The Five Steps
The literature suggests that God was a prominent figure in their lives after the main character has experienced a great amount of suffering. God was to be absent to them until he or she ascended onto a high level of anguish and suffering. According to Anglo Saxon literature, God’s purpose is to make humans suffer so people can see their true selves or reflect to repent.
God’s plan for life is prominent in the most famous Anglo Saxon literature, Beowulf, where God uses Gendel as a way to make the Geats and Dains suffer. Grendel being his messenger from hell, preaches to Beowulf and the others by leaving the malled and distorted bodies of their loved ones in their homes, explaining to them that this is what God wants. What he
…show more content…
“It’s good to guard your faith, nor let your grief come forth/...It’s good to find your grace/ In God, the heavenly rock where rests our every hope.”( The Wanderer 110, 113-114). In this piece of Anglo Saxon literature, the character has reached a stage in enlightenment that he is able to reflect on his life and is able to discover that the only proper way to live, is by living for God and his will. Towards the end of The Wife’s Lament, the wife has reached the stage to where she is able to reflect on her current misfortune and connect with God but states, “May that young man be sad-minded always/ hard his heart's thought while he must wear/ a blithe bearing with care in the breast/ a crowd of sorrows,” continuing her petting life and misery (42-45). She would be able to leave this world of misery if she was able to get over her worldly problems, which God had pushed on everyone, and come to the same conclusion as The Wanderer and The Seafarer.
“A man must conquer pride, not kill it/ be firm with his fellows, chaste for himself,/ Treat all the world as the world deserves/ with love or with hate but never with harm,” (The Seafarer 109-112). This quotes shows that this man has gone through all the necessary steps in life and has almost reached his time in this world, for he has served his purpose. Live through the suffering. Withstand the test of exile. Retrieve enlightenment. Reflect of your life and the life of others.
The Wyrd Cross between Christianity and Fate in Beowulf/Grendel The poem Beowulf, authored by an anonymous person, remains to be one of the oldest epics in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. The poem serves as an important influence for later literature; the novel Grendel by John Gardner is one example. The settings of Beowulf and Grendel are a result of the assimilation of Christianity into the Anglo-Saxon pagan religion. Not only did the Anglo-Saxons belief in spiritual predestination but also in fatalism.
What is resilience? According to the American Psychological Association (APA), resilience is, “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress”. There are many ways to show and build resilience one way is to find purpose. Instead of just sitting around and doing nothing, try and go out and help others. Maybe you can’t overcome your stress right now, but you can try and distract yourself by helping those around you.
A myriad of common themes exist in literature, employed by authors for an infinite number of effects: among these are the basic human experiences such as life, death, joy, and adversity. As defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary, adversity is “a state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune.” A subject commonly explicated upon, adversity is present in literature’s earliest works, all the way through modern compositions. The role of adversity in literature can vary: if a character triumphs over or falls to adversity can paint the work in a positive or negative light, and be the difference between a tragedy and a triumph.
“We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts… For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for
Motivations The three cardinal motivations for Beowulf to fight the monsters. People often have very different reasons to do something than others. Sometimes, people wonder why others do the things they do.
1. How does Beowulf character compare with other heroes you know about? When compared against modern heroes, Beowulf comes off as a more of a rugged dirty character. When looking at heroes such as Captain America or Luke Skywalker, both of these characters are never pictured as dirty. Captain America, also known as Steve Rogers, is always pictured as clean and his suit never dirty, same thing with Luke Skywalker.
However rather than finding the peace his father wanted him to find his mind fills with the desire of revenge against his own creation. Unable to handle the emotional pressure he pursues a lonely trip to the valley of Chamounix. Here the mood then begins fluctuating as he purses internal peace but his guilt keeps tormenting his mind. He first “ceased to fear, or to bend before any being less almighty” (Shelly 107) and “a tingling long-lost sense of pleasure often came across [him] (Shelley 107), however then he found himself “fettered again to grief and indulging in the misery of reflection” showing the nature of his internal conflict.
Not all heroes wear capes. Well, in novels and movies, they tend to. From the start, heros have always been someone who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. In poems such as Beowulf, which date back to the 10th century, implement the hero’s model in its purest form. The main character, Beowulf, is the stereotypical hero that comes from a far away land to defeat the monstrous antagonist Grendel, and defend the impotent villagers.
The monster in Beowulf, known as Grendel, is a representation of human fear, hatred, and impulse. On page 44, the narrator states, " He found them sprawled in sleep, suspecting nothing, their dreams undisturbed... He slipped through the door and there in the silence snatched up thirty men, smashed them..." Because the Anglo Saxons mainly lived on the coast of England, they feared that vikings or some other enemy will come attack them in the middle of the night. Grendel, this excerpt is a reflection of that fear,where Grendel is the enemy.
Beowulf: A New Translation for Oral Delivery, translated by Dick Ringler, utilized the dark and the ominous to foreshadow or to portray the impending savagery of mankind. Darkness could be defined either by the absence of light or by the lack of intellectual enlightenment. The monstrous creatures are shrouded within the darkness or associate with the ominous. Throughout Beowulf the theme of violence and darkness are intertwined, which is manifest by correlating the darkness with the unknown through Grendel. The unknown generate fear among the mass through their inability to control and understand the existence of inhuman beings.
Once upon a time, there was a marvelous warrior that was a hero to so many and king to some. In the story of Beowulf, the hero, Beowulf, must follow and go through the hero’s journey. The hero’s journey has twelve stages, or three acts. The stages go in the order: 1) The Call to Adventure, 2) Assistance, 3) Departure, 4) Trials, 5) Approach to the Inmost Cave, 6) Crisis, 7) Treasure, 8) Result, 9) Return, 10) New Life, 11) Resolution, and 12) Status Quo (Winkler). Since Beowulf is facing three different monsters, there is not only the story’s significant journey, but also multiple inside it.
As he, the Wanderer speaks kindly, he explains that “ A wise man must be patient not too hot of heart nor hasty of speech, not reluctant to fight nor too reckless, not too timid nor too glad, not too greedy, and never eager to commit until he can be sure. A man should hold back his boast until that time has come when he truly knows to direct his heart on the right path”. This quote reveals the acceptance aspect within the five stages of grief which he is experiencing throughout the poem. The Wanderer speaks of patience and how to be calm and in lack of better words, indifferent about quite a lot of things. This is a side of him which is more calm, understanding, and accepting.
The Seafarer’s emotions are constantly shifting as he views his life in separate perspectives. Though he feels the pain of isolation, the love-hate emotions of being at sea, and fears his fate; he focuses on God and his plan for him. The first section of this elegy, the speaker uses powerful words to show how miserable he feels in his current situation. He feels “pain” (3) mentally, physically, and emotionally.