Grendel and Lucifer: Both Grendel,

¶ … Grendel and Lucifer: Both Grendel, the monster of the epic Beowulf, and Lucifer of Milton's Paradise Lost are outsider characters. Grendel is rejected by society because of his ugliness, so he inflicts his hate with murderous violence upon the residents of the kingdom whom Beowulf must free. Lucifer's ambitions to rule heaven are thwarted, and when he is sent to 'rule in hell,' he inflicts his vengeance upon God's creation, Adam and Eve, since he cannot hurt God. These characters serve as tests for the heroes of their tales: Beowulf triumphs and 'wins' in his quest to prove himself a great warrior by killing Grendel, while Adam and Eve fail in their test to prove themselves morally worthy of God's perfect world in Eden.

Enkidu and Patroklos: Both of these characters figure strongly in homoerotic friendships in heroic tales. The wildman Enkidu first fights with Gilgamesh, the hero of that Mesopotamian saga, but the two eventually become friends. After the death of Enkidu Gilgamesh is so distraught he goes to the end of the world, leaving his kingdom and seeking eternal life. After the death of Patroklos, Achilles returns to fight in the Trojan War to avenge his friend's death in the Iliad, gives up his quarrel with Agamemnon, and nearly goes mad with grief in his pursuit for vengeance against Hector.

3. Kyklops and Othello: The Kyklops of the Odyssey tires to harm Odysseus and his men without just cause, while Othello kills Desdemona without justification. Both of these figures are seen as powerful and monstrous. They are also deceived, despite their power, by their social inferiors -- the mortal Odysseus in the case of the Kyklops and the commoner Iago in the case of Othello.

4. Priam and Brabantio: Priam and Brabantio are old men, fathers of prominent figures in the Iliad and Othello respectively. They warn the younger generation about the perils that will befall them if they do not heed their words. The king of Troy Priam has far more perspective on the misery war can cause than the younger Greek warrior Achilles. Brabantio warns his daughter Desdemona about what will happen to her if she marries Othello and loses her status as his daughter in Venetian society.

5. A handkerchief and a tapestry: The strawberry-spotted handkerchief was given to Desdemona by Othello as a charmed love-token. She was told to keep it as proof of her chastity, and when Emilia steals it, Iago is able to convince Othello Desdemona is unfaithful. Penelope weaves a tapestry, telling her suitors she will marry when it was finished, and to preserve her fidelity to her husband and wifely chastity while he is away, she unweaves it every night.

2. With only a few notable exceptions, women are often second-class citizens in these works. Demonstrate how certain women are more powerful than they might initially appear -- pick two women and show how they actually do possess deep strength.

Of full five husbands tutoring am I.

Welcome the sixth whenever come he shall.

Forsooth, I'll not keep chaste for good and all;

When my good husband from the world is gone,

Some Christian man shall marry me anon;

For then, the apostle says that I am free

To wed, in God's name, where it pleases me.

He says that to be wedded is no sin;

Better to marry than to burn within (50-58)

In the "Prologue" to her tale, the Wife of Bath openly and joyfully proclaims her lusty nature. Despite the fact that she lives in a society which is often thought to place women in an inferior position to males, the Wife has outlived her many husbands, and takes a delightful pilgrimage to Canterbury, enjoying herself and the wealth she inherited from her first husband(s). She tells a story that counsels husbandly rather than wifely obedience: a knight is able to realize his quest only with a women's aid, and after being forced to marry an ugly old woman who is only beautiful at night he is forced to shrug his shoulders and say whatever she thinks is best he will welcome. This underlines the fact that men must look beyond appearances to see true female beauty as well as humorously underlines the need for men to listen to their wives.

The Wife of Bath does not see marriage as oppressive -- she enjoys her sensuality and revels in male companionship as well as her ability to tell stories, be funny, and enjoy her freedom. However, it is not only the Wife of Bath who uses marriage as a tool of self-empowerment. The gentle and seemingly mild Desdemona defies her father and marries a man outside of her race, nation, and class because she loves him. Love makes her bold as she never was before, when she was merely Brabantio's daughter. She also demands to go with Othello when he is sent back to fight so the two of them can enjoy a wedding night together:

That I did love the Moor to live with him,

My downright violence and storm of fortunes

May trumpet to the world: my heart's subdued

Even to the very quality of my lord:

I saw Othello's visage in his mind,

And to his honour and his valiant parts

Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.

So that, dear lords, if I be left behind,

A moth of peace, and he go to the war,

The rites for which I love him are bereft me,

And I a heavy interim shall support

By his dear absence. Let me go with him (I.3).

Yet, in a society that values female chastity and mistrusts female empowerment, Desdemona comes to a tragic end when Othello suspects that she is unfaithful. Cast off from her father, Desdemona has nowhere to go, except to plead to Othello to spare her life. No matter how strong a woman may be, because of the oppressive conditions of marriage, they have little escape, and cannot use romance as a tool of social advancement and empowerment if their husbands will not let them. And even the Wife of Bath seems socially, not simply legally pressured to bow to one of her husbands out of desire:

This jolly, gentle, Jenkin clerk, my friend,

Had wedded me full ceremoniously,

And to him gave I all the land in fee

That ever had been given me before;

But, later I repented me full sore.

He never suffered me to have my way.

By God, he smote me on the ear, one day,

Because I tore out of his book a leaf,

So that from this my ear is grown quite deaf (634-632).

Even the jolly Wife of Bath, not just Desdemona, in other words, must tolerate spousal abuse if her husband wills it.

3. You're told that these works are classics, and hey, you might even accept that they are. But why? What is it about these works that makes them worthy of study several millennia after some of them were written? Pick two works and describe why they continue to be worthy of study in the present day (for example: Paradise Lost and William Shakespeare, Othello)

The Iliad could have been told by Homer as a story of Greek triumph -- after all, the Greeks were the winners of that particular fight against Troy. But Homer very carefully chooses the concluding scene to his poem: it is not of the Trojan Horse and the triumph of the Greeks, but of an old man who has lost his son and a young man who has lost his dearest friend, both to war. The fact that they are on opposing sides -- the King of Troy Priam and the great Greek warrior Achilles -- both meeting peacefully, and mourning the loss of their loved ones, and are acutely aware that their own deaths are on the horizon, makes the scene even more poignant.

Studying the Iliad shows the reader that war, even in the long past, was not always viewed as glorious. The Greeks viewed it as an evil necessity. That is why when Thresities suggests that the Greeks leave and go home, he is condemned by Odysseus. But the war is never a joyous pursuit, and many of the warriors, such as Odysseus, regret ever being forced to participate in the war at all, no matter how many titles and spoils they might win. The Iliad teaches the reader that hatred of violence is not something new to our modern society, but has existed since the beginning of time.