Symbols in Beowulf
In many stories throughout ancient times, Monsters have been the focus of the problems in one's society. These creatures of the dark have always posed a certain threat to society. Further, monsters have been connected to features that are non human or primitive animal like features. Beowulf, whose author is unknown, is a poem, which portrays these themes associated with. In this poem, monsters are shown as beings, which exhibit the dark side of man and have features that are animal-like, and later showing how man avoids such beings. Throughout the poem three monsters appear from the darkness. Grendel, a powerful monster spawned from hell, Grendel's mother, a creature that lives in a cold murky lake, and the Dragon, a great beast who symbolizes death. All of the monsters in this poem exhibit these traits of darkness. Anger, revenge and greed are traits of man's dark side whi
The dragon is seen as the one who is most despised because of his sense of true and physical evil. For example, the line which states, "The cup brought peace to a slave, pleased his master, but stirred the dragon's anger/The dragon followed anxious to find the man who had robbed it of silver" (94), exhibits how one piece of treasure out of his whole treasure can disturb such a creature. Grendel's mother is a symbol of the revenge and a symbol of anger that many humans poses due hatred. Grendel's mother could be viewed as having a human persona that is all too familiar to most people. One of his traits would be that of greed. As opposed to Grendel's deeds and wild rage, Grendel's mother can be seen as almost as monster with a vendetta. " (26), furthering the resentment of man, and man's will of getting rid of such freakish creatures. The poem later then shows the dragon's physical evil in taking out all of Beowulf's villages with his fiery breath. The representation of evil where rage is involved is most seen in the character of Grendel. As for features represented in Grendel's mother is spoken of as being a she-wolf, showing how she can be compared to a primitive animal such as a wolf. The idea of rage is seen as being linked to man's violent ways that are embodied in him.
Common topics in this essay:
,
grendel's mother,
grendel's mother seen,
symbol revenge,
primitive animal,
physical evil,
mother seen,
monsters poem,
poem monsters,
|
Acceptance Essays
