In Beowulf, the conflict of good and evil is the poem's most important theme. The story describes Beowulf's adventures coming from Sweden to save the people of Denmark. In these adventures, he is fighting against some kind of evil, whether it is Grendal, Grendal's Mother, or the dragon. The hero's quest is to save the community threatened by the powers of evil. Beowulf represents the potential to do good while Grendal, Grendal's mother, and the dragon are consumed with the desire to act against people and to destroy them. In some ways, Beowulf reminds the reader of the heroes in today's world. He has superior physical strength, he is ethical, and he risks his life to save others whose lives are in danger. He also has the characteristics of the Anglo-Saxons. He loved law and liberty, great sense of fair play, loved adventure, athletic and brave, devoted to duty, death before dishonor, and loyalty-the most important virtue. He is essentially the good character because the poet makes references of him speaking about Christian beliefs. God would never be on the side of evil. Beowulf is fighting for the right thing, but when he is dying he says, "Fate has swept our race away." He switches from a belief in God to a belief in fate. This is because fate had a different meaning during this time period.
It meant and inevitable, adverse outcome, or it meant death. In Beowulf's case, it meant death. The reader meets Grendal at the beginning of the story. He is a giant cannibal who lives in the outer darkness. Every word used to describe him is evil. "Conceived by a pair of those monsters born of Cain," and "made his home in a hell not hell but earth." There is no goodness within Grendal. The poet identifies him as a descendent of Cain, the first murderer, saying that he is pure evil.
When Beowulf and Grendal fight, Grendal knows that there is something different about this warrior than all of the other ones. Grendal feels something special about him. " That shepherd of evil, guardian of crime, knew at once that nowhere on earth had he met a man whose hands were harder." Grendal felt the power of Beowulf's hands and knew he wasn't a regular man. After this fight, this is pretty much the end of Grendal. Good triumphs over evil.
In this story, the main theme is good vs. evil. It pits the hero from Geatland against the descendent of Cain. Beowulf tries to save the people who are threatened by evil powers. He knows that he should not ignore the powers to do good with which he had been blessed. He comes from a time and a people in which bravery and loyalty were two big characteristics, and he had those.
This is a reader response, because the writer states his opinion that Beowulf represents goodness, and Grendel represents evil. I agree with this author's point of view, particularly when I consider the references to Christianity in this work. Beowulf's attributes and beliefs stand in sharp contrast to those of Grendal, "conceived by a pair of those monsters born of Cain."
Beowulfs beliefs and views are extremely different than those of Grendals. Grendal is out to kill and has regret while Beowulf goesto battle Grendal to stop him form his bad ways.
Beowulf obviously had different beliefs then Grendel since he went to battle against Grendel. I agree with Kirsten about beowulf representing good and Grendel representing evil.
I agree wholeheartedly that a major theme in Beowulf is Good V. Evil. I agree that it can be assumed that Beowulf was good because he was praising god. I can also agree that Beowulf can be similar to a person others would like to be. The only part I can disagree with is that Beowulf was extraordinarily into himself, and I'm not so sure that such a quality is a good thing.
Like I've said many times before, Good is really a point of view, as is Evil. We never heard Grendel's side of the story, did we? NO! We only heard Beowulf's biased side of the story. We never heard Grendel's mother's side of the story, did we? NO! We only heard Beowulf's biased side of the story. We never heard the Dragon's side of the story, did we? NO! We only heard Beowulf's biased side of the story. All the dragon was doing was protecting his lair, his home....now is that so bad? But Beowulf goes and murders the dragon just because HUMANS tried to steal the DRAGON's property. Murder! A dictionary definition of murder is: "to kill or slaughter inhumanly or barbarously." Tell me, who's the good guy in this story?
Beowulf was brave, beowulf was loyal, but was he really anything else? its pretty easy to say that beowulf is this super cool dude, but was what he was fighting for good? or was it just what the danes and the poet thought was good? im really not so sure anymore. if you put it out there black and white, good vs evil, its pretty easy to say that beowulf was doing it right. but this phil said, is he everything a good guy ought to be?
I mean obviously Beowulf is represents Good and Grendel represents the Evil. thats the reason why the battle had even begun. Good always goes against Evil to stop evil from its destruction
well the best way to figure out for certain who is good and who is evil, is to look at who the intended audience for the story is for. Beowulf was first *written* to serve as a model for all of christianity.
Its been said many times before that Beowulf is good and Grendel is evil. We've seen many times before that the reoccuring theme of the poem is good vs. evil and that evil always loses against good. I totally agree with it.
Beowulf defiently has the reoccuring theme of good vs. evil. Although, it depends on how you look at it. For example, Beowulf vs. the troll wife. Beowulf did kill her son, its natural for her to want revenge. I would view the actions of both the troll wife and Beowulf as evil.
The Conflict of good and evil blah blah blah...So i think maybe there might be some aspects of good and evil in Beowulf. I'm just guessing here but maybe Beowulf is good and Grendel is evil. I think i might write an article on Beowulf being good and fighting the evil in the story and post it on the internet several times. Maybe then some students can talk about it again and again. That'd be sweet...
This article is quite interesing because it involves God as the reason why Beowulf is good. They say he cant be evil because he talks about God. Is this just because of the Anglo-Saxon beliefs or the beliefs of the author...Hmm, i cant tell.
Good v. evil? Yes indeed. Obviously as we all know good v. evil is one of the main themes in the story of Beowulf. The real question is who is good and who is bad.
Obviously the theme in Beowulf is good vs. evil. Of course Beowulf and Grendel have different views. Beowulf is definitely a representation of a hero, as Grendel is the villain. Beowulfs prospective of Good was proposed first, than came Grendel view, as he was the victim of beowulf. I find this interesting... "God would never be on the side of evil." ... Do we really know?
The theme of Good vs Evil is the mosy important theme in Beowulf becuase the whole peom is about him fighting evil. The author describes Beowulf has the best hero ever and that he personifies all that is good, while Grendel, his mother, and the Dragon are all meticulously described has pure evil.
I agree that Good V. Evil is definitely the most important theme in the text and that Beowulf and Grendel both represent our present and past ideas of good and evil, although Brandon presents a valid point that they are merely concepts that can be proven differently.
Many of the religious characters in The Canterbury Tales represent character traits that are different from what is traditionally expected of them. This is because the Catholic Church, which ruled all of England, Ireland and most of Europe in the Fourteenth Century, was extremely wealthy. Extravagant cathedrals were built in every big city while the people suffered from poverty, disease and famine. The contrast between the wealth of the church and misery of the people was overwhelming. As a result, the characters in Chaucer’s tales were portrayed as deceitful and greedy. Two examples of this are the Summoner from the “The Friar’s Tale” and Death from the “The Pardoner’s Tale.” The Summoner is a church official who brings people accused of violating church law to special courts set up by the church. This particular Summoner from “The Friar’s Tale” is a deceitful, greedy person who uses his position as a church official to pressure innocent people into giving him “bribes” or money. He actually has a network of secret spies who report to him so that he can issue false summons and extort money from people. Instead of representing justice, he represents the exact opposite, injustice. Chaucer wrote this tale to show how greedy and corrupt church officials were during the Middle Ages. In “The Pardoners Tale,” all the characters seek out Death, and the Pardoner describes Death like a person, an evil person. During the fourteenth century death was commonplace. The plague was the biggest killer of all and nobody knew what caused it therefore it was considered a mysterious and evil occurrence. In this particular tale death is personified, and all the characters in the tale who seek him out either die or kill each other when they get close to him. The point Chaucer makes through the words of the Pardoner is that the evil traits like greed, avarice and corruption lead to death. Of course the Pardoner himself is a hypocrite and embodies all of these traits. In the end of the tale he tries to sell his relics to the people to make money which shows that he, as an official of the church, is just as evil and corrupt as the Summoner in “The Friar’s Tale.”
Both The Summoner, and Death as he is personified by the Pardoner, are examples of religious officials who are the opposite of what they are supposed to be. Instead of being upright, honest church leaders, they are hypocritical liars driven by the same vices that they preach against. In other words, they use their positions to deceive and make money. Chaucer’s point in both tales is to show how greedy and corrupt the Catholic has become. The circumstances in each tale are different, but the main point is that “greed is the root of all evil.”
24 comments:
Good vs. Evil in Beowulf
In Beowulf, the conflict of good and evil is the poem's most important theme. The story describes Beowulf's adventures coming from Sweden to save the people of Denmark. In these adventures, he is fighting against some kind of evil, whether it is Grendal, Grendal's Mother, or the dragon. The hero's quest is to save the community threatened by the powers of evil. Beowulf represents the potential to do good while Grendal, Grendal's mother, and the dragon are consumed with the desire to act against people and to destroy them.
In some ways, Beowulf reminds the reader of the heroes in today's world. He has superior physical strength, he is ethical, and he risks his life to save others whose lives are in danger. He also has the characteristics of the Anglo-Saxons. He loved law and liberty, great sense of fair play, loved adventure, athletic and brave, devoted to duty, death before dishonor, and loyalty-the most important virtue. He is essentially the good character because the poet makes references of him speaking about Christian beliefs. God would never be on the side of evil. Beowulf is fighting for the right thing, but when he is dying he says, "Fate has swept our race away." He switches from a belief in God to a belief in fate. This is because fate had a different meaning during this time period.
It meant and inevitable, adverse outcome, or it meant death. In Beowulf's case, it meant death.
The reader meets Grendal at the beginning of the story. He is a giant cannibal who lives in the outer darkness. Every word used to describe him is evil. "Conceived by a pair of those monsters born of Cain," and "made his home in a hell not hell but earth." There is no goodness within Grendal. The poet identifies him as a descendent of Cain, the first murderer, saying that he is pure evil.
When Beowulf and Grendal fight, Grendal knows that there is something different about this warrior than all of the other ones. Grendal feels something special about him. " That shepherd of evil, guardian of crime, knew at once that nowhere on earth had he met a man whose hands were harder." Grendal felt the power of Beowulf's hands and knew he wasn't a regular man. After this fight, this is pretty much the end of Grendal. Good triumphs over evil.
In this story, the main theme is good vs. evil. It pits the hero from Geatland against the descendent of Cain. Beowulf tries to save the people who are threatened by evil powers. He knows that he should not ignore the powers to do good with which he had been blessed. He comes from a time and a people in which bravery and loyalty were two big characteristics, and he had those.
This is a reader response, because the writer states his opinion that Beowulf represents goodness, and Grendel represents evil. I agree with this author's point of view, particularly when I consider the references to Christianity in this work. Beowulf's attributes and beliefs stand in sharp contrast to those of Grendal, "conceived by a pair of those monsters born of Cain."
Beowulfs beliefs and views are extremely different than those of Grendals. Grendal is out to kill and has regret while Beowulf goesto battle Grendal to stop him form his bad ways.
Beowulf obviously had different beliefs then Grendel since he went to battle against Grendel. I agree with Kirsten about beowulf representing good and Grendel representing evil.
I agree wholeheartedly that a major theme in Beowulf is Good V. Evil. I agree that it can be assumed that Beowulf was good because he was praising god. I can also agree that Beowulf can be similar to a person others would like to be. The only part I can disagree with is that Beowulf was extraordinarily into himself, and I'm not so sure that such a quality is a good thing.
Like I've said many times before, Good is really a point of view, as is Evil.
We never heard Grendel's side of the story, did we? NO! We only heard Beowulf's biased side of the story.
We never heard Grendel's mother's side of the story, did we? NO! We only heard Beowulf's biased side of the story.
We never heard the Dragon's side of the story, did we? NO! We only heard Beowulf's biased side of the story. All the dragon was doing was protecting his lair, his home....now is that so bad? But Beowulf goes and murders the dragon just because HUMANS tried to steal the DRAGON's property.
Murder! A dictionary definition of murder is: "to kill or slaughter inhumanly or barbarously."
Tell me, who's the good guy in this story?
Beowulf was brave, beowulf was loyal, but was he really anything else? its pretty easy to say that beowulf is this super cool dude, but was what he was fighting for good? or was it just what the danes and the poet thought was good? im really not so sure anymore. if you put it out there black and white, good vs evil, its pretty easy to say that beowulf was doing it right. but this phil said, is he everything a good guy ought to be?
I mean obviously Beowulf is represents Good and Grendel represents the Evil. thats the reason why the battle had even begun. Good always goes against Evil to stop evil from its destruction
Once again, good vs evil. Beowulf is supposed to represent the good, as he represents the Christian religion. Grendel represents evil.
well the best way to figure out for certain who is good and who is evil, is to look at who the intended audience for the story is for. Beowulf was first *written* to serve as a model for all of christianity.
Beowulfs beliefs are the exact opposite of those of Grendals. Grendal represents evil while Beowulf represents good.
Its been said many times before that Beowulf is good and Grendel is evil. We've seen many times before that the reoccuring theme of the poem is good vs. evil and that evil always loses against good. I totally agree with it.
Beowulf defiently has the reoccuring theme of good vs. evil. Although, it depends on how you look at it. For example, Beowulf vs. the troll wife. Beowulf did kill her son, its natural for her to want revenge. I would view the actions of both the troll wife and Beowulf as evil.
The Conflict of good and evil blah blah blah...So i think maybe there might be some aspects of good and evil in Beowulf. I'm just guessing here but maybe Beowulf is good and Grendel is evil. I think i might write an article on Beowulf being good and fighting the evil in the story and post it on the internet several times. Maybe then some students can talk about it again and again. That'd be sweet...
This article is quite interesing because it involves God as the reason why Beowulf is good. They say he cant be evil because he talks about God. Is this just because of the Anglo-Saxon beliefs or the beliefs of the author...Hmm, i cant tell.
Good v. evil? Yes indeed. Obviously as we all know good v. evil is one of the main themes in the story of Beowulf. The real question is who is good and who is bad.
Good vs Evil , yet again, is the main reoccurring theme. Beowuld represents good while evil is represented with almost every other monster.
Obviously the theme in Beowulf is good vs. evil. Of course Beowulf and Grendel have different views. Beowulf is definitely a representation of a hero, as Grendel is the villain. Beowulfs prospective of Good was proposed first, than came Grendel view, as he was the victim of beowulf. I find this interesting... "God would never be on the side of evil." ... Do we really know?
I agree again that good vs evil. There are so many critic essays on good vs evil.
The theme of Good vs Evil is the mosy important theme in Beowulf becuase the whole peom is about him fighting evil. The author describes Beowulf has the best hero ever and that he personifies all that is good, while Grendel, his mother, and the Dragon are all meticulously described has pure evil.
Once again the theme Good vs. Evil is a main theme in beowulf. Beowulf represents good and christianity, while Grendal represents evil.
I agree that Good V. Evil is definitely the most important theme in the text and that Beowulf and Grendel both represent our present and past ideas of good and evil, although Brandon presents a valid point that they are merely concepts that can be proven differently.
Thank you, Lauren. At least someone understands where I'm coming from. :~)
Greed and Corruption in The Canterbury Tales
Many of the religious characters in The Canterbury Tales represent character traits that are different from what is traditionally expected of them. This is because the Catholic Church, which ruled all of England, Ireland and most of Europe in the Fourteenth Century, was extremely wealthy. Extravagant cathedrals were built in every big city while the people suffered from poverty, disease and famine. The contrast between the wealth of the church and misery of the people was overwhelming. As a result, the characters in Chaucer’s tales were portrayed as deceitful and greedy. Two examples of this are the Summoner from the “The Friar’s Tale” and Death from the “The Pardoner’s Tale.”
The Summoner is a church official who brings people accused of violating church law to special courts set up by the church. This particular Summoner from “The Friar’s Tale” is a deceitful, greedy person who uses his position as a church official to pressure innocent people into giving him “bribes” or money. He actually has a network of secret spies who report to him so that he can issue false summons and extort money from people. Instead of representing justice, he represents the exact opposite, injustice. Chaucer wrote this tale to show how greedy and corrupt church officials were during the Middle Ages.
In “The Pardoners Tale,” all the characters seek out Death, and the Pardoner describes Death like a person, an evil person. During the fourteenth century death was commonplace. The plague was the biggest killer of all and nobody knew what caused it therefore it was considered a mysterious and evil occurrence. In this particular tale death is personified, and all the characters in the tale who seek him out either die or kill each other when they get close to him. The point Chaucer makes through the words of the Pardoner is that the evil traits like greed, avarice and corruption lead to death. Of course the Pardoner himself is a hypocrite and embodies all of these traits. In the end of the tale he tries to sell his relics to the people to make money which shows that he, as an official of the church, is just as evil and corrupt as the Summoner in “The Friar’s Tale.”
Both The Summoner, and Death as he is personified by the Pardoner, are examples of religious officials who are the opposite of what they are supposed to be. Instead of being upright, honest church leaders, they are hypocritical liars driven by the same vices that they preach against. In other words, they use their positions to deceive and make money. Chaucer’s point in both tales is to show how greedy and corrupt the Catholic has become. The circumstances in each tale are different, but the main point is that “greed is the root of all evil.”
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