How Is Beowulf Liberal Or Conservative
There have always been two groups of political thought: liberal and conservative. These two schools of thought can be applied to almost anything. This includes the thousand year old poem, Beowulf. Who better embodies the liberal traits than Beowulf himself. A liberal is a nontraditional person who is open to new behaviors and not afraid to discard their traditional values in order to better themselves and their community. This definition of liberal describes Beowulf. Beowulf was a fictional hero who saved the land of the Danes from dark monsters. He later became a king who was well loved by his people. Beowulf deviates from the standard customs of heros and people with power because he cares about everyone from commoners to fellow royalty.
…show more content…
He treats everyone with respect and fairness, even those who do not return the gesture. When Unferth was angry at Beowulf for killing Grendel, Beowulf’s men wanted to hang him. However, Beowulf remained calm and stated that “To Unferth, Grendel was beautiful,”. This exhibits a strong sense of equality to treat everyone with the fairly even when they do not do the same. At one point in the epic, a slave steals a “jeweled cup” which awakens the Firedrake. This angered the Firedrake, so it burned down a significant amount of the kingdom. The slave was brought upon Beowulf to decide whether or not he would be sacrificed. Beowulf instead decides to “let him eat honey,” meaning that the slave should deserve pity and not be killed. This shows that Beowulf is against the death penalty which is a liberal value. These kind of decisions demonstrated to his people that Beowulf was a fair and egalitarian ruler. Another quality that Beowulf and liberals share is that they have nontraditional values. Conventionally, heros used swords to fight monsters. Beowulf went with the uncustomary option of using his arms , “strong wrists” and his intelligence. Near the beginning of the story, Beowulf eats an apple that was made from a cursed tree. Unferth tells him that the apples are bad but Beowulf disagrees and explains that good things can be brought by something bad. This is extremely untraditional. He also admits to his imperfections which help him improve upon his weaknesses. These qualities conveys Beowulf’s liberal
He treats everyone with respect and fairness, even those who do not return the gesture. When Unferth was angry at Beowulf for killing Grendel, Beowulf’s men wanted to hang him. However, Beowulf remained calm and stated that “To Unferth, Grendel was beautiful,”. This exhibits a strong sense of equality to treat everyone with the fairly even when they do not do the same. At one point in the epic, a slave steals a “jeweled cup” which awakens the Firedrake. This angered the Firedrake, so it burned down a significant amount of the kingdom. The slave was brought upon Beowulf to decide whether or not he would be sacrificed. Beowulf instead decides to “let him eat honey,” meaning that the slave should deserve pity and not be killed. This shows that Beowulf is against the death penalty which is a liberal value. These kind of decisions demonstrated to his people that Beowulf was a fair and egalitarian ruler. Another quality that Beowulf and liberals share is that they have nontraditional values. Conventionally, heros used swords to fight monsters. Beowulf went with the uncustomary option of using his arms , “strong wrists” and his intelligence. Near the beginning of the story, Beowulf eats an apple that was made from a cursed tree. Unferth tells him that the apples are bad but Beowulf disagrees and explains that good things can be brought by something bad. This is extremely untraditional. He also admits to his imperfections which help him improve upon his weaknesses. These qualities conveys Beowulf’s liberal