Beowulf In-Class Essay

Topics for In-Class Beowulf Essay

Below, you will find several topics / questions. You have two options:

1. Choose one topic and write a full-on essay (approximately two pages) with a good introduction, body and conclusion.
2. Choose two topics and write two one-page essays, going into some depth on each
question.

You may use your text and your class notes.

Use each essay to explore aspects or the progression of one main idea or thesis.

Create robust paragraphs, whatever your topic choice(s). A good paragraph asserts an
idea, explores the idea through your commentary and examples / quotations from the text,
analyzes the evidence used, and ends with a conclusive statement. Throughout each
paragraph, use strong words; varied sentence structure; articulate, well-crafted sentences;
and correct conventions.

Topics:

1. Examine the role of women in the poem. How do females exert power and authority
in the poem? Do they? If so, how?
2. Examine the nature of religion in the poem—the syncretism of pagan and Christian
elements, creating a certain tension in the poem. The poet conflates (fuses together)
his own Christianity with the pagan beliefs of his forbears—with what results for the
modern reader?
3. Discuss the role of wyrd and doom in the poem. In a much more ancient—2, 000
years old at least!—long narrative poem, Epic of Gilgamesh, the hero is thrown into
an existential tailspin by the death of his best friend, Enkidu. In ways that we can
absolutely relate to now, Gilgamesh agonizes over the meaning or meaningless of
human existence. In contrast, how and why does the much more recent concept of
“wyrd” seem alien to us? Or does it?
4. Look at and compare the three “monsters,” and discuss what they represent to the
characters, the poem, and perhaps even the contemporary reader. Refer to your
questions (handout) for more good ideas on this topic.
5. Explore aspects of the warrior culture, such as comitatus—“the brotherhood of men
who owed allegiance to a chieftain and expected his benevolence in return” (Robert
Hughes)—honor, glory, war, tribal allegiance, revenge, and violence.
6. Explore the idea of the hero, focusing on Beowulf as the heroic ideal: brave,
generous, loyal? Self-aggrandizing, attention-seeking, fool-hardy?
7. Does this poem have a moral? A message? What can modern readers take away from
the poem to ponder?
8. Discuss the imagery and mood of the poem—what impression(s) of the imagined
world of the poem does the poet conjure through sense images and how?
9. Discuss with the poem’s language and poetic features as rendered by Heaney in his
translation.
10. If you have thought of your own topic, just clear it with me first.