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

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