Why Is Grendel's Mother Portrayed In Beowulf

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Recommended: Use of supernatural in literature

The supernatural has an important role in Beowulf. Because Beowulf exhibits supernatural in some way, but always seems to come back to religion at the end. Beowulf 's society examins its people through their actions; honor, heroism, courage, and evil. As Beowulf faces three adversaries (Grendel, Grendel 's mother and the dragon). He show 's that he can never be defeated because he has enormous strength and Godly power. Though the bible connects Cain to Beowulf, Beowulf 's author establishes Grendel 's mother as definitive evil, which reveals that she could have been Eve in the story. An otherworldly resemblance between Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and Cain. The author tells us that Cain has a means of strengthening the wrong doing attributes …show more content…

"Grendel 's mother/monstrous hell bride brooded on her wrongs/ She had been forced down into fearful waters/ ... after Cain had killed his father 's son" (1258-1262). Even if Grendel 's mother were wife to Cain, instead of mother, the connection to Eve is still questioned. Because when Cain murdered Abel it was the first murder ever committed, Cain is the first man to be cursed by God besides Adam and Eve. Than assuming Grendel was Cain 's one-time wife, she gives birth the child of a God cursed man when she gives birth to Grendel. Grendel is "a fiend out of hell" (100), a "grim demond/haunting the marches"(103-104). As Eve was the first to give birth to a human child, Grendel 's mother gave birth to a demon child. Even if Grendel’s mother and Eve is not the same person, they are the first women of their kind, and are very much …show more content…

It is because of these allusions to Cain that Grendel 's mother is worded in such an unholy image, and it is because of this unholy image that Beowulf is able to give himself the power of a normal human to superhuman. With the defeat of Grendel and his mother, Beowulf rises to a God-like figure throughout the land as he also sees himself being a God. By using Grendel 's mother as the trophy which gains Beowulf his superhero like status, the author is also giving a warning to all women, not to test man’s power. Beowulf is not just a story it’s history. Through its characters and the plot summary of the story the author reveals what society was at the time. Men were strong, women were weak. Honor and courage brought heroism, and heroism brought power. It 's not just an expression of opinion of Beowulf 's time, however, but a reflection of the world we live in today. Women have a different grasp in today’s society, a more powerful grasp. Consider the women are still subjugated by their husbands, or the women in politics who must work twice as hard to prove herself. Consider double

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