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Comparing Evil In Macbeth And Beowulf

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Evil comes in many different forms; sometimes there is a clear line between good and evil, but there are times where evil can overcome good. The two stories that represents these two forms are Macbeth and Beowulf. In Macbeth, the story starts out with Macbeth who is a loyal servant to King Duncan. His wife convinces Macbeth to kill King Duncan to gain power and become the new king. After hesitating, he murders King Duncan and this starts transforming him into a paranoid person. His paranoia causes him to order the deaths of close friends and allies. This transformation demonstrates how evil takes over good compared to Beowulf where there is already an evil creature present. Beowulf is a story about an evil creature named Grendel who terrorizes the castle of Hrothgar, killing many. Hrothgar calls Beowulf to kill Grendel and other villains which shows the distinct line between good and evil. Evil is worse in Macbeth, because it slowly seeps in and ultimately takes over Macbeth’s character, whereas in Beowulf, it is stagnant, remaining in the souls of the …show more content…

These are not considered evil until he caves into the temptation of power (Gimelli Martin 165). His weakness is shown when he makes the decision to murder King Duncan and secures the position as king. He even goes as far to murder his friend, Banquo, because he feels uneasy about his suspicions (182-183). At this point in the story he is even comparable to Satan, “Like Satan, Macbeth becomes the chief equivocator in his own hell, unwittingly uttering objective truths to his subjects even while telling subjective lies.” (183). An example of this is when Macbeth becomes king but cannot trust his own friends and allies. Instead he kills them and their families. Evil is shown in Macbeth by taking over someone mentally causing a change in them while in Beowulf there is already a villain from the start of the

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Macbeth Macbeth started out as a good person but he became cruel and insane because of his trust in evil and untrustworthy ideas and people. Macbeth trust in devious forces leads to his downfall. When Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches in scene i they tell Macbeth and Banquo their future. Macbeth fully trusts the witches until his death, and even when he curses them he still believes them. .

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Grendel is an infamous monster who has been invading the kingdom of Hrothgar and killing the king’s men. The townspeople are scared of Grendel because he is a ruthless killer. Throughout the story Grendel is constantly being portrayed as evil because he kills innocent people. In the beginning of Beowulf he was described as “ He was spawned in that slime conceived by a pair of those monsters born of cain, murderous creatures banished by God, punished forever for the crime of Ables death”. This shows how devil-like and insidious Grendel is as a character.

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The two stories of Macbeth and Beowulf have different plot, but hold similar elements. The legend of Beowulf, set in 500 A.D., begins with an evil monster terrorizing the mead hall of Heorot. The monster, Grendel, attacks Heorot with desire for wickedness. For copious amount of years, Grendel slaughters the men by night, each night. Until a hero named Beowulf hears the Geats cries and comes to their rescue.

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ver time, humans have always created stories and conjured up personifications of evil to explain the unknown - whether it was the myth of the vampire, spurred on by Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the receding of skin that causes a corpse’s nails to appear longer, or the myth of Wendigos, a create of evil in Native American culture. Many cultures and civilizations, new and old, have their fairytales and monsters in the dark, to explain the unknown. We see this in Beowulf, where Grendel is a representation of Satanic evil in the Bible due to the heavy influence of faith in Germanic warrior society, as opposed to monsters in modern society such as the zombie, which is a reflection of evolving political fears. In Beowulf, the first antagonist the reader

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1162 Words | 5 Pages

, Macbeth ultimately falls because of a poor judgement, and false interpretation. On the other hand, Beowulf, an epic hero, is greatly admired for his achievements. Macbeth falls to ambition and deception throughout the play fulfilling his role as a tragic hero, and Beowulf continues to push himself fearlessly, solidifying his part as the epic hero. Hero’s are not born, they are made, thus both Macbeth and Beowulf needed a beginning.

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Greed for power has always been evil and even made a saint turn into a demon. As the quote goes “All power tends to corrupt and an absolute power corrupts absolutely” (unquote), which is true not only in the fictitious stories but also in real life and Shakespeare, th9e greatest writer ever known, has always been in habit of making fictitious character come alive and Macbeth is no exception to the rule. The character of Macbeth has two sides, one which is wholesome while other been dubious. He symbolized great ambition but went overboard and in the process not only became corrupt but also became a killer. Macbeth reflects great strength but within he has his own weakness and thus good over took evil resulting in its downfall and finally his own death.

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In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the tragic tale of a Scottish general's rise and fall from power, evil plays a front and center role. As a play that explores the darkest corners of human ambition and desire, Macbeth weaves an intricate examination of the consequences when one is consumed by greed and the lust for dominance. In this essay, I will argue that Macbeth's tragic descent into evil is fueled by unchecked ambition and desire for power, ultimately leading to his downfall. To support this claim, I will analyze various aspects of the play, such as the influence of Showing evil forces, the roles played by characters like Lady Macbeth and the witches, and how Macbeth's own character transforms throughout the story. First, let us delve into how

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In the poem Beowulf, there is a contrast between good and evil. This distinction is presented through the monsters Grendel and his mother, in parallel to the hero Beowulf. The themes of evil and monstrosity are therefore used in the story, as a way to create the notion of Grendel and his mother as monsters. Beowulf therefore appears as a character representing good. Although Beowulf shows traits of abnormal power, like Grendel and his mother, his motifs are interpreted differently.

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The epic poem Beowulf is a classic tale of good versus evil. Good, as shown in the story, is any action that fights evil and defends the community and the people of it. The evil intent of Grendel, the story’s antagonist and cannibalistic murderer, who is depicted as a “fiend out of hell” (99), is strongly countered by the heroic actions of the stories main protagonist, Beowulf. The noble King Hrothgar is a role model for young Beowulf at the beginning of the epic, displaying acts of charity and wisdom throughout his life.

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Who is the True Villain in Macbeth Historian Lord Acton once cautioned, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men. " In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the three witches use their supernatural powers to lead Macbeth astray from his destiny, which ultimately leads to many murders and the corruption of Scotland.

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Macbeth’s murder of the king shows that the more power you acquire dishonestly, the more evil one

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In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the main character Macbeth, in many cases, is portrayed as being evil. However, his character is not truly the evil force driving the actions of the play. His wife, Lady Macbeth, as well as the witches and their misleading prophecies, are the real driving forces of Macbeth’s unspeakable actions. Macbeth is driven mad by the evil around him, causing him to turn to the violent behavior displayed throughout the many murders of the play.

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876 Words | 4 Pages

Macbeth started off as a valiant and courageous soldier, who would do anything for the king. By the end of the play, Macbeth was a tyrant and a horrible leader who killed those who trusted him to maintain the throne. It takes many factors to take a strong man and transform him into an evil monster. Macbeth’s downfall was caused by the deception and temptation of the witches and their prophecies, Lady Macbeth’s greed and aspirations for her husband to be king, and Macbeth’s own greed, jealousy and ambition.

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505 Words | 3 Pages

Lady Macbeth is truly an evil character. In the beginning of the play, it tells how much Macbeth is a fierce warrior, but coming home the witches came. As soon as Lady Macbeth heard about the prophecy, she becomes the fierce warrior and Macbeth bends to her every whim. Lady Macbeth is always making Macbeth feel awful, (Act 3, scene V, line 58) “Are you a man?”.

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William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the main character; Macbeth, is seen as an evil character. The play is based off of Macbeth’s decisions and his actions to become King. In the beginning Macbeth starts out as a hero in Scotland’s war with Ireland and towards the end he is transformed into a murderer. Macbeth is not wholly evil because of is heroism in the war, his love for Scotland, and because he didn’t want to kill King Duncan initially. Macbeth was brain washed by his wife and tricked into killing the King.

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