final essay

 

Mr. Allan, British literature

Meghan Quinn

Essay final #2

“Choose and discuss one lesson you have learned about society and mankind during this course. Support your answer with 3 works we have read. You should have 5 paragraphs. Remember to answer in essay form.”

 

Essay:

 

During this course, I have found that many things come into play when it comes to the impact on a society. Including science, the ruler at the time and decisions based on thought and possibilities from incorrect sources’ thought that if something was going to happen, it would happen, and through this course, I found that what does happen, is commonly based off of things that we do to affect it. Using three great works that were read during this course; Beowulf, Macbeth, and Frankenstein, I hope to prove just how much I have learned about how they have helped me see how the course of things flows when you either don’t follow through completely, play god, or create your own destiny. How have these three works of literature helped shift my view on where society has come from, and what differences seemingly common people can make?

Beowulf was not a member of the Dane culture, he was a Swedish militant, come across the waters to do good for the people of Herriot due to the destruction of the monster grendel. He said that he would kill the monster without this sword, or armor, which he did keep his word to. He gained great respect for keeping his word, and for making Herriot safe for the people who lived there, putting to ease their previous sense of fear at night, when the monster would have attacked. While he was king, he kept the people safe, and he was respected for not asking for anything in return for killing the monster, but he was presented as heir to the throne, after killing off the pest of Herriot. This was accepted with modesty. Even though he was a very boastful and proud king, he respected his comrades as they respected him. Like brothers they kept to each other,  and in the end, he simply asked for a standing for himself as a grave in the very end. People were afraid before Beowulf was in power, but afterwards, all fell into place again.

While Duncan was king, everything seemed perfect. War was over, people were doing well and happy, birds were everywhere in splendor. When thoughts of killing Duncan were entered into the mix, all started to end in the happiness for the country. Weather started to falter, the beautiful birds had all but gone, and crows even croaked there. Things kept getting worse as Duncan’s murder came nearer and even worse after his death. All seemed to grow horrible as suspicion started to creep into every person of the culture, continuously drawing near what needed to happen, the correct heir needed to be there. Lady Macbeth started going crazy because of all the talk to power, and suspicion and greed. Macbeth was utterly imprisoned by his lack of soul and heart and trapped by his greed for power by the time of his murder. All was right again when Malcolm, the correct heir for Duncan, took the throne. The weather shifted back to normality and the beautiful birds returned to the chapels. All was chaos while Macbeth was in power, everything was correct when thing went how they were supposed to fall in line as.           

Frankenstein is a guy who doesn’t seem to know what he should and shouldn’t do in science. He cuts himself off of everyone when he thinks he can play god and bring people back form the dead. When he creates the monster, he is frightened and runs from his scientific brain child of months of hard work and research. He leaves his creation alone, letting it loose on the country without taking responsibility for the horrific thing he has done. Many deaths happen because he does not take change and kill his creation. The death of his brother happens because of the monster, and Justine is the suspected murderer of William, the brother, and victor is to ashamed and cowardly to say anything and save Justine from the death penalty. In return for his cowardly disposition, he is left with many deaths of people close to him, and the constant worry that he will be next on the monsters killing streak. If it were not for his fascination with the natural sciences and trying to figure out how to do things that were not meant to be done, none of the horrific happenings would have occurred. Science is one of the things that puts fear in the hearts of many, and greedy poison for others. In Frankenstein’s case, the greed for the findings of such a new found thing of bringing back people from the dead ended up killing his desire for science and discovery, and hurting many people, and terrorizing thousands for his mistake in not taking responsibility for his actions.

The flow of society has changed since and between Beowulf time period and today. For instance, the roles of women then were to protect and raise the children, where as you needed to make and keep your own food and clothing and such, the worries were much greater then, and were greatly helped by the appearance of Beowulf to ease their worries for death at night caused by Grendel. The main religious view of the society were shifting, the causes for things changed from not appeasing a god correctly, to being tested for spiritual strength. The need for a hero was shifting. It used to be that a king or a hero was usually military related because there was a physical need for saving and protecting. The personal pride and boastfulness, however, seemed to come with the territory of a hero-king.   The Macbeth time period was a big shift from the times of Beowulf’s monsters and gods. There was almost a cry out for gods hand in what was going on after everything started to fall out of place when Duncan was murdered, the scenes with lady Macbeth crying out for help with her own problems shows how the belief and reliance on prayer and god had grown during the span of time between Beowulf and Macbeth. The growth of suspicion that had grown between the people against Macbeth showed just how everything can change the mood and reliance of a society based on how bad things can erupt in a culture over time. The women in Macbeth’s time had a little more say in what was going on, not as much as present day, but they were doing a bit more than just raising children. The military influence still had military heroes, if for more from war battles than with killing monsters. The fears of the time in Macbeth were mre about war, rebellion and fears of takeover than for that in Beowulf’s time of monsters and lack of food or pillaging. The Frankenstein time period was a time of exploration, discovery, and science, but when he tried to play god, he almost ended a culture because his creation was on a killing and terrorizing spree. Science had been severely cultivated into hat culture, but no one had dared try to play god in the way that he did. The fears were more diseases than for monsters outside of Frankenstein’s creation. Women had a few professions, and sometimes did not even bare children. There is barely any existence of pure religious belief where it is prominent enough to cause havoc with the flow of things. The causes of destruction are a different kind than that of Macbeth, being decision based in the age of kings and rulers, and than Beowulf, of monsters from gods and offerings, but of a manmade error in science, let loose on society, and how usually, something thought to be good before, is now a horrible happening. The fact that many vaccines now days thought to be helpful, might actually cause something worse than what we thought we were preventing, and the things that we make as weapons today to protect us, might be against us tomorrow. The cause of destruction in Beowulf: physical, the cause in Macbeth: physiological, and in Frankenstein: scientific.

In conclusion, many things that I have read have lead me to believe that what we do does matter, because it doesn’t just effect out own lives, but many other people at the same time. Granted, our monsters of today may be high gas prices of 7/gallon as our fears, and our hero may be a president of different thought than before, but the way that I see it, everything gets better, when everything falls back into the way that it is supposed to, then everything will be if not fine, then manageable. My thesis was how have these three works of literature helped shift my view on where society has come from and what differences seemingly common people can make, and they have shown me that when you try to change things that shouldn’t be in your control, it screws up everything. And when you try to play God, you get the butt end of your imaginary stick of how you were going to make everything better. You learn what your place is in the order of things, and when you stick to that, most of the time, everything will run smoothly. I have learned more from this class than I would have expected about the human mentality and order of society, but I have learned many things from these great works of writing.

 

Reviews

[AmericanPsycho?]

I found this piece to be very well written and very insightful. Again I love how you chose to use Beowulf and added the elements of Macbeth & Frankenstein, very nice, because all of them suited this particular assignment to a T.