Janell Touchette Period D 3/6/05 Beowulf/Grendel Test
1.An anti-hero is the opposite of a hero. It is the character that goes against all the traditional values of society. Grendel has strong traits of the average anti-hero.
He lives in a cave with his mother in the middle of no where. Everybody in the land refuses to accept him, even as the lowest of their kind, and they are constantly trying to kill him. He is deprived the rules and consequences of society by not being allowed to join men, he rejects the values and rules of political establishment by terrorizing Hrothgar's kingdom, and he is often angry because when the shaper sings he falls into the trance of possibility, but then remembers the dragon.He cannot figure out what he wants for himself.
2.We first meet Beowulf when he goes to the land of the Danes. He had been known for his strength and courage. In the book Beowulf, he has three major battles.
The first battle took place in Herot, against Grendel. Grendel was the only reason Beowulf had gone to the land of the Danes. He wanted to further glorify his name and prove he could really defeat anyone or anything. Beowulf decided to fight without wreapons and in the end he came out victorious. He had severed Grendel's arm to give to the kindgom as a sign of his power and so that they would always remember him. The killing of Grendel led to his second battle, which took place at Grendel's cave, at the bottom of the sea.
Again he was motivated by need to glorify his name, but this time also by necessity. Beowulf killed Grendel and now his mother was going to avenge his death. It was kind of Beowulf's fault that she was now a problem. So Beowulf was armed and went into the water with a goodbye to his Geats and the Danes.
Nobody expected him to come back, but when he did, carrying the sword that killed Grendel's mother and Grendel's head, he was honored with more treasures than anybody had ever been honored with and Hrothgar's love. Hrothgar confided in him that after ruling for so long, you really do become preoccupied with the safety of your people and yourself. Ruling becomes more of a task than an honor. You feel as though nothing you do will be enough.
So Beowulf, who had arrived with nothing more than the idea of glorifying his name, had left with the wisdom of a king. Beowulf's last battle took place in his homeland. He wasn ow king and was not fighting for glroy, but for the safety of his people. He knew that his fight against the dragon would probable be his last, but he was not aftaid of dying.
He was afraid he wuold not be bale to kill the dragon. In the end both him and the dragon died. It only makes sense that the greatest man of all time should defeat the greatest beast of all time. The aftermath of this battle was somewhat different but also the same as all the rest. Beowulf was given the treasure, but not for his own glory, it was more out of respect from his people.
Everybody mourned him and a temple was built in his honor so that everybody would b able to see it when the came to the land of the Geats. This was the glory and legacy of a real hero. The suggested path of the human condition for the early Anglo-Saxons was just like that of Beowulf. They lived life always trying to be a heron, until they realized that that was not what life was all about and somehow changed that in the end they were honored beyond any reward a regular hero could have gotten.
3.In the book Grendel, there were three main ideas or philosophies; time and why, hope and connection, and the ruling of a kingdom. The two most intricate are those of the Dragon and the Shaper. The dragon focuses on time and why.
He says everthing is just a swirl in time. He can see everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen. He sees the future, can make it come sooner, but can not change it. Men and Grendel however, only see what has happened and what is heppening, they base future accomplishments on what they have accomplished. The Dragon says any change at one set of time will not tell anything that will happen in the future and men are tupid for believeing this.
Men try to create order to aid themselves. The world however, refuses to be changed and taken control of, but in doing so creates some sor tof order needed to live. The Dragon says that he does not understand why Grendel terrorizes the humans, but he does not see why he shouldn't. It is Grendel that pushes them to be more, he is what makes the people think. He is the brute existance by whih they learn to define themselves.
When men begin to doubt all that surrounds them, the Shaper comes forth. He plays the role of connector. He provides illusions that give their lives meaning. Overall the Dragon believes that humans live a wasteful life of lies, because in the end of time there will be nothing. The Shaper provides an illusion that will connect the important things/ideas in peoples' lives. He gives them hope and redemption.
He could not see the future like the Dragon, but used plots from other stories and strung together tales that would be of Hrothgar's kingdom. He had the ability to erase doubt from the minds of the people. There was no truth to most of what he said, but people believed him because it sounded so good and they wanted all of that. When Grendel hears the tales and philosophies of the Shaper he is spellbound. He thinks to himself that this is what he wants. He wants hope and he wants to feel connected to everyone or someone, but then he thinks about what the Dragon said earlier.
The shaper provides only illusion, humans live lives of deceit. He wants to change, to become good and then he becomes upset with himself because the Dragon is right. The people will never except him. He wants what the Shaper says, but the Dragon's philosophy seem more real.
