Violence And Darkness In Beowulf

In the novel Frankenstein,by Mary Shelley, the mysterious and unnatural origins of the character of Frankenstein’s monster are an important element. The Monster, having been created unethically and haphazardly, is at odds throughout the novel, resulting in his alienation from society and prolonged feelings of anger, desertion, and loneliness. Shaping his character, his relationships with other characters, and the meaning of the work as a whole, the Monster’s origins are what define him. The Monster faces rejection and violence every time he attempts to make contact with the new, foreign world he has been thrust into. Having been created from mismatched body parts, the majority of which had been decomposing for some amount of time, the Monster is grotesque and inhuman despite having human parts.

Since Grendel is going to fight without the use of weapons, Beowulf creates equality and therefore earns himself even more respect by doing the same. The less confident King Arthur on the other hand fights only with weapons. Once his wounds were amended his first thought was, "I have no sword," followed by the task of finding him one. This demonstrates Arthur's relative weakness in his dependence on weapons when held in comparison to Beowulf's willingness to fight a creature greater than himself with nothing but his bare hands. It is this that I feel best illustrates Beowulf's

In both stories the monster is a creation of scientific research but each one threatens the world in different ways. This is the reason why each story is told in a different manner, changing the point of view and the importance of some or other aspect of the world of its narrator. The monster is one of the main elements in gothic literature. Although it does not exist as such in every gothic work, it is present as the undesired, the feared, the Other. This essay will foccus on the monsters as creatures that portray the fears of a society.

They are depicted as pure evil, and during Beowulf’s battle with Grendel, the idea that the monster has claws is repeated. “Eyes were watching his evil steps/Waiting to see his swift hard claws” (Beowulf 11. 737-8). They first talk about his evil steps, and then bring up his claws, which implies that they believe his claws are evil too. When Beowulf grabs hold of Grendel, the poet made sure to mention that he held Grendel’s claws with his hands (Beowulf 11.752).

Is Beowulf an Epic Hero? The Anglo Saxon poem Beowulf has a heavy presence of the archetype of “Epic Hero”which is shown through Beowulf himself and his physical strength. Although beowulf has immense strength he is humble, even when his strength is challenged by Unferth who believes that Beowulf is not able to defeat Grendel. “And so it turned out. Each of us swam holding a sword, A naked, hard-proofed blade for protection Against the whale-beasts”(Heaney 540).

He gives up on a useless weapon and attacks the terrifying monster with his bare hands. He uses his inner physical strength to defeat the dragon, with his own hands being his only aid in battle. His physical strength is described in the passage “My lord Higlac might think less of me as I let my sword go where my feet were afraid to, if I hid behind some broad linen shield. My hands alone shall fight for me.” (248-252). Beowulf, like other heroes, wants to prove his strength and toughness.

Massey concludes that ‘the monster is something completely internal, may be simply solipsism itself, or an unhappy form of narcissism an aspect with which Frankenstein cannot or will not come to terms”[6]. Frankenstein, although able to identify with the Creature in fleeting moments of self-indulgent despair - ‘my own vampire, my own spirit let loose from the grave, and forced to destroy all that was dear to me’ (p.60) – abandons his creation. His neglected creation, a necessary vehicle of abjection and othering, continues to haunt him, reappearing throughout the novel in a manner that mirrors Freud’s theory of the inevitable return of the repressed. The tragedy of the narrative is not, perhaps, accountable merely to the existence of the Gothic Doppelgänger, but rather Frankenstein’s failure to realize that, as Mahoney aptly describes, ‘freedom comes not in eliminating the shadow but in recognizing him in

Due to his emotional confinement, Victor feels that he cannot trust even his wife with the knowledge of the horrible creature in which he has created. This sense of being an

The first quality they share is courage. The two heroes demonstrate their courage in a different way. Beowulf is a hero with a lot of courage because he fights without weapons. He does not believe in using weapons to kill people. Beowulf is described as: “Dripped with his enemies blood”.

While they obtained different knowledge for different reasons, both were led to unhappiness through it. Frankenstein, in the creation of his monster, brought upon himself a terrible fate of loss and anguish. The monster, upon learning to speak, found only that no matter how hard he tried this world would not welcome him, he found his reflection in Lucifer and felt the weight of his existence. Both were ultimately lost, falling into their own forms of