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Characteristics of evil in beowulf
Characteristics of evil in beowulf
Good and evil in the history of literature
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Macbeth and Beowulf: Evil Defined By Human Preoccupation For centuries evil was defined by human preoccupation, and it was often indicated in the English literature. From Beowulf to Macbeth, people's perception on the nature of evil had matured and became more complex. In Beowulf's period, evil was simply defined based on outer appearances and actions. The author of Beowulf described the evil Grendel as a fearsome monster: "He(with sharp claws)snatched up thirty men, smashed them." For the same reason, Grendel's mother was also considered evil although she merely wanted to revenge her son. The last evil character in the story was the Dragon. He killed the Geats and burned their homes with his breath of fire. Monster and evil certainly had the same meaning in the Pre-Christian time. As Christian was introduced, a new definition of evil that concentrated on human values and thoughts had emerged. The Christian believed that the seven deadly sins were the cause of evil. Thus in the play Macbeth, Macbeth's tragic flaws were actually the deadly sins. They were greedy and envy. Macbeth was not satisfied with his current position, "Thane of Glamis," and not even his newly gained "Thane of Cawdor" would please him. He had only one thing on his mind, the throne. When he became the king, he envied Banquo's having heirs who would be rivals for the throne. The Christian also developed the theory of the great chain of being. It basically stated that a person could not and was not allowed to change his social status. Thus in the play, everyone eventually turned against Macbeth, who had broken the great chain of being by taking the throne from the rightful king. At the end, Macbeth died as an evil being who had broken all the Christian rules. The nature of evil also became unclear as it got more complex. In Macbeth, the play began with the three witches' meeting. To a first-time reader, it would appear that these "weird sister" were the evil ones, because it was a common human perception. Who could be more evil than a witch who vowed to punish a sailor only because his wife cursed her and refused to give her some chestnuts. As the play continued, one might become skeptical about the witches' being evil, because the sign of evil started to become visible in Macbeth's family. Lady Macbeth, in her soliloquy on her husband's ambition, revealed her true nature as she asked for night to be darker than hell itself, an invitation to the powers of evil. Macbeth's ambition of becoming the king made him evil and murderous. He sent people to kill Banquo and slain Macduff's family. Macbeth and his wife had become just as evil as the witches or maybe even surpassed them The nature of evil had changed with people's religion over the centuries. Simple "external" evil had developed into the more complex and ambiguous "internal" evil. It had become difficult to identify evil in the English literature.
Traditionally, it is agreed that any and every form of telling the truth is always the best thing to do. In the essays of Stephen L Carter and Stephanie Ericsson, this ideal is not exactly true. It is expressed in "The Insufficiency of Honesty" as well as "The Ways We Lie" that honesty is hard to come by and that there is more to it than believed. The authors convey their views by first defining what the concept is, picking it apart, and then use common occurrences for examples of the points they had made.
In the play of “Macbeth”, Shakespeare gradually and effectively deepens our understanding of the themes and most importantly the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The main theme of Macbeth is ambition, and how it compels the main characters to pursue it. The antagonists of the play are the three witches, who symbolise the theme appearance and reality. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relation is an irony throughout the play, as most of their relation is based on greed and power. This is different from most of Shakespeare’s other plays, which are mostly based on romance and trust. There is also guilt that leads Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to the final consequences of the play. As the progresses, the constant changes in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are exposed.
To cry, 'Hold, hold!' " line 41-57, Pg. 41. Here we see her summon evil spirits to thicken her blood and to turn her milk into bitter gall and then calls on them to prevent her from feeling remorse and to remove her feminity. This is very intriguing, and very interesting. We didn't even expect that an apparently strong, practical, and determined woman would act in such contradiction to her womanliness.
Stephen L. Carter goes on to say, “Although honesty is a virtue of importance, it is a different virtue from integrity” meaning that it is related to integrity but does not define all of it. As individual will listen to what they wan to hear without knowing the true definition of a word like integrity. There is more to it than just speaking the words a person must understand the true definition. A society looks at the word integrity as everyone speaks of this work but society does not know anything rally about it truly. In example to what Carter beliefs that many individuals act up selfishness because society has made them believe that by saying the truth yes do help oneself but is not an act of integrity when the truth hurts those around. The way to look at is society as a whole is becoming more a person can be entirely honest without ever lifting a finger during the hard work of discernment that integrity. Carter gives this example as to how integrity is close to honesty but at the same time not quite. A Carter’s mother use to say, “You don’t have to tell people everything you know” know that a person can be honest but not have integrity which only makes honesty worth
Macbeth, a tragedy, starts with a dying, bloody Captain talking about the valor with which Macbeth fought. How does this brave, devoted, valiant soldier become an insane, cold-blooded murderer, killing men, women, and children alike? The story of his downfall begins with his new-found ambition to become king after three witches tell him of his “imperial theme.” After fighting so courageously in battle, Macbeth, Thane of Glamis a title inherited from his late father, and fellow nobleman Banquo, encounter three witches. They greet Macbeth by his current title, by a title soon to be bestowed upon him, and last by the title of king. Immediately, Macbeth is intrigued by their prophecies, but unsure since the King and the
Honesty requires someone with the best intention to tell the truth and to avoid communicating in a way that is deceiving. Intent has a vested relationship between truthfulness and truth. Someone can be truthful and ethical even if what they say is not actually truthful. Being incorrect in communication is not being an actual liar. Something told as the result of a mistake is not an act of dishonesty. Honest mistakes can still affect trust between communicators due to the extent of reliability and carefulness, but a person who makes a mistake is not considered a liar.
Lady Macbeth is at the same time greater and lesser than her husband. She has a hardness which he lacks, but she has none of his subtlety and perception. She knows her husband well and despises him a little, but to satisfy her ambition, which is a crude desire to see her man King, she will devote herself soul and body to evil. (62)
For the past decade, The United States has stressed the importance of college education, to those seeking employment, and better careers. For most people, college is the logical next step in education, as it provides a working knowledge of a desired field and opens the door to many opportunities, but college has become increasingly more expensive as time goes on. Many people feel that college is no longer an option financially. Even with financial aid and scholarships, the cost of a college education can still be very taxing. This is due to massive price increase across the boards, but the main issue on most people’s minds is the debt that will be acquired from higher education.
There is only one other person to blame for the bad things. Macbeth starts out seeming not like a person that could kill his ...
With tuition rising every year, students face the challenge paying the debt achieving a college degree comes with. “Student debt surpassed credit-card debt in June 2010 for the first time in history, rising to about $830 billion — or nearly 6 percent of the nation 's annual economic output”(Clemmitt, Marcia). Not everyone has a ton of money just laying around. Being that financial trouble is the biggest problem for students, they begin to question whether college is worth it or not. In recent years, students have taken out loans to help with expenses. Most students choose to attend a community and junior college to help minimize the debt. Even after graduating with a degree, students still face the struggle of finding a job in this economic time. For higher class families this may not be a problem to them. But for the middle class and low income families, they face tougher times being that they don 't have the financial help like higher class families do. For the middle class and low income families, it makes more sense attending a community and junior college rather than a four year university.
A college education has become the expectation for most youth in the United States. Children need a college education to succeed in the global economy. Unfortunately for the majority of Americans the price of an education has become the equivalent to a small house. The steep tuition of a college education has made it an intimidating financial hurdle for middle class families. In 1986-1987 school year the average tuition at a private university was $20,566 (adjusted to 2011 dollars) while in 2011 the average cost was $28,500 for an increase of 38.6%. Similarly in public universities there has been an increase in tuition: in the 1986-1987 school year the average tuition at a public university was $8,454 (adjusted to 2011 dollars) while in 2011 the average cost was actually $20,770 for an increase of 145.7%. Most families who are able to save for college try to do so, therefore their children are not left with large amounts of debt due to loans. Nevertheless, families are only able to save on average around $10,000, which is not enough to pay for a full educ...
Evil is a destructive force; it causes harm to those who embrace it and their victims. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the protagonist Macbeth and Lady Macbeth fall into the hands of evil. Evil is what drives people to commit unnatural actions of destruction. Macbeth succumbs to evil through his fatal flaw, greed, and it causes him to disrupt the chain of being. When Macbeth willingly murders, massacres, lies and deceives, he loses his heath and sanity. Evil corrupts everything it touches, and Macbeth decides to be evil's servant. But, when Macbeth embraces evil, it corrupts him, and it ultimately destroys him as well. Lady Macbeth is a victim of Macbeth's fatal flaw, since she is drawn in, and becomes greedy for power herself. She pushes Macbeth into destruction when she adds the small touch that plunges Macbeth into a chain of murder, destruction, and lying followed by the loss of their sanity and health. After Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are well into the depths of corruption and greed, it is clearly seen that their guilt will haunt them for the rest of their lives. The harm they have caused others will be returned to them as revenge and they have lost their sanity in order to gain power. The fate of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth clearly illustrates that to embrace evil is to negate our own need for order and well being.
In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Macbeth is guilty of committing treason against his king and country. He is purely and deliberately driven by dark desire, ambition, and murderous thoughts. As the play continues, it gets easier and easier for Macbeth to commit his heinous crimes. He not only kills the king, but continues to kill various people in order to secure his wrongfully obtained position. Macbeth also has many interactions with witches, who at the time are the definition of evil. One could say that Macbeth and depravity are two sides of the same coin. Macbeth is far more evil than any other character in the play, including Lady Macbeth.
To be honest is to be believed in to create a bond that will grow and prosper. To be dishonest is to be led astray to harm others to where they might get in trouble, injured, or even worse death and all bonds, present or future, will be no longer. Honesty is a means to build one’s trust. In the end, honesty can help a person go a long way, while dishonesty will lead to nowhere as stated by some of the Proverbs.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth, a noble thane, is corrupted because of his unchecked ambitions. Macbeth’s ambitious personality is awakened when three witches appear to hail him as the Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and King. This prophecy convinces Macbeth to murder King Duncan, so he can become King; consequently, he is forced to kill others to cover up his first murder. After so much blood is spilled, Macbeth becomes a barbaric tyrant. Macbeth’s 180-degree transformation is a result of the “weird sisters.” Despite the witches being present in only three scenes of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, they advance the plot by foreshadowing events, generating imagery, and introducing main themes.