How are the three fights Beowulf faces (Grendel, Grendel’s ...
(name) ___________________
Kaminsky – pd 6
Jr. AA Beowulf Essay
29 October 2010
How are the three fights Beowulf faces (Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon) complex reflections of the dangers to society/civilizations of the time?
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“Pride will have a fall” (“pride quotes”). As far back as Ancient Rome, dominant civilizations have often grown lax as they gained wide spread power and control, leading to their own demise. It is a recurring motif found in biblical lore as well; Lucifer was cast out of heaven when his pride led him to grasp at more power than he deserved. Even in modern fables like the Tortoise and the Hare, the hare through his own overconfidence loses his competition and is ultimately stripped of his pride. It is a lesson reoccurring through history and literature and one the Anglo-Saxon tribal societies faced as well. In the epic Beowulf, as society deals with increasingly difficult obstacles, it begins to overestimate its own power and security; the three fights the hero faces illustrate the recklessness of pride in society that eventually leads to its downfall.
Grendel’s arrogance in his own abilities as he attacks drives him to recklessness ultimately resulting in his own death. Before he even enters the mead-hall, he has already planned the night’s attack as if he is assured of the outcome. Allowing his pride to overwhelm him, “his rage boiled over [as] he ripped open the mouth of the building, maddening for blood, pacing the length of the patterned floor with his loathsome tread” never once imagining that any warrior could stand up to him (723-726). His vision blurred by pride, he underestimates Beowulf’s strength and abilities and finds “that his bodily powers failed him” (811). His reckless pride does not allow him to remain physically superior to Beowulf; “For in all his days he had never been clamped or cornered like this” (755-56). Stripped of his pride, he hopelessly flees only to die in his lair.
The same destructive vice that consumed Grendel plagues his mother when she learns of his death. She decides instantly and furiously to seek vengeance upon those she blames for her loss, without stopping to consider the consequences of failure. Her pride compels her to set “forth on a savage journey, grief-racked and ravenous, desperate for revenge” (1276-1278). She will not let those who caused her son’s death go unpunished. She is driven to “avenge her kinsmen’s death” in order to maintain her pride (1340). Her recklessness is ultimately her downfall when she attacks Heorot and takes the king’s friend, Aeschere. Beowulf pursues her to her death but “the bargain was hard, both parties having to pay with the lives of friends” all because of her impulsive and prideful choices (1306 – 1307).
Despite the role pride played in the defeat of Beowulf’s earlier enemies, he ends up falling victim to the same fault of character. __________________________________________
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Although repeated often in history and literature, humanity has yet to fully learn and understand the dangers of pride. When any individual or power has too much pride, it loses rationality. Blinded by their pride, neither Grendel nor his mother grasp the strength of their enemies and their own weaknesses just as Beowulf too fails to see the peril he creates for himself and his people. Stories such as those of Ancient Rome, Lucifer, and the Tortoise and the Hare exemplify this human failing and society’s inability to understand its consequences. As long as societies continue to overestimate their own value and power, they will face devastation on one kind or another; “for pride goeth before and shame cometh after” (“pride quotes”).
Work Cited
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“pride quotes.” . 1999-2010. ThinkExist. 26 Oct 2010. Internet.
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