No New Tale To Tell

The Wife of Bath's Tale touched upon some timeless points.  Gender equality has always been a heated topic and has become much more widely accepted in the late 20th century and into current day.  In the story the knight had to come before the queen and a panel of women to see if he would be executed or not.  In this situation the females were in control and held the power.  Women have had a very tough time historically when it has come to gender equality.  There had always been expectations of women to be good mothers, cooks, and cleaners.  Women were in charge of domestic duties and men were the ones who had jobs and "brought home the bacon."  Women are now working the same jobs men are.  They are CFOs, CEOs, and billionaire entrepreneurs.  The idea that women can be in charge is still very relevant to modern times.  The knight said that what women want most is to be in control of their husbands and lovers.  I disagree with this point though because I don't think women necessarily want to be the one with all of the power in their relationships.  I think they want a balance of power, but I cannot speak on behalf of all women because everyone has different views and opinons on this.  Although there still isn't equal pay in the workplace for women and men, females have come a very long way in terms of gender equality, which is a point The Wife of Bath's Tale touched upon.    

Truth

When the shaper first goes to Hrothgar's meadhall, Grendel is intrigued by the songs he sings.  Grendel wants to believe what he sings, but after years of watching Hrothgar and his people, it is obvious that the shaper sings of not only truth, but also fiction.  He embellishes and exaggerates stories.  The shaper focuses on the positive things Hrothgar and his men have done, while eliminating the losses and negative parts of the past.  Propaganda is similar to what the shaper does because it gives a biased look on an issue or topic that could be view at from many different angles.  It focuses on a positive element of the topic to try and mask the negatives that come from it.  It can also exaggerate the wrongdoings of an enemy.  Propaganda is frequently used in war, and perhaps most memorably in World War II.  A very iconic example of propaganda posters is that of "Rosie the Riveter."  It was to represent and encourage women who took over factory jobs that men who went to war left behind.  It is hard to identify what is the truth whenever conflict arises because each side has their own perspective and tries to convince as many people as they can that they are right.  The truth can be hard to identify and at times hard to believe.  Grendel knows the shaper sings a mix of truth and lies, but still cannot stop listening.

Modern Day Grendel

Although I am still undecided as to whether Grendel is truly evil, his actions were preposterous.  At night he went on mass killing sprees and tore apart up around 30 innocent men!  The only person that comes to mind when I think of mass killings is Adolf Hitler.  He murdered Jews, Catholics, Gypsies, homosexuals, and the handicapped, as well as supporters of these groups of people.  Hitler was able to kill many more people and I would say he had a much larger impact on the world, but they both were monsters.  Grendel was never remorseful when it came to his actions, and he stood behind all of his decisions.  Hitler was confident in his beliefs as well and never backed down, but when he knew he was going to lose, he escaped (suicide.)  A difference is that Grendel thought he would be beaten by Beowulf when his claw was being forcefully grabbed with little effort on Beowulf's part, but he still put up a fight.  Both Hitler and Grendel like the feeling of control.  They terrorize innocent civilians which in turn gives them complete power.  Although this is based on opinion, neither Hitler nor Grendel was particularly attractive.  They both were hellions and I think many of their actions mirror each other.  Hitler had all ill intentions in my viewpoint, but I do sympathize in some ways with Grendel.  He was born as a descendant of evil, but Hitler brought everything he did upon himself.  While Grendel is still responsible for his actions, I think he is the lesser of two evils when comparing him to his modern-day counterpart of Adolf Hitler.