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.