I've already had some friends read the rough draft so I want someone who didn't read that to look at it and the only friends that I would show an essay I wrote to already read my rough draft. >>
Quote:
Beowulf Is Afraid of Girls
Symbolism is everywhere; books, movies and legends, among other things. The thing about symbols is that to understand them you need to look deeper. In appearances, Beowulf, the epic Anglo-Saxon poem, is just a story about a big strong man who liked to fight. Through the whole story it feels very manly, there’s fighting and drinking, killing monsters and adventure. There is no denying that Beowulf is a man’s story, even in all that manliness there are some, almost random, symbols thrown into the mix. Beowulf only on the surface is a male-dominated story; the symbols hiding beneath the mask of manliness suggest a different interpretation.
The fact that cannot be ignored is that Beowulf is a man’s book. Now that that’s been said for the fifth time we’ll go into what, other than Beowulf’s rippling muscles, makes this a man story. There are traditional archetypal symbols that are universal to literature; the sun, sky, and mountains are typically male and the moon, earth, and caves are typically female. It is easy enough to figure out what other things could mean once you get those examples. A very large part of Beowulf revolves around a tower; now thinking about some of the traditional male symbols, what does that tell us? Towers are manly. The tower represents dominance; Hrothgar built Herot as a celebration of his victories in battle. Literally, Herot is a symbol of Hrothgar’s dominance. He is a man, he needed as big a tower as he could get to show that he was stronger and manlier; not much different than today. Fast forward; it’s the end of the epic and the dragon has just dealt the fatal blow to Beowulf. In his last words Beowulf says “Have the Geats build me a tomb, when the funeral flames have burned me, and build it here, at the water’s edge, high on this spit of land, so sailors can see this tower, and remember my name, and call it Beowulf’s tower…”(2801-280 cool Beowulf tells them to build him a tower so everyone will know his name and remember him for the great dominating hero he was. This, again, shows that Beowulf is manly and needs everyone to know it. Beowulf not only is a hero to the Danes and Geats, but he needs everyone who passes that peninsula to know it. It’s a man thing.
Now flip the story over; look at the other symbols. Firstly, a big part of Beowulf is a lake; according to Joseph Campbell water represents the unconscious. At the bottom of a lake he fights Grendel’s mother; no, we do not know how to breathers underwater. He has to fight a female monster in his subconscious; I think underlying fear of women, but I doubt that is what the intent of that was. Getting past my somewhat immature conclusion; we get to where Beowulf is nearly beaten by Grendel’s mother. She has him pinned- he would be dead were it not for his armor; he realizes for once that he is mortal. Of course the valiant hero survives and defeats the monster- but when you go from the symbols of it, he comes to terms with the fact that he is not immortal. In the final leg of Beowulf’s story, where he is now king of the Geats, he has to fight a dragon. Joseph Campbell also says that dragons represent ego, greed, and fear. For Beowulf this dragon is his fear and ego manifesting. Beowulf through his whole life has been reaching for immortality; with this fight with the dragon he has to face his fears and ego. Ultimately he loses, and with his loss the Geats push the dragon into the sea. Water represents unconsciousness; Beowulf is defeated by his ego and in death it just falls back into unconsciousness. We’ve now come full circle in Beowulf’s life of symbols.
Maybe Beowulf is not as much of a man story as we originally thought. Upon closer examination we actually find that, while Beowulf is still the manliest of men, he has issues too; you just have to dig a bit deeper into the story to find them. Ironically, Beowulf’s woes revolve around the fact that he doesnot have a woman;.his last laments are that he does not have a son to carry on after him, to preserve himself immortally. Beowulf is ended by the fact that he never settled down to make a family. All in all, Beowulf may not be such a man story as we originally thought; though I hear they made the movie much less about symbols and more about getting Angelina Jolie as naked as they could.
The fact that cannot be ignored is that Beowulf is a man’s book. Now that that’s been said for the fifth time we’ll go into what, other than Beowulf’s rippling muscles, makes this a man story. There are traditional archetypal symbols that are universal to literature; the sun, sky, and mountains are typically male and the moon, earth, and caves are typically female. It is easy enough to figure out what other things could mean once you get those examples. A very large part of Beowulf revolves around a tower; now thinking about some of the traditional male symbols, what does that tell us? Towers are manly. The tower represents dominance; Hrothgar built Herot as a celebration of his victories in battle. Literally, Herot is a symbol of Hrothgar’s dominance. He is a man, he needed as big a tower as he could get to show that he was stronger and manlier; not much different than today. Fast forward; it’s the end of the epic and the dragon has just dealt the fatal blow to Beowulf. In his last words Beowulf says “Have the Geats build me a tomb, when the funeral flames have burned me, and build it here, at the water’s edge, high on this spit of land, so sailors can see this tower, and remember my name, and call it Beowulf’s tower…”(2801-280 cool Beowulf tells them to build him a tower so everyone will know his name and remember him for the great dominating hero he was. This, again, shows that Beowulf is manly and needs everyone to know it. Beowulf not only is a hero to the Danes and Geats, but he needs everyone who passes that peninsula to know it. It’s a man thing.
Now flip the story over; look at the other symbols. Firstly, a big part of Beowulf is a lake; according to Joseph Campbell water represents the unconscious. At the bottom of a lake he fights Grendel’s mother; no, we do not know how to breathers underwater. He has to fight a female monster in his subconscious; I think underlying fear of women, but I doubt that is what the intent of that was. Getting past my somewhat immature conclusion; we get to where Beowulf is nearly beaten by Grendel’s mother. She has him pinned- he would be dead were it not for his armor; he realizes for once that he is mortal. Of course the valiant hero survives and defeats the monster- but when you go from the symbols of it, he comes to terms with the fact that he is not immortal. In the final leg of Beowulf’s story, where he is now king of the Geats, he has to fight a dragon. Joseph Campbell also says that dragons represent ego, greed, and fear. For Beowulf this dragon is his fear and ego manifesting. Beowulf through his whole life has been reaching for immortality; with this fight with the dragon he has to face his fears and ego. Ultimately he loses, and with his loss the Geats push the dragon into the sea. Water represents unconsciousness; Beowulf is defeated by his ego and in death it just falls back into unconsciousness. We’ve now come full circle in Beowulf’s life of symbols.
Maybe Beowulf is not as much of a man story as we originally thought. Upon closer examination we actually find that, while Beowulf is still the manliest of men, he has issues too; you just have to dig a bit deeper into the story to find them. Ironically, Beowulf’s woes revolve around the fact that he doesnot have a woman;.his last laments are that he does not have a son to carry on after him, to preserve himself immortally. Beowulf is ended by the fact that he never settled down to make a family. All in all, Beowulf may not be such a man story as we originally thought; though I hear they made the movie much less about symbols and more about getting Angelina Jolie as naked as they could.
Alignment is being a b***h so if it looks funny then that's why.
It was nice and formatted in my word document. emo
