The Battle Of Good Versus Evil English Literature Essay

The bible once said, “For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place, all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again” (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20). Evil is the intention or effect of causing harm or destruction, usually specifically from the perception of deliberately violating some moral code. Thought the existence of the world and mankind evil has been prominent in British literature and society. Evil exists in Beowulf, when a monster named Grendel devoured everyone. Also in Harry Potter, the battle of good versus evil, when Harry faces Lord Valdamort. Grendel, another literature novel had the battle of good versus evil, but in this case evil was wrongly misunderstood. Finally in Lord of The Files the longing for freedom turned good hearted boys into Beasts and murders. Evil is prominent thought literature and the world of present day and as a result, evil is unavoidable and comes in many different forms; Beowulf, Lord of The Files, Grendel and Harry Potter all show different forms of evil, proving that evil is an inescapable part of human nature.

In present day history it is seemed likely that evil would have been cast down into the shadows where it come from, with the vast amount of good people and major advances in technology. Thanks to the nature of humans, the evil in the world is still strong and it seems to have no end. Eagleton exclaims that, “Only by being hauled through hell might we have a chance of rising again. It is this that the evil cannot accept” (14).Evil has inflicted people and British literature with murder’s and crime and hatred though people, that has intern corrupted society. Shelton says that, “humankind’s inclination to dissolve the very idea of evil, as if neither its concept nor its existence is any longer pertinent to the modern world” (45). British literature would not be what it is today with out the constant mentioning of evil characters and evil doings. Evil has been in literature since the start of time, with a villain and a hero most works of literature end the same with good having the upper hand on evil. All of the characters in British literature and humans in society have had all evil temptations to make them evil. One cause for evil are the temptations, for example “The Devil, so they say, has all the best tunes, and this seems to be the case when it comes to literature as well as mankind” (Eagleton 50). Human nature has made evil unstoppable. With the role literature and advances of technology there will always be a greater force of evil out there than there was before.

People and characters are influenced by many forces of evil that can drive them over the edge. For example, “Only by opening ourselves in this way to our own frailty and finitude might we have a chance for authentic life” (Eagleton 48). People are always influenced by evil like in society when you have to work hard and get money or you can be tempted by evil and sell drugs and rob stores, when it comes to good and evil we will always have a choice on weather which road that you want to journey on in life. People chose to be evil and some are just destined to be evil and this is very prominent thought British literature. In Macbeth, Macbeth had a chance to choice good or evil, these three witches told him his fate and he believed the devilish witches over anyone else. This choice would lead to his down fall. The choice of evil always has negative consequences with an inescapable fate. Eagleton once said that, “those who refuse to acknowledge this thing of darkness as their own, who can see it only as a monstrous obscenity lurking on the threshold of their city-state — will themselves go to monstrous lengths to annihilate it” (23). There are many different types of personal evil, for example, “To be entirely without such abundant, self-delighting life is to be evil; and this means that evil is not something positive but a kind of lack or defectiveness, a sort of nothingness or negativity, an inability to be truly alive” (Eagleton 22). Everyone has evil inside them and this is the personal evil that can corrupt our very sole. In British literature characters are influenced by personal evil, for example in Beowulf, in order to good you must do evil. When Beowulf killed monsters and dragons he had to go against human nature and murder in order to save mankind. With this said, the way people interoperate literature can influence their lives and how much good they make thought the world.

Good can’t live with out evil and evil can’t live with out good and there is a fine line between the forces of good and evil. Many people believe that we have a natural tendency to be evil rather than good. Others think we are born good and alter turn evil because of the many sins in the world. “Repeatedly, we are told that the source of evil is the good. It is not, in fact, a matter of the good being infected by the evil, though that is the superficial form which the process takes. Evil is inherent in good”(Garry 459). Ever since the start of time, from stories being told by our mothers to the children and through modern films and literature, good versus evil has been a very common theme. This concept of Good versus evil has been battling for ages. The winner is still too unclear, but with modern day society and the way its heading evil will eventually win this battle. Good versus evil has been at war forever, for example “evil is personified by a crow who “had a power to influence those who did not possess strong hearts. He could project sickness into their bodies and evil thoughts into their hearts, and caused some of them to steal and gossip.… Good people were thus turned into evil under the influence of the crow, but the old people told them that there was a good power in the world striving to overcome evil” (Garry 451). Good will always win over evil but good alone can devoured us all and spit us out like a piece of gum in the mouth of a demon.

In Beowulf, lord of The Files, Grendel and Harry Potter most and always good will win over the forces of evil, but sometimes in order to do the work of God you must willing take part of the temptations of the hand of evil. In these works of literature characters have changed over the course of the novel becoming evil or over coming evil the affects of evil on theses characters are immense. The epic poem Beowulf is an example of evil, because the hero of the story has an ongoing conflict with the evil villain, Grendel. Grendel is a monster cast from hell to destroy mankind. In Beowulf, the conflict between good and evil is the poem’s most important aspect. “So times were pleasant for the people there/until finally one, a fiend out of hell, /began to work his evil in the world” (99-101). Grendel is a monster that has to be stopped. But intern Beowulf must curcuma to human nature and murder a creation of God. Beowulf is the olden day type of evil with monsters and lord of The Files is more modern and show’s the evil hidden deep down inside of people’s soles. “Like a man outlawed/ for wickedness, he must await/the mighty judgment of God in majesty” (Beowulf 976-8).In lord of The Files the insanity of having to live on an island with no way out drove characters mad and turned the good boys into evil children that would murder and hate all out of selfishness. At many points throughout Lord of the Flies, Golding writes about the characters becoming slowly more and more evil.  This characteristic has symbols of good and human nature, such as people like Ralph. When Ralph and Piggy go to the feast on Jack’s beach, they begin to fit in with the others and their evil doings, but found the true evil in their sole after a while with being near Jack” Piggy and Ralph, under the threat of the sky, found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society” (Golding 138).  In the novel the island represents the world on a small scale. The world outside of island is in a nuclear war. This shows that no matter who you are, you will turn to the ways of darkness and become evil.

The Novel’s of Harry Potter show how with team work of many good people, evil can be taken down. But alone evil will consume you whole and will never bring you back to the good in the world. Rowling’s main point in her novels is that evil is a choice but it is also a different case when evil can chose you. The Evil of Voldemort makes people with no choice but to follow the workings of good and stay away from evil. “But you should know that Hogwarts can expel students, and the Ministry of Magic – yes, there is a Ministry – will punish lawbreakers still more severely. All new wizards must accept that, in entering our world, they abide by our laws.” (Rowling 156) Harry Potter can’t really choose not to stay away from lord Voldemort since Voldemort’s goal is to hunt down and kill Potter in cold blood. For Voldemort goal, Potter must be killed or Voldemort’s goal of control of the wizard world will never work like he has planed. Evil is a complicated mystery, will take you to places that the mined cant even comprehend.

In the epic poem Grendel, a monster named Grendel is misperceived and taken the wrong way just because he can’t help him self and all he wants to do is eat, so in order to eat he must kill. “The world resists me and I resist the world” (28). At times he is moved by the romantic songs of the Shaper, and feels no lust to kill, while when he is hungry he goes on bloody rampages and eats a seafood diet, see every thing and eat it. Grendel is just a very confused monster that is looked upon as evil, but deep down in that ugly heat is love. “It dawned on me that the eyes that seemed to bore into my body were in fact gazing through it, wearily indifferent to my slight obstruction of the darkness” (16). Evil’s role in Literature is a major role that influences the strong and weak characters but they all end in death or turmoil.

The primary evidence that people are generally evil is true by the number of wars. But wars are the result of society and its evil doings. “At least we did until our rude awakening on 9/11. Instantly, the entertainment industry started holding the mirror up to an altered zeitgeist. Into the stream of fantasy that crested in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy poured new torrents fed by serious military history (Oliver Stone’s Alexander) and mythology for grown-ups (Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy). However imperfectly, the movies were receding into an antique heroic age. In its various transmogrifications, Beowulf reflects the anxieties we feel today and perhaps offers a kind of reassurance” (Gurewitsc).

Technology has enabled people to live longer, Travel faster, and communicate easier around the world and in over all live more sustainable lives of good health. Despite of these changes, prejudice, racism, war, poverty and evil that exist throughout the world are more grater than ever. The environment in which a person lives and grows up is and will affect the characteristics of a human being. The innovations made in technology will not be able to rid the world of evil, these innovations add on to the amount of greed people have. Evil is an element to the way people act. It will always be present in human life as long as the human race exists. “Some instances of suffering-for example, those caused by war, injustice, and the many forms of “man’s inhumanity to man”-are traceable to human wrongdoing, and thus fall within the problem of moral evil. But other sources of pain, such as disease, earthquake, flood, drought, and storm, are built into the structure of the world itself. Surely, it is urged, they make it incredible that the world should have been designed by a Creator who is both perfectly good and infinitely powerful” (Hick 472). “In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” (Eleanor Roosevelt). One’s nature will affect their life, it is their own free will that determines whether or not they are good or evil. There is pain and suffering all over the world. Even at this very moment, people are facing death and torture. But pain is temporary but pride will last forever .Humans were given the one thing above every other living creature in the universe, and that was the power of free will and the chose on how evil some one can be. People have many faces of evil but the pain and suffering from this evil will scar and last until the end of time it self.

God is the master and wholly good creator of all things. With the force of good evil will be sent back to the hell it came from. God controls the fate of those evil creations and the choices they make. God will smite all that is evil on this planet, with the help of good soled people. Every time good wins over evil or even a sports star does something good he will always thank God. “Evil is that force which seeks to make healing impossible. Evil makes sin. It makes the re-establishment of relationship and healing appear impossible. The bond is forever broken. That is why evil is so chilling. Its victory results in complete diremption, the loss of all hope of relationship, atonement, or redemption” God is described as “an infinite, self-existent, incorporeal (without body), eternal, immutable (doesn’t change), impassable (incapable of suffering), simple (one entity), perfect (God is seen as a morally perfect being i.e. wholly good)” As long as the force of God and the light of the good sole people are around evil will be right their and good will come back ten times harder than before. Thus this all makes evil as unavoidable and comes in many different forms; Beowulf, Lord of The Files, Grendel and Harry Potter all show different forms of evil, proving that evil is an inescapable part of human nature.

Woks Cited

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