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  • Essay / Hero versus Monster in the poem Beowulf

    In most people's minds, a monster is always referred to as hostile and ugly, while heroes are referred to as good and beautiful. Through mythology, ancient scripts, literature, movies, and real life, we constantly see, hear, and read about monsters and heroes. Examples of “famous” villains are: Darth Vader from the Star Wars trilogy, Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs, the Joker from Batman or Grendel from Beowulf. But real humans like serial killers and pedophiles can also be called monsters since it is clear that a monster has cruel intentions and knowledge of the harm they cause. The monster is obviously the “bad guy,” while a hero is the opposite. There are many examples of famous fictional heroes: Ulysses, SuperMan, Robin Hood, James Bond, Sherlock Holmes. However, firefighters and military personnel, for example, are often also referred to as heroes. The hero is obviously the “good guy” because he saves people from the bad guys by killing the monsters. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get an original essayIn the ancient Anglo-Saxon poem “Beowulf”, we studied the classic story where the unique hero “Beowulf” selfless, strong and courageous, fights the monster "Grendel" which is a demon that has been terrorizing the village of Heorot and killing many for over a decade. In this particular text, there seems to be a clear distinction between the "good person" and the "bad person": a hero versus a monster, where the good must defeat the bad. Through the study of Beowulf, we will attempt to determine what makes a hero and what makes a monster. But what if there were no monsters, would there still be heroes? Also, can monsters become heroes and vice versa? A monster is someone, as this poem shows, with cruel intentions. The monsters know exactly what they're doing; their goal is to harm others, to be evil and to spread hatred and darkness around them. In the poem, Beowulf Grendel is presented as a "mighty demon", an "outcast", lines. He is described as someone from hell, "a demon from hell", a "brute cursed by God", "ruthless", "evil by nature" and "the outcast of the Lord". The description of the darkness of the monster Grendel is very long and continues for many lines throughout the poem until his death ("his days were numbered"). For over a decade ("for twelve winters"), Grendel attacks, kills, and devours the warriors and citizens of the Danish kingdom of Hrothgar. It operates during the night "...after dark, Grendel left for the upper house,...suddenly, the brute cursed by God was wreaking havoc...". The explanations for why he is so cruel are unclear, nor is his background. However, if we look at Grendel more closely, we understand that he is a loner “so Grendel fought his solitary war…” and that he was rejected by society (“he had lived for a time in poverty among the banished monsters, the clan of Cain), even by God “he was the outcast of the Lord”. In similar villain stories, for example The Joker, we find similar patterns. So, one might believe that a person becomes a monster because of rejection. Furthermore, a character can also be driven to become a monster because of grief. In the poem, Grendel's mother grieves her son ("but now his mother had set out on a wild journey, consumed by grief and ravenous, desperate for revenge") when he is mortally wounded by Beowulf and seeks to to take revenge “desperately to get revenge” for “his only child”. She goes to..