NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
Were back to the question of the tree in the forest Does it make a sound if no one is around to hear it? I dont know, I wasnt there. Would Beowulf and the Dragon have existed if Grendel had never met them? Yes and no, in a sense. The monistic theory would hold that they would have. But of course!
Just because I dont know a Bob Johnson, doesnt mean that he does not exist. Or at least thats the monistic view that there is only one kind of substance, only one reality; the only thing that varies is our awareness of this reality. But what is reality? Its what I see, what I feel, what I experience before I interpret it. So if I never meet a Bob Johnson, he wont exist wont be a reality. This is the dualistic theory that the world is divided into two mutually irreducible elements reality, and what we experience as reality.
As Grendel says on page 28, I exist, nothing else. And it is true. The people we meet, the sensations we experience, are nothing but a memory, an impression on our mind from a moment ago. We observe and take in information, but what we dont know (or what we dont know that we dont know) will never exist for us.
So the dragon and Beowulf would have never existed had Grendel not met them. At least not as far as his reality is concerned. But he met them. He talked to the dragon who changed everything and nothing at the same time (isnt dualism just full of paradoxes? ) He met Beowulf and who smashed his head into a wall. They existed all right. They were entities.
But its not as simple as it seems. They existed, but it was Grendel's mind who gave them their true identity. The dragon, for all the reader knows, may have been an over-sized psych patient. Beowulf may have been just another pompous human.
It was Grendel's mind that created the wise, all-knowing mystical creature and the clever human who was finally able to defeat him. Once reality is presented to us, we can make of it what we wish. Grendel wanted to find his purpose, wanted to be taught, therefore he listened to the dragon and interpreted him as a wise creature. From the first time he saw Beowulf, he knew that the warrior would defeat home feared the human, which indicates that on a subconscious level, Grendel probably wanted to be defeated maybe because he was getting tired of the certainty of his victories over Hrothgar and his people. Beowulf was no different from any other human, but Grendel's mind made him so.
His visions of Beowulf with wings and spitting out fire support this idea Grendel takes the reality presented to him (in this case, probably just another self-assured warrior), and he interprets it according to his previous knowledge (here the wings and fire are borrowed from the dragon. ) His comment about his defeat that it was merely an accidents true. It was an accident in the sense that his mindset was such to predispose him to fear Beowulf. So do the dragon and Beowulf exist? Id have to stick with the dualistic views and no.
Free research essays on topics related to: existed, grendel, defeat, dragon, beowulf
Research essay sample on Dragon And Beowulf Grendel Mind Reality
