Sunday, September 16, 2012

How does Evil/ Heroism maintain themselves in Beowulf?

Q: How did evil and heroism maintain themselves in Beowulf?

A:

"Evil" in Beowulf is presented as the devils. First, although the author only used little lines to describe, it mentioned that the devils split into a thousand forms of evil, which includes spirits, fiends, goblins, monsters, and giants. The antagonists in the epic are monsters, which are Grendel, his mother, and the dragon. First, Grendel went into the hall again and again to eat people. He enjoys killing the people and cannot satisfy. Grendel bought death, tragedy, sadness, and fear to the Danes. After Grendel was finally killed by Beowulf, his mother came for revenge. Although Grendel’s mother killed people for revenge, she did take away many lives. In the epic, the dragon is also considered evil. “Evil” in the epic is anything that is against human and took away people’s lives. Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon are defeated by Beowulf because they attacked human and killed people. Devils are described in the epic as “A brood forever opposing the Lord’s/ Will” and will be “again and again defeated”.

Beowulf is the hero in the epic. He represented the heroism and he has all the properties that usual heroes have. He is young, have power, have responsibility, and is really brave. He defeated the monsters again and again (Grendel and Grendel’s mother). He protected the people living in the hall, saved a lot of lives, and brings peace back again and again. Even when Beowulf turns old, when he knows that another monster (the dragon) had appeared, he went to defeat the monster. This shows his courage and his responsibility of protecting his people. To me, having the responsibility of saving other people’s life is also a very important property for a hero. Beowulf appeared in the epic as a hero, and fought the evil till his death. Heroism maintained itself into the epic by showing the properties of a hero by Beowulf.

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