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Beowulf narrative essay
Beowulf from the perspective of grendel
Beowulf from the perspective of grendel
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Revenge of Beowulf
Beowulf is an epic poem that, above all, gives the reader an idea of a time long past; a time when the most important values were courage and integrity. The only factors that could bestow shower fame upon a person were heroic deeds and family lineage. Beowulf, as the paradigm of pagan heroes, exhibited his desire to amass fame and fortune; the only way to do so was to avenge the death of others. This theme of retribution that is ever present throughout the poem seems to color the identities of its characters.
Revenge is presented both as an honest motive and a rhetorical tactic in Beowulf. For Beowulf himself, reprisal of monsters’ misdeeds is his path to the top: worldwide fame, endless wealth, and universal respect. Grendel’s violence is caused less by revenge than by complete frustration with his situation. Other characters’ actions are fueled directly by a sincere desire for a settling of scores. Grendel’s mother kills Aeschere solely because Beowulf killed Grendel. The last monster that the Hero of the Geats ever faces has only one goal: to guard his hoard of treasure. When his fortune is pilfered, revenge is the dragon’s only way to react. While revenge is a common façade in Beowulf, some characters feel an honest need for retribution and seek it to their life’s end.
Grendel’s mother exhibits the most pure form of revenge out of all of Beowulf’s enemies. She is never heard from or seen until Beowulf kills Grendel and keeps his talon as a token of victory. “... It became clear,/ obvious to everyone... that an avenger lurked and was sti...
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...r dying son, Grendel himself, who may appear vengeful, is truly acting out of jealousy and a sense of resentment towards people happier than him. The dragon also acts out of a sense of vengeance, but its actions are ultimately used to create a fateful deathbed for Beowulf. While he Beowulf masks his true intentions with a pretense of vengeance, Beowulf himself best describes the sense of revenge in the poem.
Wise sir, do not grieve. It is always better / to avenge
dear ones than to indulge in mourning. / For every one
of us, living in this world / means waiting for our end.
Let whoever can / win glory before death. When a warrior
is gone, / that will be his best and only bulwark. (Beowulf, 1384-1389)
In Beowulf, the essence left behind by a true hero is extremely important. In epics such as this one, leaders tend to have the determination and boldness of a hero. On the other hand, the main character, Beowulf, does not only display these certain traits. In this heroic poem, respect and trust come naturally. Honor and integrity are present throughout the poem. There are many moments in Beowulf that manifest the many traits that a person should have. This proves how important these attributes are to the characters and the Anglo-Saxon society. Although Beowulf has no known author, it embodies many of the beliefs and morals of the early Germanic society. The author of this epic poem uses many approaches in order to demonstrate that respect and trust are fundamental characteristics of a leader and hero.
“Every person has negative character traits that they struggle with and should continue to improve. That’s part of being human (Thomas). Every person who has lived has had to battle against human character flaws like anger, jealously, wrath, and greed, over the span of their life. Nations, world leaders, down to the average person has had their downfall due to these negative character flaws. The three monsters in Beowulf each represent a specific flaw in human character with Grendel representing envy, Grendel’s mother representing wrath, and the dragon representing greed, and each show the consequences of said character flaws.
Does Beowulf really get all the revenge he wants when it came to Grendel and his mother
The Epic poem of Beowulf is a story of heroism, loyalty, ego, and fate. To be a great leader of men; a great king of the people, you must be respected and trusted. Loyalty is given to those who earn the respect and trust of their people. Beowulf was blessed with great physical strength, the pride and fearlessness of a warrior, and an equally strong command of the spoken word, which he used skillfully to his advantage. He gained the respect and trust of nearly everyone he came in contact with, largely because he possessed the characteristics of a true hero, but in the end it was his ego that sealed his fate. Although it could be said that Beowulf’s character was flawed by an enormous ego, fueled by thoughts of immortality, it is this very trait that made him an ideal hero and king.
...slaying Grendel’s family and a dragon. Needed by the Geats and the Danes, Beowulf is central to the poem, however it is impossible for him not to be an outsider when he is superior to every single character in every single aspect.
Grendel, the monster terrorizing Heorot, is introduced as being estranged from the rest of the world. He is described as an outsider, a descendant of “Cain’s clan” (107). Grendel’s outcast status leaves him living in darkness, his envy growing the more he hears the celebrations of the Danes. Envy and social status motivate Grendel’s cruelty, filling him with anger towards those who are human. When Beowulf and the Geats arrive, it is not solely out of honor that Beowulf vows to kill the beast. Beowulf’s father, Ecgtheow, had an unpaid debt at the time of his death. Beowulf’s pledge that he would kill Grendel was a repayment, as well as an honorable feat. However, as Beowulf is introduced, the boasts he makes of his heroic feats and his “awesome strength” (29), only prove his barbarity. He boasts that “they had seen me boltered in the blood of enemies when I battled and bound five beasts, raided a troll-nest and in the night-sea slaughtered sea brutes” (419-422). He goes on to blame the enemies for the vengeance that he wrought upon them. Beowulf dehumanizes his enemies, states that they were foul beasts who tainted the land, and he purified it. This is a sadistic view of life and battle, contrasting cruelty for the
Beowulf outlines turmoil between three opponents: Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the Dragon. These separate discords each serve to fulfill different metaphoric purposes. Grendel’s character epitomizes the adverse persona of how an Anglo-Saxon warrior should not be. His mother represents everything that a woman during the time era should seldom be. Lastly, the Dragon embodies all the values that an Anglo-Saxon king should not dare retain. Without a doubt, the symbolic implications of the monsters in Beowulf bring the context to a new level of understanding.
This illustrates an inner problem of a suppressed evil side to society. Beowulf and other men that battled Grendel had trouble defeating him with weapons. They all had to tussle with Grendel and everyone except for Beowulf failed at this challenge. Symbolically meaning that that evil side to society will always be there no matter how much people try to fight it. Grendel also plays the role of envy. Imagine him being an outcast with no joy in his life hearing the mead-hall at night and all the laughter, he must have felt envious and longed to be a part of that world. Another symbolic role is revenge. Upon learning that Beowulf has hurt her only child Grendel’s mother becomes angered and seeks revenge. Her and Beowulf battle it out and the mother loses the battle. Relating this back to Cain, Grendel’s mother wants to kill Beowulf and get revenge and just like Cain, she faced her punishment, for her it was
“Beowulf” begins the British literature. As a classic heroic epic, it outlines the tribal history of the Jutes, providing a great insight into the Anglo-Saxons’ epoch. In the poem “Beowulf,” we meet the most heroic man in the time of the Anglo-Saxons; a man with all the extraordinary characteristics necessitated to being a true hero. Beowulf was his name. He slaughters the monster Grendel, a descendent of Cain, Grendel’s mother and a dragon. By including the mere first eighteen lines of the section The Coming of Grendel in the poem “Beowulf,” the anonymous author successfully reflects the various customs of the Anglo-Saxons, the magnanimity of King Hrothgar and the values of the Anglo-Saxons. It is perhaps the most suitable opening for a work of admirable heroism; revealing grandiose, powerful and gloriousness of the Anglo-Saxons’ period.
In Beowulf’s younger years, he personified all of the best values of the heroic culture when saving another kingdom from their demons. Beowulf’s willingness to sacrifice his life in order to save strangers his father owed a debt to is quite selfless. His bravery comes into play when he remains unchanged in his resolve even after hearing of all the King’s men and subjects slain by the beast.
While the monsters of the poem are the antagonists of the poem, the author still manages to make the reader feel traces of sympathy for them. Grendel’s human depiction, exile and misery tugs at the heart of readers and indeed shows a genuine side to the figure, while Grendel’s mother and the dragon are sympathetic mainly because they were provoked into being attacked over things they both had a deep affection for. Their actions make us question whether they are as evil as they seem.
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’s life was truly epic struggle. The monsters he battled made it so. Grendel and the dragon, capable of crushing men physically, stood for evils that could just as easily crush men in spirit. These two beasts represented society’s greatest fears, as well as detriments, and Beowulf fearlessly took them on. Grendel taught the hero a valuable lesson about maintaining one’s humanity in a world dominated by the dogs of war. The dragon, showed Beowulf’s mortality, his imperfection, but the hero eradicates it nonetheless, saving his people from not only physical threat, but sin. Bringing in such spiritual and moral dimensions, these two beasts certainly give the story of Beowulf depth.
The movie Beowulf desires equality and compassion. In the movie, Beowulf’s compassion towards Grendel represents that views Grendel as a human like figure and this is supported because of the evidence that Grendel has a son. Grendel’s death ceremony contains the same respect as that of a human’s death ceremony would. Beowulf expresses his compassion when he tells Grendel’s son, “Be proud”, as Grendel lied there dead in his mother's underwater cave. (Gunnarsson 2005) His love and admiration towards the witch are expressed deeply, which eventually is discovered to be the mother of Grendel's
After Beowulf kills Grendel he goes after his mother because if Grendel was a descendant of Cain so was she. She did not do anything that was not reasonable. The Danes killed her son so she sought out revenge for killing her son. So the Danes found where the evil witch was living and attacked her. Beowulf killed the witch because she was evil just like Grendel. Since Grendel and his mother were descendants of Cain they were considered evil, and monsters. They were killed for honor and for Beowulf’s reputation. Later on in Beowulf’s life he encounters a fire breathing demon that was awoken by a thief that stole a goblet from the greedy beast. The dragon was seeking revenge on whoever took his goblet and was killed for it. The dragon was ugly and looked different than that of Geats so it was considered evil, and because it was destroying homes Beowulf killed the monster. The dragon was being prejudiced against because it was seeking revenge. It was angered that someone stole from him so it punished anybody and everybody that was nearby. Both Grendel's mom and the dragon were killed because they sought revenge for something that the Geats