Beowulf: Glory Hog or Nice Guy?

In the time of the Danes there was one thing that made a man a legend, and that was fame. If a warrior did nothing famous he was no one special. That's why Beowulf boasts very often to many people, it is his pride showing not his greed. To boast about your great deeds was normal for all Danish warriors, especially those who accomplished nearly miraculous feats. It was those men who would become heroes, legends, and kings. Their names would be the ones remembered in the historical texts of their people and echoed throughout the halls of time. Beowulf is not a glory hog but only a man with great pride who wants to bring greatness to his people.

Book Cover

My immediate reaction to looking at the four possible book covers is that the second one should be the true cover. It illustrates a picture that can construct endless possibilities in the onlookers mind. At first glance, a maniacally devilish face stares right back. After further investigation, a little boy is shown trapped in a prison of some sorts, perhaps his own mind? The play on the images, of the cover, give the reader a chance to ponder many of the big questions of the story; such as what is truly going on with Ben, how terrible it must be in his situation, his relationship with his family, etc. The other covers are intriguing and can bring attention to the novel but I believe none can compare to the second cover and the justice it pays to Doris Lessing and her message.

2nd Frankenstein Post

With it being over 183 years since Mary Shelley created her spectacular novel, there is still debate as to what her message was to all who read it. Many believe that her intent was to criticize man's strive to achieve a god-like status through science. The other argument is that Shelley wanted to create a character who had emotional questions and inner struggle just as any reader would too and be able to relate to the creature. Christopher Schildt put it very eloquently;
"'Mary Shelley was not writing about the evils of science and progress,...But suffering and loss and pain, the feeling of being ostracized...'"
I strongly agree with Mr. Schildt because it was not in the nature of a romantic writer to criticize exploration and experimentation but to encourage it. A romantic writer, like Mary Shelley, uses illustrious words to portray feelings to the reader and to convey their theme, in this case inner pain and loss. Everyone has felt, at one time or another, like they were an outcast and no one understood their feelings; Shelley played on this feeling to make her creature have a sympathetic facet so as to drag the reader closer.
"But soon...I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct." (Shelley 213)
There is not a good soul on this earth that could not feel even a shred of sympathy for that statement...even from a "Monster".

The "Original Horror Story", Frankenstein, created by Mary Shelley is a captivating tale of inner struggle from various points of view. Shelley uses her romantic style to illustrate the novel in a way that the reader is pulled in and is forced to go through the controversy along with the characters. I know that I formed my own opinion's on Victor's actions as he went along with his experiments, and also debated whether or not the creation of a bride would be appropriate. That is all due to Mary Shelley roping me into caring about the character's fate, especially the creature's.

"Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instance, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed upon me?" (Shelley 125)

It is quotes like this that make me want to be sympathetic towards the creature and his "feelings". Who are we to judge what has feeling? Compassion? Loneliness? Self-Esteem? Just because something does not live in the same manner we, as "human-beings", do doesn't mean that it, too, isn't living. Something that lives on this Earth, breathing the same air and drinking the same water as us, fully deserves the same rights any of us "human-beings" are given just by birth.

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