Beowulf and the Danish Mercy Rule

Why is it that so many of these heroes we have read about make their lives so much harder than they need to be?  Plenty of the heroes we have covered in class could go through their lives with very few challenges.  They are all so incredibly awesome that the only strife they get comes from what they make themselves.  Now I know in today's competitive world that many people like a challenge.  Perhaps that is what draws so many Americans to different sporting events.  Back in the fifth or sixth century, people couldn't go watch two teams settle their differences on the field.  Even though they went to their version of a sports bar, there were no televisions to watch.

Beowulf kind of represents the heavyweight champion of the times.  Even though he was coming off of a loss, he still considered himself the greatest.  In truth, he probably was the greatest.  At least he didn't suffer from the false modesty of some of our other heroes this semester.  It really appears that there is very little that Beowulf couldn't do.  Perhaps that it why Beowulf embarked on a "world tour."  After his adventures at sea he headed to Denmark to take on the local champion Grendel.  Grendel was no slouch, since he could devour Hrothgar's men with little trouble.  Plus he was certainly irritable enough to bring his A game to the fight.  To the average observer, this fight might have been rated a pick em'.  But, Beowulf knew better.

Beowulf knew why he lost his last battle and he knew it was time to regain his reputation.  Grendel seemed like a perfect foe to help Beowulf regain his previous status.  In fact, a big victory in this battle was bound to take his reputation to previously unseen heights.  But Beowulf was pretty crafty.  He knew that no one can get a big reputation by a quick win.  He knew that everybody needs for their opponents to be perceived as being good so that the win looks even better.  So Beowulf did his best to even the fight up a little bit.  Beowulf removed his armour so that he could make the battle a little more even.

Beowulf's men think that maybe he has met his match since they try and assist him.  However, since their weapons can't pierce Grendel's skin, Beowulf is really forced to win this one on his own.  Eventually, after a fierce battle where it looks like the whole hall will be destroyed, Beowulf rips Grendel's arm off and the beast retreats to the marshes to die.  Beowulf is once again the champion and his reputation has reached new heights.  But, in a little bit of foreshadowing of the future to come with WWE, Beowulf then has to defeat Grendel's mother.  I can almost see this event on television.  Just like the wrestlers of today, some woman comes out of the crowd and hits our champion with a chair.  Despite the woman getting the quick advantage, we have all seen it happen enough to know how it is going to end.  This same story has played out hundreds or even thousands of times since Beowulf's days.  Despite that, Beowulf is still clearly awesome because the Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, or even Hulk Hogan never ripped off one of their opponent's arms.

Women's Lib in Chaucer's England

The Wife of Bath was not the same type of woman we have been reading about in our other stories.  She does not seem to buy into the fact that women are of secondary importance when compared to men.  This view seems to be so contrarian to the rest of the literature we have studdied this year.  Most of the few women that we have read about don't have any real ambitions for themselves.  Their views of their place in society come from the status of their husbands.  Clearly these type of views don't represent the Wife of Bath.  Thus, if Chaucer based her on a real person then that women was an early leader in the women's movement.

Although we are not reading all of Canterbury Tales in this class, it is noteworthy that there are real differences between the prologue and story of the Wife of Bath and most of the other stories in Chaucer's book.  The main change is that the Wife of Bath's tale matches her prologue.  She has a certain opinion that she basically spells out in her prologue and then has a story which reinforces her beliefs.  Many of the other stories in Chaucer's work don't have that same format.  Many of them seem to be told out of spite in response to the other stories that have already been told.  The whole contest seems to become a case of oneupsmanship (is that a word?) over the course of their pilgrimage to Canterbury.

It is really pretty refreshing to see the Wife of Bath stay on point in her attempts to educate her fellow travelers.  The views she presents in her prologue and story would be beyond controversial for the day.  It is great that she is able to weave them into a couple of different stories without making them really personal.  Just like Chaucer doesn't own his views by saying the whole book was something he overheard on his trip to Canterbury, the Wife of Bath doesn't own her views by saying that these were events that happened a long time ago.  This clever subterfuge allows her to at least get people thinking about the things that she finds important in getting women fair and equal treatment with men.

It is probably worth noting that she doesn't seek just equality for women.  In truth, it appears that she finds women superior to men.  This would have been an even more radical idea for the times.  While we will never know the answer, it would sure be interesting to know if Chaucer based this character on a real woman in his life.  The ideas that the Wife of Bath presented in her story and prologue are not used throughout the rest of the tales, so Chaucer did a great job of making his novel feel like it really did have different voices telling the stories.  Since the work was never finished, we don't know which story would have won the contest, but it seems pretty likely that the stories and views of theWife of Bath would not have been a contender.  But, it does allow the readers of today see some of the initial sparks of the women's liberation movement that was to come.

Oedipus and Fate

Fate was a central part of many Greek tragedies of the time.  Even in a play like Oedipus where the "Hand of God" doesn't come in at the finish, it is obvious that Sophocles believes in fate.  When I read this, I was really trying to figure out what Sophocles wanted to say about fate.  Oedipus was not a new story and the audience was well versed in the history.  In fact, Aeschylus had won the first prize at the festival of Dionysus with his own trilogy about Oedipus.  So what is it that Sophocles felt he had that was new to bring to the tale?

Since Sophocles clearly believes in fate, it must be something about the choice of either accepting or fighting your fate.  In Sophocles' play, all parties that have a choice between accepting or fighting fate choose to fight.  First, it is the parents of Oedipus who abandon their child and have him left to die.  Many years later, it is Oedipus himself who flees his home in an attempt to make sure that he doesn't fulfill the prophecy.  I can't help but read into this that Greeks, while believing in fate, did not believe that they had to accept it.  Sophocles clearly makes a statement by having his characters attempt to fight their fate.

Another part that really interested me was the fact that Sophocles chose not to have the Greek gods as major characters in his play.  While we have prophets and oracles operating in the world of Oedipus, the actual gods are nowhere to be found.  I wonder if this wasn't some subtle hint on Sophocles' part to have people question their gods.  Clearly that is not the way most people interpret it, but just about every other play I have read from the era has gods as central characters.  Most have them come on at the end to finish the play.  But in Sophocles' Oedipus, the play ends with Oedipus blinded and leaving the city.  Could this be a case of saying that we are all are own gods?  Oedipus does fulfill the prophecy, but the reprecussions for his actions do not involve him being punished by the gods.  His reprecussions are brought on entirely by himself.  He scratches out his own eyes and he makes the choice to abandon his children.  Now I know that Sophocles mentioned that Thebes was suffering from a plague because of the unsolved murder of their king, but the gods knew the identity of the murderer.  There would have been no reason to punish the population if they knew how everything was going to end, so maybe there was some subtle subtext at play where Sophocles was asking bigger questions about Greek beliefs.

Is Neo The One? Does It Matter?

This was about the fifteenth time I have seen the Matrix, but it was the first time I had seen it after learning about daoism.  So, this was really like seeing it for the first time.  I found that the subtitles being on really helped me to read it on the first day.  I wish we would have had them on for the second part of the film because without them I did find myself getting into the action a little more and forgetting why we were there.  After viewing the film, I am still pretty sure that I don't understand daoism.  I probably understand the film a lot more than I understand the philosophy.

The key point for our heroic journey is whether or not Neo is the one.  Now clearly he is the protagonist of the film, but does that necessarily make him a hero?  If we view the film like the other stories that we have been reading, we really need to make a decision on our feelings about Neo being the one.  I believe in the realm of the film that Neo is clearly the one.  The oracle never says it specifically, but she pretty much says that if he is not the one now, he will be the one later.  Since we know she told Morpheous that he would find the one, we can extrapolate that Neo is either the one, or Morpheous is going to live for a very long time since Neo will have to be in another life to be the one. 

Now some in class claim that Neo is in another life when he becomes the one since he has died and risen (Matrix Messiah?).  But, I think it is clear to see that this is still our Thomas Anderson.  Neo is the one because he has always been the one.  It is true that he doesn't really achieve his full capabilities as a hero until he believes in himself, but it doesn't change the fact that he was always the one and our hero.  By the end of the film, I am still not sure that Neo believes he is the one, but he clearly believes he has a role to play in saving the world.

Neo's journey is not unlike some of the others we have read in class this semester.  Neo sort of leaves his home and goes on a heroic journey before returning home.  Now for Neo, his original home existed only in his mind and he was never aware that anything else was out there.  I am not sure how he returns to his home knowing what he knows by the end.  Now that he has achieved "knowledge," it would be pretty tough to go home again.  Just like Sir Gawain came home with a badge of failure, Neo seems to have one too.  Although he doesn't project it on how he sees himself in the matrix, he does have the holes in his body where the feeding tubes were connected while he was in an unconscious state.  When he is outside the realm of the matrix, I think he could easily view these as a badge of failure because he never recognized his true existence before Morpheous opened his eyes.

Now that I've established my view that Neo is the one, the next big question is whether or not it matters.  What we don't know from watching the film is the ultimate end game.  Will Neo single handedly awaken every human in the world from their sleep?  Will he succeed in eliminating all of the machines that are running the "real" world?  What is the ultimate end goal?  It certainly seems like Neo has a long way to go if he is going to be the one to lead all people to the truth.  That being said, it is clear that he has more heroic journeys ahead.  The daoists in our other readings generally did not seem to seek that kind of excitement in their lives so I don't know whether they would even approve of Neo trying to be the one.  Perhaps they would have been more comfortable with him taking the other pill.  Ignorance is probably not ever bliss, but it can lead to a happier existence and if the end game for everyone is to live a happy life, then Neo clearly chose the wrong pill.