Beowulf And Grendel Essay

Psychoanalysis is the theory of personality developed by Sigmund Freud that focuses on repression and unconscious forces and includes the concepts of sexuality and the division the psyche into the id, superego, and ego. Sigmund Freud is the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud believed the unconscious mind is the mental process of individuals make themselves unknowingly. He later divided the unconscious into the id, superego, ego. These 3 fundamental structures are what the personality develops from. The conflict of what each desires determines how individuals behave and interact with the world. Id is the personality component made up of unconscious energy that works to satisfy instant gratification of basic needs and drives. A person can be satisfied doing something for
The difference is that Grendel kills for his own satisfaction. He is fulfilling Thanatos, the death instinct. “The eternal Lord avenged the murder on the race of Cain, he slew Able. He did not rejoice in that feud. He, the Lord, drove him from mankind for that crime. Thence sprang all evil spawn, ogres and elves and sea-monsters, giants too, who struggled long time against God. He paid them requital for that.” (Unknown 3). Grendel is essentially the descendent of Cain, through the Christian influence that was added. Grendel and his mother, like Able, are exiled. They live alone. Grendel is jealous of the life the warriors live and the noise they make in the mead-hall is just a constant reminder. This is what causes Grendel to kill them so gruesomely. Grendel’s id seeks acceptance and attention, but because of what he is, he will never be accepted. Making him kill to fill that desire for acceptance. His superego and ego seem to play no role in his conscious mind, because his deeds of killings are not morally right. They are an act on impulses. Grendel is a monster but has human feelings because he is the descendant of