Comparative Essay Comparing Grendel And Macbeth

Humans have the ability to be evil inside them ever since birth; and British Literature is a good analysis on how evil is presented in people’s lives and how people ‘become’ evil, such as how Grendel and Macbeth become evil in their respective stories. There are many theories on why people act evil, including theories from, Hannah Arendt, Elaine Pagal, and Thomas Hobbs. Most of the theories say generally the same thing. Evil is essentially a part of a human’s character and nature, and the evil inside of one can be triggered by a number of things, such as self interest and being influenced to do evil.

All the British Literature that was read in this course has contained evil, as evil is an essential part to make a story. “Satan, although he

He did this because Grendel was influenced by the Dragon, reason being simply that ‘he can’, he had the choice to and simply chose to; And he followed this word thoughtlessly. Hannah Arendt, a political theorist, was sent to the trial of a Nazi soldier, after WWII, that was being tried for overseeing the killing of many Jewish people, and she expected to find this awful demon of a human being that would allow such a thing to happen, but she was surprised to see that the former Nazi soldier looked just like a normal person. She wondered what would posses such a normal looking person to do such horrible tasks, and she concluded that “it was thoughtlessness,” (Hannah Arendt) that he did what ever his chief officers or the Nazi party told him to do and never stopped to wonder what the consequences of his actions were, and “such remoteness can wreak havoc more than all the evil instinct taken together.” (Hannah Arendt) This shows how Grendel thoughtlessly did his actions due to influence of the dragon, without realizing what he was doing to the humans was really awful. What is also awful is how humans are evil due to their own