The theme of Beowulf is that where there is evil there is good to fight it. The way they distribute this message throughout the story is by setting and characters. The main characters in the book are Beowulf and Grendel throughout the story Beowulf from the land of The Geats goes to the famous king Hrothgar’s land to save his people from Grendel, Beowulf goes through many battles while he’s at the king’s land and once he returns home he fights his final battle with the dragon and leaves his kingdom to the last heir.
The author applies character to show his theme where there’s evil there’s good to fight it. For example “ that agony hung on king and people alike, harsh and unending, violent and cruel and evil.In his far-off home Beowulf, Higlac’s follower and strongest of the Geats--greater and stronger than anyone anywhere in this world--heard how Grendel filled nights with horror” (lines 106-112). Beowulf heard about the troubles King Hrothgar was having in his kingdom that Grendel, this unstoppable monster was killing the king’s men in their sleep and Beowulf being the cocky hero he is must kill Grendel. Grendel the monster which is evil and doing cynical acts is found out by Beowulf and now Beowulf has to defeat him to protect the king and his people also to get more fame.
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The author utilizes setting to show theme in the story.
For instance, at the beginning of the story he says “A powerful monster, living down in the darkness, growled in pain, impatient as day after day the music rang loud in that hall,’ the harp’s rejoicing call and the poet’s clear songs, sung of the ancient beginnings of us all, recalling the Almighty making the earth, shaping these beautiful plains marked off by oceans…”(lines1-8). In this quote the author is saying Grendel who is evil is in pain by the men’s singing and cheering who are good. He sets the theme dark when he talks about the monster and when he talks about God and how he made these beautiful things it’s more like light and
good. Another source of character that the author uses to show his theme is when he says, “As now warriors sang of their pleasure: so Hrothgar’s men lived happy in his hall till the monster stirred, that demon, that fiend, Grendel, who haunted the moors, the wild marshes, and made his home in a hell not hell but earth. He was spawned I spawned in that slime, conceived by a pair of those monsters born of Cain, murderous creatures banished by God, punished forever for the crime of Abel’s death.”(lines 16-23). The author uses Cain to describe how wicked Grendel is. To conclude, the author’s usage of setting and character successfully shows his theme of wherever there is evil there is good to fight it. This is true because the author uses Beowulf’s battle stories to show how mighty and courageous he is and how he protects his people by defeating all the monsters that have challenged him or his people. As for Grendel the author uses Cain who is banished by God to clarify that Grendel is cynical. The story is important because it explains that evil will always be defeated one way or another.
Since the beginning of time, fairy tales, stories and legends have shared a common theme where good and evil are played against each other. In the story of “Beowulf”, translated by, “Burton Raffel”, there is a hero who plays as a good character, and there is also a demon who rules the dark side. The hero Beowulf, agrees to take a journey to conquer the evil monster Grendel. But when Beowulf is trying to defeat the beast, Grendel fights back, causing integrity and generosity to vanish. The common theme in various tales like in Beowulf is, good vs. evil.
“Staring at his grotesquely muscled shoulders--stooped, naked despite the cold, sleek as the belly of a shark and as rippled with power as the shoulders of a horse--I found my mind wandering...He was dangerous” (155). Even from the first day Beowulf showed up at Hrothgar’s kingdom, Grendel knew he was dealing with something worse than a hero. Once they finally start to battle, the monster in Beowulf is fully revealed to Grendel and Grendel sees again the stupidity and meaninglessness in the human’s definition of a hero.“Grendel, Grendel! You make the world by whispers, second by second. Are you blind to that? Whether you make it a grave or a garden of roses is not the point. Feel the wall: is it not hard?...Hard, yes! Observe the hardness, write it down in careful runes. Now sing of walls! Sing!” (171). Beowulf forces Grendel to make a fool of himself and unlike Unferth who longs for a heroic death, Beowulf knows he is going to win and has no desire to die. His mindset of victory, groups him with monsters who have one goal, to kill and never be killed. This shatters the Anglo-Saxon ideals of heroism and in Grendel’s death, when he is surrounded by oblivious creatures who don’t have a purpose, the meaninglessness of it all, including the meaninglessness of heroic deeds becomes evident to the
It is the jealousy of Unfurth to Grendel, the hatred of Unfurth to Beowulf, and the conflict between Beowulf and Grendel that give the book Grendel and the poem Beowulf the theme that everyone has a story. All their differences tie the characters together and when things connect it creates a good balance in the story. The amount of tension that is caused by these characters creates the makings of a good story.
While the classic battle between good and evil forces is a major theme of the medieval epic Beowulf, one may question whether these good and evil forces are as black and white as they appear. Scholars such as Herbert G. Wright claim that “the dragon, like the giant Grendel, is an enemy of mankind, and the audience of Beowulf can have entertained no sympathy for either the one or the other” (Wright, 4). However, other scholars such as Andy Orchard disagree with this claim, and believe that there is “something deeply human about the ‘monsters’” (Orchard, 29). While Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon are indeed portrayed as evil and violent foes, there are parts within Beowulf that can also lead a reader to believe that the “monsters” may not be so monstrous after all. In fact, the author of Beowulf represents the “monsters” within the poem with a degree of moral ambivalence. This ambivalence ultimately evokes traces of sympathy in the reader for the plight of these “monster” figures, and blurs the fine line between good and evil within the poem.
We have a concrete hero character in Beowulf, and a concrete villain in Grendel. We see this as a theme throughout the epic poem. The dichotomy of good versus evil is the fundamental backbone of this piece of literature. It is so significant due to the fact that everything that happens in this book is someway related to good versus evil. If Beowulf wasn’t so good at heart, he would not even be enticed to leave his homeland and go help the danes. Without the drive in Beowulf 's heart to do what is right, all of his heroic moments of glory would not exist. Once this is pointed out to the reader, it becomes so clear that one could wonder why the book isn 't just named: “Beowulf, a Story of Good vs. Evil.”.
The epic poem Beowulf, an abundance of apparent evils such as the monsters. What about the not-so-apparent ones? Often the true evil hides behind what is obvious to us. In modern society, evil is everywhere because it resides inside society itself. Although the story of the warrior Beowulf is riddled with evil monsters, the true evil lies just beneath the surface.
An innocent, joyless, outcast lurks in the depths of the earth. He is feared by all due to his violent behavior and thirst for humans. Stories about this monster stretch across lands, intriguing the one and only Beowulf. In this notorious Epic, Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney, Grendel is the Frankenstein of this poem, the Joker of this time period, the Lord Voldemort of this book. Basically, Grendel is the villain and when there’s a villain there’s a hero. Our hero today is Beowulf, who challenges Grendel and he trounced not only Grendel but Grendel’s mother as well. Not only are Grendel and his mother villains but they also played the role of being the outcast/scapegoat. Symbolically they play the role
The very opening page is an allusion to the Creation, also present in Christianity. “…The Almighty making the earth, shaping these beautiful plains marked of by oceans, then proudly setting the sun and moon to glow across the land and light it;” (lines 7-10). Also, Grendel lusts for men not just for the meat, but he kills out of sheer pleasure. He enjoys killing much as Satan enjoys killing men spiritually. “No savage assault could quench his lust for evil” (lines 52-53). Also in the fight between Grendel and Hrothgar, there was no truce as is true in the spiritual battle between God and Satan, so one can gather that Hrothgar symbolizes God and Grendel is symbolic of Satan.
In the epic story of Beowulf there are three monsters that he has to fight through at the story, that represents the three types of evil. In the beginning of the story Beowulf sales to Hrathgar to ask the king if he could take Grandel hand on hand battle and save the town for the monster. Beowulf has to come back to Hrathgar to fight Grendel's mother after he skills Grandel. Then after he goes back home somebody sneaks into a dragon's home and steals a cup, wakes the dragon up and ends up having to fight the dragon. Beowulf doesn’t end up living through the dragon. Each monster represents three different types of evil, Grendel is physical. His mother is elusive evil and the dragon is evil that cannot be defeated.
Beowulf is an interesting story in that it has a meaning that is firmly rooted in fantasy creatures based in mythical origins while providing insight into religious ideals and practices of the time. It also speaks of tradition and the struggle of man against things perceived as evil. In this tradition especially, Beowulf is an incredible allegory regarding the struggle of good and evil in the Christian tradition.
Paradise Lost and Beowulf are both intricate pieces of literature. The constant disagreement and combat of the protagonist and antagonist is the main focus in both of these works. Many people interpret the deep meaning of the poem very differently, however there is no mistaking the recurring theme of good versus evil.
Brian Wilkie and James Hurt in Literature of the Western World discuss what is perhaps the overriding or central conflict in the poem Beowulf, namely the struggle between good and evil, and how the monsters are representative of the evil side:
The story of Beowulf is a heroic epic chronicling the illustrious deeds of the great Geatish warrior Beowulf, who voyages across the seas to rid the Danes of an evil monster, Grendel, who has been wreaking havoc and terrorizing the kingdom. Beowulf is glorified for his heroic deeds of ridding the land of a fiendish monster and halting its scourge of evil while the monster is portrayed as a repugnant creature who deserves to die because of its evil actions. In the epic poem, Beowulf the authors portrays Grendel as a cold-hearted beast who thrives on the pain of others. Many have disagreed with such a simplistic and biased representation of Grendel and his role in the epic poem. John Gardner in his book, Grendel set out to change the reader’s perception of Grendel and his role in Beowulf by narrating the story through Grendel’s point of view. John Gardner transforms the perceived terrible evil fiend who is Grendel into a lonely but intelligent outcast who bears a striking resemblance to his human adversaries. In Grendel, John Gardner portrays Grendel as an intelligent being capable of rational thought as well as displaying outbursts of emotion. He portrays Grendel as a hurt individual and as a victim of oppression ostracized from civilization. The author of Beowulf portrays Grendel as the typical monster archetype as compared to John Gardner’s representation of Grendel as an outcast archetype.
Good and Evil- The entire poem of Beowulf deals with the battle of good verses evil, good being Beowulf, his followers, Hrothgar, and Hrothgar's people, and evil being Grendel, Grendel's mother, and the dragon. In this poem the power of good overcomes all the evils, but not without the lose of life. These lives include that of Beowulf, Aeschere, and many of Hrothgar's people. The clashing of good and evil forces was the main method of creating interest and suspense in the poem.
I believe the main theme in Beowulf is being a hero. The characters identify themselves according to their family