unlike Victor Frankenstein, Dreisch’s goal was to prove that genetic material is not lost in cell division, not to create another being, (History of Cloning) stated by Frankenstein “that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet.” There are many ways an animal...
Beowulf is very prideful. He boasts about his tasks as often as he can. He likes to showboat his heroism and bravery. When Unferth challenges Beowulf’s honor and calls him a liar and a loser, Beowulf does not take it well. He calls Unferth a liar and a murderer and immediately tells Hrothgar’s court what really happened during the swimming match that Unferth was referring to. Beowulf is driven by his need to be an honorable and well-respected man. The honor he seeks is not wholly for his King’s glory, but for himself.
...cloning can be divided into two broad category: potential safety risk and moral problems, and these concerns overweigh its achievement.
In the poem Beowulf, there are many monsters that are slayed by the hero. Like in the poem, many monsters exist in our world today. One of the monsters that attack people is a negative attitude. This monster attacks numerous people everyday, limiting their potential to succeed. However, there is a hero who battles this monster everyday. This hero is my swim coach, Jim Keogh. Coach Keogh fights off the negative attitude that attacks his swimmers in every practice. With Keogh’s help, his swimmers can accomplish their goals by fighting off the negative attitude.
Even though cloning methods have been in use for an extended period of time, the idea of a clone was never thought to be realistic until recently. For thousands of years, humans have been cloning plants through asexual propagation. This is simply the process of stem cutting or grafting a mammal was performed in Switzerland nearly 20 years after the carrot plant where mice cells were cloned. Later, in 1997, Dolly the sheep’s mammary cells were cloned (Lee). This was a major success for science because it was the first time an adult cell was used in which results in a clone of the previous generation of the plant and is still a method used today. It wasn’t until 1958 when modern cloning began with a carrot and in 1964 when scientist John Gurdon started the beginning of animal cell cloning of toad tadpoles. The first successful clone of embryonic cell. After scientists gained a greater knowledge of the process of cloning, they realized that it could possibly be used to benefit the world. In 2001, the first endangered species, the bull gaur, was cloned, and in...
The social learning theory extends this by taking into account that we may see other people being rewarded or punished, and adapt our own behaviour accordingly. However, social learning theory and behaviorism does not take into account that people have thoughts. It assumes that we have no free will over what we do and only respond according to what we have previously been exposed to. It also concerns itself solely with observable behaviors. Social learning theory can therefore be improved by attempting to explain where our thoughts come from, and how they affect our
The social learning theory “states that behavior is learned from the environment through observational learning” (McLeod, 2011). For instance, I saw my mom getting ready for church and eventually I noticed that she put her hair in a ponytail only on Sundays. Furthermore, after seeing her do this so many times I began doing the same thing on Sundays. As a child, I observed her every move and I wanted to imitate her behavior. Through observational learning, I learned what was socially acceptable by watching my mother’s
Behavior and social learning are two theories that are inherently intertwined. Behavior to some extent is taught for social reasons, and social learning can very much shape and create behaviors. While behavior is something intentionally taught, social learning can teach and reinforce many unintentional behaviors, such as dishonesty or aggression. In order to adequately discuss these two interrelated topics, theory exploration is in order.