Hal has come to realize that in order to move forward, he must cut old ties.
  What is the challenge of cutting yourself off from old, bad friends or
  associates? Keeping that in mind, what is the greatest challenge Hal faces as
he  moves ahead with his life?
A challenge Hal faces when trying to move on with his life is that he has to move on from his current friend base.  there is a large challenge to doing this because it means you will have to change your whole lifestyle because you are leaving one life for another.  The greatest challenge Hal has to face is that he is going to have to change his whole life to adapt to his father's liking.  He normally spends his days at the tavern drinking and sleeping with prostitutes or joking and pranking with Falstaff.  To be a prince he maybe never go to the taverns or see Falstaff, and he should be a valiant hero in battle.  Henry now expects the best from Hal so Hal must give the best in return, so he has to completely change his lifestyle to gain his father's approval, and to be next in line f 

I believe that the Sailor should not be punished for his actions, but should have to give back the community in penance of his sins.  In the Anglo Saxon Era, anyone who committed murder was hunted down and killed in revenge, or Were guild.  But things had changed from Beowulf to Chaucer's time, so the sailor would not have been murdered unjustly for his actions, but rather hung justly for them.  I believe that he should not be punished for his sins since he has already began a new life of penance.  He is on a holy pilgrimage and has tried to reinvent himself.  Not only did he name his boat Magdeline, who represents repentance, he also gave up his old thieving and drinking ways.  He should have to give back to the community as his punishment, even though it is not much of a punishment.  I personally think he should help those who cannot help themselves, and would have to steal and murder just to make ends meat.  he should help them so they do not become like him, then he will have redeemed himself.   

King Henry is a good king, but does not always have his mindset on his people and this is not a good quality.  The people need there king, for leadership, for justice, and for protection against foreign affairs.  But when he puts his mind in other places, people do not like the king and begin to want to kill him.  Henry seems to be a bipolar person as is, when he is serious with his council and then immediately jokes with them, but not only can he not be serious at sometimes, he is also to caught up in his sons affairs and to caught up with the prisoner scandal.  he is too focused on getting these prisoners and making sure his son is a good prince, that he is not being mature

in my mind I always thought of a damsel in distress as a helpless women, but now I see I am wrong.  I was surprised to see how much more powerful women were in this time, even if it was behind the seems.  After the black plague most women took up male roles, such as working, finding food, owning businesses and doing the dirty work of the family.  I was especially surprised to see the women who owned her own brewery, because it was a very big deal for a women to even work at that time, so to own a business was a very progressive idea. women are much craftier and more cunning that we believe, they even kidnapped people!  It has become apparent to me that the roles of people in the medieval times is nothing of what I previously expected. To see the role of the peasant was simple because their actual role was not far off from what I assumed it would be, but the role of the Damsels has completely surprised me and have helped move the world to the place it is for women today. 

Something I learned new about the peasant class was that their
lives were pretty terrible; I knew they were bad but I had no idea how bad it
really was.  I had no idea about
  their living quarters, the food they ate, and that the clothes they wore had
  fleas, or that they drank beer rather than water because it was so dangerous to
  drink water.  I also learned that
they did not own the land they worked on and they were never paid. 
I just thought they were equivalent to today’s farmers. 
I did not know that the black plague had actually helped the progression
of the peasants because it gave more jobs and more money to give. 
I was also surprised to see that they had a newfound universal language,
I always presumed they could not read or write.  You cannot really compare the peasant
class to a class or group of people today because nobody today lives in those
types of conditions. The only group
of people you can relate them too is many tribes in Africa that go through the
same problems with drinking water and food.  

Gray Gissinger
Brit Lit/G
Ms. Burman

Beowulf Blog


In Beowulf, translated by
Seamus Heaney, people see the character Beowulf to be the perfect man, but what
  qualities make him so idealistic. 
Beowulf has many memorable qualities, such as his leadership skills, his
religious faith, or his boastful pride, but these qualities are what make him a
great leader/influence to both the Geats and the Danes. 
Beowulf is a great leader, and by using his skills he was able to make
his way to the top. His pride
helped him stay confident, his faith helped him stay humble, his leadership made
him admirable and noble, and his actions throughout the poem make him a true
hero. 



               
The first thing that makes Beowulf so easy to idealize is his leadership,
without this trait nobody would stand behind him. 
The man whose name was known for courage, the Geat leader, resolute in
  his helmet, answered in return: "We are retainers from Hygelac's band. Beowulf
is my name." (340-343) this quote shows leadership because he is called the
courageous Geat leader, showing he is already well known as a hero/leader. And
it also shows how he is the first to present himself or speak of or for his
king, establishing to the reader and to the Danes that he is the leader of his
band of thanes.  The next quality
that makes Beowulf so amazing is his faith in God. 
The monster wrenched and wrestled with him but Beowulf was mindful of his
mighty strength, the wondrous gifts God had showered on him: He relied for help
on the Lord of All, on His care and favour. So he overcame the foe, brought down
the hell-brute. (1269-1274). this quote explains how Beowulf would not have won
the fight against Grendel if God did not want him to win, showing his faith in
God, and God’s faith in him. 
Beowulf constantly prays to God or mentions God, especially during
battle, this shows his humble side because he sees that without God he would not
be where he is today, and he uses this humble side to recognize God’s actions
and to thank him for how kind he has been to Beowulf. 
But with Beowulf’s humbleness, he also has excessive pride that sometimes
overpowers his reasoning abilities. 
"When it comes to fighting, I count myself as dangerous any day as
Grendel. So it won't be a cutting edge I'll wield to mow him down, easily as I
might. He has no idea of the arts of war, of shield or sword-play, although he
does possess a wild strength.  No
weapons, therefore, for either this night: unarmed he shall face me if face me
he dares. And may the Divine Lord in His wisdom grant the glory of victory to
whichever side He sees fit." (677-687) 
This quote shows how Beowulf is being cocky to show that he is better
than Grendel, and takes off all of his armor to set himself level to the beast,
Beowulf’s pride is what keeps him confident and successful in battle but
Hrothgar warns him not to let his pride get ahead of him, because it will be the
death of him.

Women characters play a very important role in literature everywhere, but especially in Beowulf.  Most female characters do not get much creditability for their actions in novels, due to the fact that the hero/main character/protagonist is a man who, in Beowulf's case, saves  a total of 2 kingdoms and 3 monsters, while only 3 women are mention by name in the story.  I believe that women are portrayed on the surface to be weak and useless to the story line but later on are seen to be powerful and can influence men in the story. it seems that there is no purpose to have women in a novel centered around death and a time when the only important people were men.  but you can see their importance by when they cheer people up in Heroet and give them more to drink and eat, this is one of the major roles of Wealhtheow.  but the story is surrounded by men and death and the poem shows how this book is not fit