Nolan Thompson
English IV
Compare, Contrast, Compare/Contrast Paper
Ms. Froiland
Beowulf and Paradise Lost
Being an Atheist, there are quite a few things that I do not understand about Paradise
Lost. I understand that it is about the fall of Satan and Beelzebub from Heaven, but I at the time
that I read it, I did not know who Beelzebub was. I know understand that Beelzebub is to Satan
as Saint Peter is to God or something like that, I think. On the other hand, Beowulf was much
easier for me to understand, because I had already known quite a bit about Angelo-Saxon
history and literature. So now, it is time to stumble through a paper comparing literature that I
do not understand, and literature I know a lot about; I might even throw in some information
about Macbeth too.
In both pieces of literature (I would call them books, but then I would be grammatically
incorrect [or would it be just incorrect because I am using the wrong words to describe it?]), the
story/epic/poem begins with the telling of the first evil that happens during the time period. In
Paradise Lost, this evil is the fall of Satan and Beelzebub from Heaven, and their rise in Hell. In
Beowulf, it is the curse of Grendel, who was supposedly a descent of Cain from the Bible. In
Macbeth, the great evil is the planned assassination and killing of King Duncan. Even though the
evils are vastly different, they still deal with the rise of something unnatural and feared.
Next, the heroes of the tales are introduced. In Beowulf, Beowulf of Geatland travels
across the ocean with the strongest of his men to come fight Grendel and earn more glory for
themselves. Beowulf slays Grendel without using any weapons, and then he goes hunting for
Grendel’s Mother. He requires a sword to kill Grendel’s Mother, showing that he is not as
strong as he used to be, or that the evil he is facing is growing. It is said that God cast them out
of Heaven after Satan and Beelzebub and their army waged war against the angel’s army in
Paradise Lost. But God does not force all of his power on the devils; rather, he lifts his power off
of them so that they might become strong again, so that he might turn their evil to good. In
Macbeth, Fleance and Malcolm are the heroes because they are the ones who take back the
country from Macbeth, while Macduff kills Macbeth himself.
Later on, we see how the heroes defeated the great evil set before them. As I said
earlier, God uses his power to cast out the fallen angels from Heaven so they he might turn
their evil to good. God is seen as the hero here; because he is an “all powerful” being that has
total control over all of his creations (I just see this as a bunch of bologna… I mean if he were all
powerful then why would he let some of the things happen in this world that do happen, even
with the whole “let the Earth suffer their sins” should he not do something about the
corruption of the world? These are my thoughts on this piece of ****…). In Beowulf, Beowulf
confronts a series of three monsters: Grendel, Grendel’s Mother, and the Drake. Each must be
dealt with in different ways: Beowulf kills Grendel barehanded, Beowulf uses an old sword
found in the Hag’s cave to kill her, and Wiglaf assists Beowulf in the killing of the Drake that is
guarding a cave full of gold. He, Beowulf, does all of these tasks for different reasons. At first,
when he kills Grendel, he seeks fame and glory; later, he kills the Hag for the recognition.
Finally, he loses his life in the fight against the Wyrm while he is protecting his people. The
reasons behind Macbeth killing Duncan are because he wants to bring about the three witches
prophecy sooner rather than later (he is a pretty impatient man). When doing so, he makes
everyone start to become suspicious because of the actions that he starts to take, and his wife’s
sleeping walking does not help the matter!
Even though neither the author of Beowulf or Paradise Lost knew about the other’s
work (I am not sure if Shakespeare knew about their works, I am going to guess that he did),
they are surprisingly similar. All three revolve around a great evil that appears in the world, and
requires a great hero to slay/get rid of it, and then it becomes very detailed on the wars and
fights to protect the world.