Comparative Themes In Shakespeare's Beowulf And Paradise Lost

Comparative Essay
While the works Beowulf and Paradise Lost where created almost 16 centuries apart, the stories show many of the same features like themes and the way they reflect the time period. Each helps create a feeling or mood that puts the reader back to the time the works were produced, or even the time period it is referring to. They each hold many different writing styles and language with reflects the writer’s era and where he was from. While very individualized in their own way they share many similarities, like the presence of religion and power. While one is on a god-like level and the other an almost immortal human level, they both represent true power of others. The real difference is the way they use it for good, but more

Heroism, pride, distress, conflict and morals are all components which produced the literary piece. Each character had different motives for their aggression, but whether it was for revenge or out of pure enjoyment, the killing was always present. But above all, envy played the main candidate for what would come to be a bloodbath. The author uses envy and revenge as a motive for action, by creating a sense of aggression and purpose of the evil characters. Envy was shown through the eyes of a demon, Grendel, who sought after those who cherished and enjoyed the treasures of Heorot and their king, Hrothgar. He ached at the sound of “the din of a loud banquet every day in the hall” and the “telling of the man’s blessings” (Beowulf 88). Night by night he would snatch men from their beds and take them back to his lair, only leaving a trail of corpses behind. These men never meant any harm to a demon of his power, but prejudice raged flames from within his dark soul. The attacks rained on Heorot for 12 years to come before Beowulf got a hold of this blood thirsty nuisance. Grendel's character creates a sense of helplessness to the reader, also adding doubt to the fact that Beowulf could take on such a creature from below. His impulse to kill is much greater than the simple fact that he is envious of the men who live there which made Grendel a bit too