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
Grendel's mother could be viewed as having a human persona that is all too familiar to most people. The poem later then shows the dragon's physical evil in taking out all of Beowulf's villages with his fiery breath. ch are also qualities in the monsters. This causes Beowulf to feel as if it was his fault that the dragon destroyed the village, " Their words brought misery, Beowulf's sorrow beat at his heat: he accused himself of breaking God's law, of bringing The Almighty's power down on his people"(96). The narrator tells of Grendel's features and origins which shows how he was," spawned in that slime, conceived of Cain, murderous creatures banished By God. 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. , living down in the darkness, growled in pain, impatient as day after day the music rang loud in the hall, the harp's rejoicing" (26), exposes Grendel's great fury against this enjoyment. " (26), furthering the resentment of man, and man's will of getting rid of such freakish creatures. 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 representation of evil where rage is involved is most seen in the character of Grendel. Misery had brewed in her heart, that female horror,"(63) which displays the loss of Grendel and her revenge for his death. The idea of rage is seen as being linked to man's violent ways that are embodied in him.
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