Sympathy in Beowulf Essay -- Epic Poems, Grendel, Anglo-Saxon

While the classic battle between well(p) and evil forces is a major theme of the medieval epic Beowulf, champion may question whether these good and evil forces are as depressed and white as they appear. Scholars such as Herbert G. Wright claim that the dragon, like the large Grendel, is an enemy of opuskind, and the audience of Beowulf stick step up have entertained no intellect for either the one or the other (Wright, 4). However, other scholars such as Andy Orchard disagree with this claim, and believe that there is something deeply human round the monsters (Orchard, 29). While Grendel, Grendels mother, and the dragon are indeed portrayed as evil and violent foes, there are parts at heart Beowulf that can also lead a reader to believe that the monsters may non be so monstrous after all. In fact, the author of Beowulf represents the monsters within the poem with a degree of lesson ambivalence. This ambivalence ultimately evokes traces of humanity in the reader for the plight of these monster figures, and blurs the fine line between good and evil within the poem.The first opponent Beowulf must front in the land of the Danes is Grendel, textually described as a fiend out of hell a grim demon / haunting the marches, / marauding round the heath / and the desolate fens (Beowulf, line 100 104). The author also provides us with a moral description, explaining how Grendel is merciless malignant by nature, he never showed self-reproach (line 135-137). As we can see here, the authors physical and moral portrayal of Grendel is rather unforgiving. We also resent Grendel further once we follow that he has wreaked havoc upon the Heorot hall for twelve years, inflicting constant cruelties on the raft / atrocious hurt (line 165).One may wonder ... ...ts appraise, almost an obsession, consequently can one really blame am animal playacting through instinct and purpose? While destructive, it was indeed the greed and ignorance of man that brought the wra th of the dragon upon Geatland. The intruder who broached the dragons treasure / and moved him to wrath had never meant to (line 2215). each antagonist struck disquietude in the other (line 2565).While the monsters of the poem are the antagonists of the poem, the author hush up manages to make the reader feel traces of sympathy for them. Grendels human depiction, comport and misery tugs at the heart of readers and indeed shows a genuine gradient to the figure, while Grendels mother and the dragon are sympathetic principally because they were provoked into being attacked over things they both had a deep bosom for. Their actions make us question whether they are as evil as they seem.