Name:_____________
Mrs. Blackmer
English 12, Per. 2, 5
Spring 2015
EVIL
For the next few weeks, we will be studying evil. To start, create a new journal for this unit. You can staple about 20 pages together to use, or start a new section in your current journal.
Activity 1: Quickwrite
Write a ½-1 page entry in your journal exploring where evil comes from, and the different kinds of evil in the world. Spend some time on this; you’ll be writing an essay on this topic. (in class: 1/6-7)
Activity 2: Watch Philip Zimbardo’s “Stanford Prison Experiment” (in class: 1/6-7)
and “The Psychology of Evil”
Answer the following questions in your journal. Spend some time on these questions. You should have short paragraph-length answers for many of them:
What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win out, or does evil triumph?
What makes people agree to commit evil?
1. What prevented "good guards" from objecting or countermanding the orders from tough or bad guards?
2. If you were a prisoner, would you have been able to endure the experience? What would you have done differently than those subjects did?
3. If you were imprisoned in a "real" prison for five years or more, how would you survive?
4. Was it ethical to do this study? Was it right to trade the suffering experienced by participants for the knowledge gained by the research?
5. Why did Zimbardo conduct this experiment?
6. What was the most surprising finding of the experiment?
7. How quickly did otherwise normal people turn to evil behavior when asked to?
8. What are some ways to prevent evil behavior in otherwise normal people?
9. What is “Abu Ghraib” and how is it connected to Zimbardo’s experiment?
10. What is "reality" in a prison setting? This study is one in which an illusion of imprisonment was created, but when do illusions become real?
11. What is identity? Is there a core to your self-identity independent of how others define you? How difficult would it be to remake any given person into someone with a new identity?
12. Do you think that kids from an urban working class environment would have broken down emotionally in the same way as did our middle-class prisoners? Why? What about women?
13. After the study, how do you think the prisoners and guards felt when they saw each other in the same civilian clothes again and saw their prison reconverted to a basement laboratory hallway?
Activity 3: In groups of four, discuss the videos and your opinions on where evil comes from. As a group, come up with a clear definition of “evil”. Be sure to consider where it comes from. Write it as a group and turn it in to me. (in class: 1/8-9)
Activity 4: Read the plot summary for Beowulf. Learn the names of the main characters, what their character traits are, where they are from, and whether they are good or evil. Take notes in your journal.(HW Due: 1/12)
Activity 5: Vocabulary: Look up the meanings of these words and write them in your journal. You can expect a test. (HW Due: 1/12)
hubris
kenning
loyalty
morality
mortality
oath
piety
scop
valor
witan
wyrd
alliteration
oral tradition
narrative poem
epic poem
tone in a poem
John Milton
Anglo-Saxon
end rhyme
internal rhyme
stressed words/syllables
Activity 6: Read about and create your own epic poem (see “Epic Poetry” page below). Write your epic poem into your journal AND print an MLA-formatted copy. (in class/HW:1/12-1/16)
Activity 7: Read Beowulf: You are responsible for reading the entire poem. You should be finished reading each section by the date listed below. Expect quizzes/assignments at the end of each section. (HW)
A. Intro. Due: Mo 1/12 D. Ch. 19-31 Due: Tu 1/20-We 1/21
B. Prologue, Ch.1-10 Due: Tu 1/13-We 1/14 E. Ch. 32-43 Due: Th 1/22-Fr 1/23
C. Ch. 11-18 Due: Th 1/15-Fr 1/16
If you would like to read along to an audio version of this translation of Beowulf, go to:
for the first half, and
for the second half of the poem.
Activity 8: Watch The Thirteenth Warrior. After a full discussion with your group members, answer the following questions in your journal. Your answers should be LONG: (in class: 1/22-30)
1. Who corresponds to Beowulf? Make a chart of 5-10 traits the film character has in common with Beowulf vs. 5-10 traits he has that are quite different.
2. Who is Grendel in the movie? Describe him.
3. Who is Grendel’s mother in the movie? Describe her.
4. Who is the dragon in the movie? Describe it.
5. How are all the changes that the screenwriter made to these characters similar?
6. Compare EVIL in Beowulf to EVIL in The Thirteenth Warrior. Explain:
a. what each work claims is the cause of evil
b. what form evil takes in each work
c. what the role of humanity is in evil in each work
7. Why did the screenwriter add the Arab ambassador to the story? What is he able to do that the characters in Beowulf are not.
Activity 9: Read Grendel excerpts: a. pp. 12-28, b. pp. 30-35. c. pp.46-55, d. pp. 151-174 Due: TBA
In your journal, write:
a. a short summary of plot, characters, setting for each excerpt (one page; label each part)
b. explain how each excerpt connects to Beowulf (two columns: similarities and differences)
c. compare EVIL in Grendel to EVIL in Beowulf and the Thirteenth Warrior.
Activity 10: Grendel Study Questions: After thorough discussion in your groups, write your answers to the following questions in your journal. Due: TBA
1. Describe Grendel’s first encounter with humans—where is he, what happens, why? (3)
2. What does Grendel witness that makes him wonder who is the real monster in his story?
3. What is the first example of human evil Grendel encounters?
4. What sickens Grendel about this first encounter with evil?
5. Grendel is attacked twice by humans in these passages. What happens each time, why is he attacked, and how does it affect him? (6)
6. At the beginning of the story, Grendel is an innocent child-monster. He’s not evil and has had no experience with evil. What changes him into an evil monster?
7. List five observations Grendel makes about the ways of men in these passages as a result of spying on them. Look especially at his observations on man’s capacity for evil.
8. Is evil necessary for good to exist? What does Grendel have to say about it?
9. Describe Grendel’s Mom (3 or 4 details). How is she a classic monster?
10. How is Grendel different from his mother—what makes him different from a classic monster?
Beowulf: Plot Overview
King Hrothgar of Denmark, a descendant of the great king Shield Sheafson, enjoys a prosperous and successful reign. He builds a great mead-hall, called Heorot, where his warriors can gather to drink, receive gifts from their lord, and listen to stories sung by the scops, or bards. But the jubilant noise from Heorot angers Grendel, a horrible demon who lives in the swamplands of Hrothgar’s kingdom. Grendel terrorizes the Danes every night, killing them and defeating their efforts to fight back. The Danes suffer many years of fear, danger, and death at the hands of Grendel. Eventually, however, a young Geatish warrior named Beowulf hears of Hrothgar’s plight. Inspired by the challenge, Beowulf sails to Denmark with a small company of men, determined to defeat Grendel.
Hrothgar, who had once done a great favor for Beowulf’s father Ecgtheow, accepts Beowulf’s offer to fight Grendel and holds a feast in the hero’s honor. During the feast, an envious Dane named Unferth taunts Beowulf and accuses him of being unworthy of his reputation. Beowulf responds with a boastful description of some of his past accomplishments. His confidence cheers the Danish warriors, and the feast lasts merrily into the night. At last, however, Grendel arrives. Beowulf fights him unarmed, proving himself stronger than the demon, who is terrified. As Grendel struggles to escape, Beowulf tears the monster’s arm off. Mortally wounded, Grendel slinks back into the swamp to die. The severed arm is hung high in the mead-hall as a trophy of victory.
Overjoyed, Hrothgar showers Beowulf with gifts and treasure at a feast in his honor. Songs are sung in praise of Beowulf, and the celebration lasts late into the night. But another threat is approaching. Grendel’s mother, a swamp-hag who lives in a desolate lake, comes to Heorot seeking revenge for her son’s death. She murders Aeschere, one of Hrothgar’s most trusted advisers, before slinking away. To avenge Aeschere’s death, the company travels to the murky swamp, where Beowulf dives into the water and fights Grendel’s mother in her underwater lair. He kills her with a sword forged for a giant, then, finding Grendel’s corpse, decapitates it and brings the head as a prize to Hrothgar. The Danish countryside is now purged of its treacherous monsters.
The Danes are again overjoyed, and Beowulf’s fame spreads across the kingdom. Beowulf departs after a sorrowful goodbye to Hrothgar, who has treated him like a son. He returns to Geatland, where he and his men are reunited with their king and queen, Hygelac and Hygd, to whom Beowulf recounts his adventures in Denmark. Beowulf then hands over most of his treasure to Hygelac, who, in turn, rewards him.
In time, Hygelac is killed in a war against the Shylfings, and, after Hygelac’s son dies, Beowulf ascends to the throne of the Geats. He rules wisely for fifty years, bringing prosperity to Geatland. When Beowulf is an old man, however, a thief disturbs a barrow, or mound, where a great dragon lies guarding a horde of treasure. Enraged, the dragon emerges from the barrow and begins unleashing fiery destruction upon the Geats. Sensing his own death approaching, Beowulf goes to fight the dragon. With the aid of Wiglaf, he succeeds in killing the beast, but at a heavy cost. The dragon bites Beowulf in the neck, and its fiery venom kills him moments after their encounter. The Geats fear that their enemies will attack them now that Beowulf is dead. According to Beowulf’s wishes, they burn their departed king’s body on a huge funeral pyre and then bury him with a massive treasure in a barrow overlooking the sea.
DENMARK SWEDEN (GEATLAND) MONSTERS
King Hrothgar King Hygelac Grendel
Unferth Beowulf Grendel’s Mom
Aeschere Wiglaf Dragon
Epic Poetry
An epic poem is a long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of the society from which it originated. Many epic poems come from oral tradition and were passed down from generation to generation by professional singing poets called scops. Two of the most famous epics of western civilization are Homer’s Iliad and The Odyssey. The two most famous English language epics are the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf originally composed in Old English (ca. 750) and John Milton’s Paradise Lost written in early Modern English (ca. 1667).
Beowulf, like all epic poems, concerns a hero who comes from far away to help others fight a terrible monster. The action is extra-ordinary, the hero larger than life. The tone is somber because the hero is controlled by fate, which rules his destiny, and, being mortal, he is doomed to eventually die.
Anglo-Saxon Poetry and Alliteration
Old English poetry had several unique elements. First, since most people could not read or write in the Anglo Saxon period, poems were passed down orally. The best way to remember a 100-page poem if you can’t read is through rhythm and rhyme. The most popular rhythmic form in Old English was four stressed words per line. Rhyme in Old English was quite different from the familiar end rhyme we all know so well (“Roses are red/Violets are blue/I like good bread/And so do you”).The ancient scops used a form of internal rhyme known as alliteration (“Roses are red, violets are vibrant, I buy good bread, but butter is better.”). Old English alliteration consisted of matching the initial consonant of two stressed words per line or the main vowel if the word has no initial consonant. Here is an example.
/a / / /a (a=alliteration, /=stress)
I won the hard-fought battle of wills.
Kennings
Another common element in epic poetry is the kenning. Similar to a metaphor, a kenning is a compound word that describes a character or thing by comparing it to something else. For example:
“the whale road” is a kenning for the ocean;
“a wrecker of mead-benches” is a kenning for “a wild party animal.”
Assignment
I. DEFINE: In your groups, find and write down the definitions for: epic poem, narrative poem, oral tradition, and scops. Due: _______________
II. WRITE: your own Old English style epic poem: In your poem, you are the hero. You will need to follow these rules (extra points for entertainment): Due: _______________
A. The poem must be about one significant event in your life in which you were the “hero.”
B. The story should be greatly exaggerated, but still recognizable, full of description of action and setting.
C. It should be 8-10 lines long.
D. It should follow the 4-stresses-per-line format. Two of the stressed words in each line must rhyme using alliteration.
E. Include at least two kennings.
F. The poem should be typed in proper MLA format with the stressed syllables marked with ´ and the alliterated pairs printed in italics.
G. Grading:
alliteration 8
stress 8
coherence 4
action 4
description/imagery 4
mechanics 10
TOTAL: 38 (e.c +1-3)
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