Grendel And Macbeth

Improved Essays
Evil is a subject the world cannot avoid with its constant corruption. Almost everything in the world today seems to revolve around the concept of evil; whether it comes from music, movies, literature, and society in general. Although British literature stories mainly have the concept of good vs. evil, they shed the most light on the evil aspect of people. The stories include the motives and reasons that go with the intentions of evil that will be carried out in the story. Most of the stories we read this semester in English have a lot of evil incorporated in them. The character Grendel from, “Grendel” and the characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth from, “Macbeth” were all somehow corrupted by evil. Theorists like Sigmund Freud, who believed that evil is internal, and Elaine Pagel, who believed evil is external, have theories that can be used to prove how and why these characters turned evil. Pagel’s and Freud’s theories of evil can be used to analyze the characters of Grendel, Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth on their motivations to commit evil acts. Sigmund Freud is essential because of his theories on how and why people can be evil. Sigmund Freud believed that evil is desirable, and that evil is somewhat of a choice that you make. Freud said that "He had only to assimilate this new contrast between a moral self and an evil one, with the contrast...between the conscious and the unconscious. The moral self was the conscious, the evil self was the unconscious" (Notes). He believed that the true identity of one person lies within the unconscious mind because that is where all of our wishes and desires are. The character of Grendel can be seen in two different lights, as a “primitive human” (Sparknotes) in “Beowulf” or as a “temperamental and intelligent monster” (Sparknotes) in “Grendel.” Grendel will be viewed as a monster for the purpose of Freud’s and Pagel’s theories on evil. According to Freud, evil was desired and it was a choice that someone could make. Grendel was not an evil character in the beginning, but it is the choices he made that turned him evil. He chose to kill, and he chose to become the true monster that his appearance depicts. Therefore, Grendel is evil based purely on his choices. The character of Macbeth, according to Freud, is evil. In the Story of, “Macbeth”, Macbeth was prophesized by three witches. He was told by one of the witches, “Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!” It is at this time that Macbeth’s inner evil comes out because he seems to think that the only way he can become king is by killing the king that had the thrown at the time. Macbeth was once a very ambitious man but because of what the witches told him he desired to become king. Therefore, under the influence and words of his wife, Macbeth made the evil choice to kill Duncan and become king. The character Lady Macbeth, according to Freud, is evil. Again, in the story of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s husband is prophesized to be a king one day by three witches. Because Lady Macbeth desires to be the queen, she commits evil acts. She convinces Macbeth to kill Duncan so they can “seize the crown” (Sparknotes). When Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that he no longer wants to kill Duncan, she becomes angered and begins to question and insult his, “manhood” (Sparknotes). Lady Macbeth is evil because she desired to be queen so much that she pushed her husband to kill the king. She chose to commit such an evil act and in the end it drove her …show more content…
Lady Macbeth closely personifies evil in the story of, “Macbeth”. When Macbeth chooses not to kill Duncan, Lady Macbeth tells him to do it anyways because she holds “some type of power” (Notes) over him to persuade him. The comparison of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth to Adam and Eve can be argued through the similar events in both stories. When in the Garden of Eden, Eve hands Adam the apple from the serpent then convinces him to take a bite. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, compares in the act when she convinces Macbeth to commit the evil atrocities he does throughout the

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