Fear Of The Monster In Beowulf

For ages we have been been fascinated with stories of vicious monsters haunting our

dreams, and terrifying our thoughts, they have drawn up to relate to some of our darkest fantasies

society views and unacceptable and “inhuman”. Jeffrey Cohen’s monster theory says that- the

simultaneous repulsion and attraction at the core of the monster’s composition accounts greatly

for its continued cultural popularity. In Beowulf, the oldest written Anglo-Saxon, the monster

called Grendel's mother, is defined as a gross, nasty women who is defeating by the hero.

Contrary to the modern, movie version after the feminist movement, where Grendel's mother is

manipulative in sexuality and wins in the end.

Cohen’s 6th thesis-- “Fear of the Monster

is really a kind of desire”- tells us that the

reason we love watching monsters and we love being scared is because we envy the

monster’s freedom, and the feeling it gives us to be scared as long as we have the comfort of

being able to turn the page of the book or pause the movie to make it go away. Just as in modern

movie of Beowulf, Grendel's mother is considered a fantasy for her looks and her ways of

persuasion. This is very different compared to the Tolkien text when the people believed women

were inferior and should always be below men. In the anglo saxon tale she was portrayed as

being disturbing to look at and was defeated by Beowulf with a swing of his sword. She was also

portrayed as inferior when she went into the castle for her son Grendel's arm and killed only one

guy. When Grendel had been killing for 12 years. Showing that she can’t do what a man can.

In that time period women were thought as inferior and unable to ever stand up to a man. So

Grendel’s mother fought and bite at him, but his armor stood in the way. In (Tolkien lines 400)

“ no female no matter how fierce, could have come with a man’s strength. In

Cohen(pg 16) their monsters serve as secondary bodies through which the possibilities, other

sexual practices, and other social customs could be explored. As culture advanced the monsters

had also. What we were scared of years and years ago is not the same as what we are scared on

now. Due to when the christians started their religion they were afraid of demons, witches, and

thing that could stand up to God himself. But as time grew on women gained the right to vote

and hold high power jobs.

Causing society to see them as equal. In the modern version of

Beowulf Grendel's mother is very powerful and weakens our hero with her charm and good

looks. Her motivation is she wants a baby with someone whether it’s Beowulf or the next

person who walks into the room. They explored that concept in the modern film because when

the Anglo-Saxon version was written it would have never have been an accepted idea of the

women having “affairs” with multiple men. ( 70) “You shall give me the seed of life, you shall

give me back the son you stole from me.” She represents greed in the modern day society and

the willingness to give in to sexual advances. Back in the time of the start of Christianity things

like that were highly unacceptable. Cohen’s theory also tells us that monster has qualities like

that because it’s what is within us that society has molded as not the way to live. As our society

continues to grow the idea of the monster stays the same. We adjust it to the knowledge we now

know and the things we accept as normal. All that is left is the monster within ourselves just

dying to escape. As we slowly let our fantasies escape, how long before they become a

reality?