Examples Of Prejudice In Beowulf

Prejudice is a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. Beowulf (Heaney, 2000) the epic has many examples of prejudice and displays them throughout the entire story. As a result, the concept of prejudice finds its way into the movie Beowulf and Grendel (Gundarsson, 2005) but is dealt with very differently. In the epic version of Beowulf, prejudice results from a simplistic view of good and evil, and this is displayed in the killing of Grendel and his mother. While in the movie version of Beowulf and Grendel prejudice is shown with the trolls that Hrothgar and Beowulf killed. Both of the novels deal with prejudice, but the epic version deals with it in an entirely different way. In the epic version of Beowulf, prejudice is shown when the author is describing Grendel. The author does not describe Grendel but instead uses the world evil.”Began to use work his evil in the world,”(Beowulf, line 101) He uses the word evil to describe what Grendel is and why they must kill him. The author makes it seem as if Beowulf only kills evil things. In the epic version, the Geats describe all enemies and strange things as evil. If anything evil or different crosses path with Beowulf the mighty warrior kills it. Evil in the epic version of …show more content…
The Geats saw her as a threat so they tracked her down and killed her because she was not a Dane. She was an ugly monster that wasn’t Danish so they killed her. The witch was only seeking revenge for her son who had been murdered by the Geats. After Beowulf kills the mother he learns that Grendel was just seeking revenge for the death of his father. As a result, Beowulf tells Grendel’s son that he should be proud to have such an honorable father. To prevent Grendel's son from becoming like his father he buries Grendel and honors him unlike Hrothgar did when he killed Grendel's