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The Dichotomy Of Good And Evil In Beowulf

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Good and evil have been shown multiple times throughout the story. Beowulf versus all the different monsters throughout the story are the most prevalent examples of this dichotomy. Many of the evil forces were Cain, Grendel and his mother, and the dragon. These three portray evil in their fighting and their reasoning for fighting/ murdering others.
Cain, the allegory, was evil for fighting out of anger and jealousy. In the bible he murdered his own brother, because he was jealous of God favoring him. In Beowulf he is the ancestor of Grendel, his mother, and the dragon. He is known for this, because he is thought of as Satan and they believe Grendel and the dragon were born from Satan. They all had the same reasoning for fighting, which was …show more content…

He was a perfect mold for the descendant of Cain, because of his series of murders and attacks he committed. Beowulf decided to fight Grendel in defense of Hrothgar. Grendel had been lurking after Hrothgar’s warriors and Beowulf would not allow him to anymore. Beowulf believed if Grendel were to win the fight then it would be a terrible day. Grendel would walk around the corpse with no remorse, but only happiness and gloat his victory. After Grendel was defeated by Beowulf his mother stepped in. She also murders a warrior of Hrothgar’s, which pushes Beowulf to fight her as well. He is forced to go under the sea, representing Hell, and fight her under the water for many days. As the warrior’s all think he is dead after seeing blood arise to the surface after many hours, they come to find out that Beowulf was victorious in the battle.
As Beowulf’s final fight in the epic he is faced with a dragon on his own land. The dragon was used to represent a serpent of Satan’s whom is a liar and thief. Beowulf fights a long battle with the help of Wiglaf, and finally defeats the dragon. He is killed by a stab to the side after many slashes already occurred.
The three descendants of Cain that Beowulf battled throughout the epic are the evils that were against the good in Beowulf. The epic makes it clear that evil will put up a strong fight with good, but good will always be successful in defeating the bad. Beowulf is prosperous in defeating all of his evil

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