1b) The three examples of sympathy and no sympathy in Beowulf, the first of Beowulf telling his very boastful story, one of Grendel origins and the third of feeling sympathy for Grendel because of his origins. The first is when the reader is supposed to not feel sympathy for Beowulf when he boasts about his adventure at sea “… I was the strongest swimmer of all. / …. Each of us swam holding a sword, / a naked, hard-proofed blade for protection/ against the whale-beast. …. pinned fast/ and swathed in its grip, I was granted one/ final chance; my sword plunged/ and the orderdeal was over/”(line 534-557).
Beowulf as tradition goes has bragging rights but this also gives our narrator an unreliable edge because it is not possible to hold your breath while fighting a beast under water. For the second, Grendel the reader is not supposed to feel remorse for a demon monster, such demonstrated when Hrothgar states “…. all the grief Grendel has caused/ and the havoc he had wreaked upon us in Heorot, / our humiliations. My household-guard / are on the wane, fate sweeps them away/ into Grendel’s clutches-/” (line 474-478).
The reason the reader is not supposed to feel sympathy for Grendel is because he is an ancestor of Cain the biblical start of evil which gives him a negative shadow that follows him. A third example is one of sympathy for Grendel “a fiend out of hell/ began to work his evil in the world/ Grendel was the name of this grim demon/… among the banished monsters/ Cain’s clan, whom the Creator has outlawed/ and condemned as outcasts. ” (lines100-107). The reason the reader is supposed to feel bad for Grendel is because he is Cain’s spawn and because he’s an outcast.
In the Judeo-Christian religion, anyone related to Cain is branded as evil, so Grendel could just be a n ill-mannered monster who was not taught any social niceties. 2a) Oral formulaic poetry defined by Abrams “Poetry that is composed and transmitted by singers or reciters. It origins are prehistoric, yet it continues to flourish even now among populations which for the most part cannot read or write. Oral poetry includes both narrative forms and lyrics forms… since each performer tends to render it differently” (Abrams 200).
This is shown in both The Odyssey and Beowulf, an example is Beowulf is at the start of the story, “So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by/ and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness/we have heard of those princes’ heroic campaigns/” (lines 1-3). The example is a retelling of their history and giving the reader a setting of which the story is based. Another example of Beowulf is when everyone is in the great hall and a signer is entertaining the masses, “And the minstrel sang, / filled Heorot with his head -clearing voice/ gladdening that great rally of Great and Danes. (Lines 496-498)
Homer is giving us a frame by frame story line because someone is singing or reciting the poem to Homer and yet in the story he is having someone recite a boastful story about Beowulf. The examples in the Odyssey is again at the start of the story “sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story/” (Homer lines 1). Homer is giving use a Muse which represents a spark of imagination and that he is asking the Muse to help him remember the story. Remembering the story would be oral tradition since no one or very few could write and read.
Another example is when the grey eye goddess Athena tries to plead with Zeus “But my own heart is broken for Odysseus/” (Homer lines 64) “His daughter [Kalypso] will not let Odysseus go/ (Homer lines 72) “Poseidon, bears the fighter an old grudge/ since he poked out the eye of Polyphemus/ (Homer lines 88-89). Through these lines the reader is given the middle of the story then brought back to a previous encounter, this is a staple of the oral tradition, to give the middle of the story and foreshadow the past and future. Another quick example is one of when
Odysseus is telling the Lotus people of his tales of how he poked out the eye of Polyphemus, he is every boastful as well. He also announces his linage which is an oral tradition as well also only mentioning his father side. 3a) Genesis said that Chaucer “not only tried to show the rank and wealth of the individual character but about the fashion of the time. ” The three characters that show of social ranking is the Knight, the Nun, and the Wife of Bath. The Knight as Chaucer states is ” A KNIGHT there was, and that (one was) a worthy man, / he loved chivalry, /Fidelity and good reputation, generosity and courtesy.
And evermore he had an outstanding reputation/. And although he was brave, he was prudent, /And of his deportment as meek as is a maid. 1.. He never yet said any rude word/ In all his life unto any sort of person. / He was a truly perfect, noble knight. /He wore a tunic of coarse cloth /All stained (with rust) by his coat of mail,” (Chaucer 43-76). Knight is shown to be an old man who is gentle and very respectable his age gives away rusty armor. His behaviorism is a kind soul who was taught the way of being a gentleman which someone like the pardoner was not because he did not have the teaching such as the knight did.
The Nun or Prioress is a funny character she contradicts herself, she is a very beautiful and meek but Chaucer eludes to other relations when she wears a pin that says “Love Conquers All”. Chaucer says,” There was also a Nun, a PRIORESS, / Who was very simple and modest in her smiling/She sang the divine service very well, / Intoned in her nose in a very polite manner;/ And she spoke French very well and elegantly, / For French of Paris was to her unknown/Her greatest pleasure was in good manners. (Chaucer lines 118-132).
The Nun is showing her rank by how many languages she knows only clergymen and nuns and higher ups knew more than the commoner’s language as well as cleanliness was thought to be close to Godliness which displays her rank because she was taught how to have good manners. Her behavior is shown in, “But to speak of her moral sense, / She was so charitable and so compassionate/ She would weep, if she saw a mouse/ Caught in a trap, if it were dead or bled” (Chaucer lines 142-145).
Her behavior is one of a woman of the time she is meek and sensitive she weeps when she sees a dead mouse, but she is also gentle and graceful. Chaucer also says that she is a beautiful nun who indicates that her beauty helps her climb up the social ladder. Lastly the Wife of Bath, she is a woman who was married many a time as well as rich black widow. Showing her rank by her elegant clothes and red stocking, also eluding that she is likes her lovers. Wife of Bath is the opposite of the Nun loud and modern, not what a woman should be by their standards.
Chaucer’s states, “There was a good WIFE OF beside BATH, /But she was somewhat deaf, and that was a pity. / Her kerchiefs were very fine in texture; /… Her stockings were of fine scarlet red, / Very closely laced, and shoes very supple and new. / She was a worthy woman all her life:/ She had (married) five husbands at the church door, /She knew, as it happened, about remedies for love / For she knew the old dance (tricks of the trade) of that art. / (Chaucer lines 445-476).
Chaucer again eludes that she knows how to perform an abortion, “She knew about remedies for love” giving her rank as experienced and her behaviorism give air to a woman who can do what she pleases even though she had five husbands which was abnormal for the time period. 4b) Don Quijote, is written in a modern style which seems very contemporary to our period. Even, when it was writing of not our time period. The style of narration created a frame by frame story where the narrator is telling us a bit of history about Don Quijote and then when Quijote goes into an insane battle between another suitor.
Cervantes then breaks the fourth wall as it were, and has the narrator tell the reader that he does not know the ending of the battle “We left off the first part of this history with the courageous Basque and the celebrated Don Quijote, their swords bared and uplifted, each ready to smash a furious stroke at the other – a stroke a furious, indeed, that were both blows to have landed squarely on target… and at exactly that moment of sire uncertainty the pleasant tale was broken off… nor did the original author give us the slightest idea where we might find the missing part. (Cervantes 50).
This is a metacognitive because it is an afterthought of the original story, the narrator is talking about the original author and how he cannot find the missing battle story. The way he writes the story with simple language few words that are something that the commoner would not use. The narration style gives the book a personal closeness not the formality of a book of the period. Another example of the closeness the narrator feels towards the reader, “In a village in La Mancha (I don’t want to bother you with its name) ….
Our gentleman was getting close to fifty, but strong, lean, his face sharp, always up at dawn, and a devoted hunter. It was said his family name was Quijada or maybe Quesada: there’s some disagreement among the writers who’ve discussed the matter. “(Cervantes 1). Cervantes is so personal with the reader that he even gives us his insecure in the stories and tells the reader which details to ignore and pay attention to. The type of commentary was not done such before, most of the time the author gives an affirmation statement that is told to be law there is no leeway.