Beowulf

Beowulf is a primary epic. It arose out of an oral tradition like Iliad and it is not literary in origin. Beowulf embodies the general characteristics of an epic in its special way.

         As all epic poems are expected to be, Beowulf is a record of the national life of the period depicted in it but only to a limited extent. At best, we can say that Beowulf is a record but a mutilated one of the ancient Teutonic life.

         In Beowulf, characterization is broad and bold as is found in all epics. Beowulf has his love of glory, iron resolution, fearlessness, loyalty and dutifulness which are not shaken even he has the presentiment of his own doom in his last adventure. He has been described as ‘a king of the world of men, the middlest to his people, the most kindly  and gentle and most eager for praise.’

         Beowulf is heroic in spirit, chivalrous in content and humanistic in appeal. The poem celebrates of Beowulf, a Teutonic tribal lord who devote himself to the worthy cause of protecting the weak against the wicked. Beowulf fights and saves the weak and innocent people against the monsters and the dragon of his land: ‘Death is better for all earls than a shameful life.’

         The whole theme is inspired with heroic idealism and bears the magnificence of epic poetry in its story and spirit.

         The style of the poem is elaborated and exalted in a way which embodies the spirit of its heroic subject. Here abstract expressions are all avoided. Phrases are all concrete. The ship is ‘The foamy-necked floater’, Grendel mother is ‘The sea wolf of the depths’. The richness and vividness of details, the profusion of adjectives, the short and vigorous speeches—all these have contributed to the excellence of Beowulf as an epic.

         Beowulf has no unity of action. It consists of two distinct narratives which are detached from each other. Secondly, the action of Beowulf has no entirety or completeness. Thirdly, the length of Beowulf is inconsiderable. So it cannot be called an epic in the proper sense of the term.

         To a modern reader, the importance of Beowulf lies neither in its epic grandeur, nor in its technical superiority. Beowulf standout for one specific quality and this is the social picture that it presents. Truly speaking, Beowulf records the mode of living of primitive people with all thin ideas, rituals and customs. Here, it attains the height of a social epic of the primitive Teutonic people. It bears out the heroic tradition and spirit of a remote Pagan age. Beowulf the hero of the poem appears brightly with his gallantry, nobleness and unhesitating sacrifice.

         Beowulf is a non-christian work of the per-christian time and as such, it is often found animated with certain pagan ideals of life. One such ideals is the spirit of revenge. Revenge is a kind of wild justice and that was the very motive of Teutonic life.

         Even the somber Teutonic outlook on life is clearly perceived in the work. There is hardly any genuine gaiety in this outlook. Life appears as a grave, hard business and a sense of melancholy rings all through. The overwhelming power of fate against which man is powerless, is presented with a stocial philosophy.

         Primitive Teutonic life was simple, straight forward and rather sincere. To fight vigorously, to eat and drink voraciously, to find comfort in music after hard toil and to sleep peacefully and profoundly constituted the essence of this social life and Beowulf is a perfect specimen of the primitive world in this respect.

         Again, Teutonic people had their own way of pastimes and merry-making. Hunting, swimming were some of the popular sports of the primitive world.

         The epic also brings out subtle the artistic attitude of the primitive people. The intellectual pleasure. Sought by primitive people in poetry and music is well indicated in the epic. The dirge, sung in honour of the dead is characteristically primitive.

         Though Biblical elements abound and Christian elements are incorporated in the poem, the background of Beowulf is distinctly heathen and its philosophy markedly pagan. Pagan elements are found in the love of war, deep-rooted belief in heathen customs and ceremonies as shown in the description of the funeral of the heroes. Pagan element is also evident in the descriptions of feats and halls and in the belief in the inscrutable fate. The dead are cremated, omens are observed, sacrifices are vowed at the temple of idols.

The praise of worldly glory, the theme of blood, vengeance are the proof to a heathen past. Thus, Beowulf is clearly a heathen work which has undergone revisions by Christian minstrels.

         Christian elements vary in the different episodes of the poem and are evenly distributed between the speeches and narratives. There are portions which are probably later substituted for  passages originally heathen in character by the Christian compiler of the poem. However, the Christian ways, institutions rituals and simple Christian faith in providence. There are no allusions of Biblical characters except the character of Cain. In the poem, there are many references to Christianity. Hrothgar’s minstrel sings a religious poem about the creation, yet Beowulf is cremated with pagan ceremonies. Though there are no references to Christ, the Cross, angels and saints, the flood, deluge and Satan are mentioned.

         The atmosphere of the poem and the outlook on life embodied in Beowulf show a curious fusion of the pagan and Christian elements. Atmosphere of gloom and horror and mysterious night and references to such sinister place, as swamps where the dragons inhabit are the combined production of sad northern landscape and the gloomy imagination of the Pagan poets. But the impression of nothingness of life and glory is not wholly pagan.

Write a note of symbolism in The Ox

      Symbolism implies a deeper sense, underneath a plain external account. The writer achieves manifold purposes by using symbols. It helps to build up the theme according to the complexity of the subject. ‘The Ox’ symbolizes the beast of burden and in the short story ‘The Ox’, it symbolizes the painstaking life of Mrs Thurlow.

From the very beginning of the short story the author has not failed to show the analogue of the ox in Mrs Thurlow’s physical feature--- she had a bulky and rather robust body, with her flat, heavy feet, that ‘pounded painfully’ along ‘under mud-stained skirts’. Her face and body looked unseemly with her lumpy angle of bone. She is appeared as ‘a beast of burden’. Moreover, when she works in the field-to plant and pick potatoes and peas, to dig for cabbages and roots, she pinned up her skirt on the back that seemed to be ‘a thick stiff, tail’. She appears like ‘some bonny ox. Mrs Thurlow has a bicycle which is never ridden. It remains always well-loaded, and she walks beside it like an ox. Her relation to this cycle reminds the relation of an ox to cart.

      She is nothing exceptional or remarkable. She is very poor and her life is one of her struggle and ceaselessly drudgery. Though not a beast she had the living of a beast. Like an ox she works steadily and meticulously. Despite the strain of her daily duty she does her work punctually, seriously and devotedly. She labours continuously, unquestioningly and rather selflessly. She has to bear hardship and pain and that she does with the temperament of an ox.

      Mrs Thurlow is basically a rational being. She has her hope and aspiration. She plans for her two boys. She stores money for their better future. From this point she is a caring mother. she tries heart and soul to fulfill her dream. She wants eagerly to raise her humble saving of 54 pounds and to one hundred pounds.

      Mrs Thurlow inspite of her little emotional ambition has an impassivity. Money appears more valuable than the life of Mr. Thurlow  who was arrested and died in prison and her lost money could not be restored. The two boys for whom she builds up a dream is totally collapsed when they deny to come back. Mrs. Thurlow endows that also and carries on her daily drudgery steadily and stolidly almost of the manner of an unresponsive, irrational animal, like an ox.

      The very site of Mrs. Thurlow’s house exposed to the rough wind and isolated from the surrounding landscape has a symbolic reference to her hard life. Her husband symbolizes callous and her sons stand for unsympathetic attitude. Her hard-earned saving stands for her little ambition and the loss of the saving indicates the desolation of her future. Moreover, at the final end of the story the slow-puncturing of the cycle indicates the puncturing the Mrs Thurlow’s dream. Finally the pumping of the cycle symbolizes Mrs Thurlow vain attempt to lead the live properly.

      The symbolic turns of the story are simple and there is little of the psychological complexity of character of Mrs Thurlow.

Q4. How does Bates in his story The Ox show obsession with pain?

‘The Ox’ illustrates not only these qualities of style and writer’s attitude, but also a characteristic theme—what Henry Miller calls in his Preface to an excellent selection of Bates’s stories, Seven by Five (1963), ‘an obsession with pain. Pain stretched to breaking point, pain prolonged beyond all seeming endurance’—yet not, by any means, beyond the bounds of possibility. One of H. E. Bates’s great strengths is to show a manly and unsentimental pity for those that suffer alone.

From the very beginning of the short story the author has not failed to show the analogue of the ox in Mrs Thurlow’s physical feature--- she had a bulky and rather robust body, with her flat, heavy feet, that ‘pounded painfully’ along ‘under mud-stained skirts’. Her face and body looked unseemly with her lumpy angle of bone. She is appeared as ‘a beast of burden’. Moreover, when she works in the field-to plant and pick potatoes and peas, to dig for cabbages and roots, she pinned up her skirt on the back that seemed to be ‘a thick stiff, tail’. She appears like ‘some bonny ox. Mrs Thurlow has a bicycle which is never ridden. It remains always well-loaded, and she walks beside it like an ox. Her relation to this cycle reminds the relation of an ox to cart.

      She is nothing exceptional or remarkable. She is very poor and her life is one of her struggle and ceaselessly drudgery. Though not a beast she had the living of a beast. Like an ox she works steadily and meticulously. Despite the strain of her daily duty she does her work punctually, seriously and devotedly. She labours continuously, unquestioningly and rather selflessly. She has to bear hardship and pain and that she does with the temperament of an ox.

      Mrs Thurlow is basically a rational being. She has her hope and aspiration. She plans for her two boys. She stores money for their better future. From this point she is a caring mother. she tries heart and soul to fulfill her dream. She wants eagerly to raise her humble saving of 54 pounds and to one hundred pounds.

      Mrs Thurlow inspite of her little emotional ambition has an impassivity. Money appears more valuable than the life of Mr. Thurlow  who was arrested and died in prison and her lost money could not be restored. The two boys for whom she builds up a dream is totally collapsed when they deny to come back. Mrs. Thurlow endows that also and carries on her daily drudgery steadily and stolidly almost of the manner of an unresponsive, irrational animal, like an ox.

Discuss The Ox as a short story

      In the truest sense a short story is a short prose with some characteristic features. In a short story a significant event is taken as the subject matter of the story. A small number of characters are introduced and a short story can easily by read out in a single sitting. From this point the ox never fully satisfies the requirements. Inspite of that we have to judge “The ox” as a short story.

      Bates’s ‘The ox’ is a labeled as a short story, although this is not a very short story. ‘The Ox’ is a simple narrative with a single plot that deals with the life and hardship of a rustic woman Mrs. Thurlow. The story is no doubt a tragedy—the tragedy of a poor humble ambition of a woman who saved money desperately for the future of her sons. She wanted to establish them beyond her world. But her little ambition was all sadly shut out. Her husband was involved in an act of murder and died in the police custody. Her hard-earned saving was stolen. Her sons denied to live with her. She has left alone, dejected and humiliated with her bicycle to drag on the heavy burden of her life.

      Like other short story here the narrative is simple, single and straight-forward. The situation rounds with Mrs Thurlow’s struggling and suffering. The story is simply present the suffering of Mrs Thurlow who has no hamartia. She had the best of devotion and intention, yet suffered not the least pain and frustration. The tragedy is “too deep for tears”.

      ‘The Ox’ is a well-conceived story. The emphasis is found laid more specifically on the heroine. She figures most in the story. Her patient and painstaking living is the main focus of attention. In the matter of economy of narration ‘The Ox’ is a well-written story. But the story have some sectional division. All these sections are well organized and serve to focus the interest of the story in a balanced way. The story grows smoothly, spontaneously from the exposition to the development, crisis and the final catastrophe.

      ‘The ox’, therefore, maintenance the characteristic feature of a short story and it achieves the maximum effects by means of the economy in story writing.

Justify the title of The Ox

Generally the title of any literary work is derived either from its main character or from its central theme. From this point of view the ox has no relation as its symbolically refers the character of the heroine of this story who is hardy, sturdy, patient and painstaking as an ox. The title directly refers to her.

      From the very beginning of the short story the author has not failed to show the analogue of the ox in Mrs Thurlow’s physical feature--- she had a bulky and rather robust body, with her flat, heavy feet, that ‘pounded painfully’ along ‘under mud-stained skirts’. Her face and body looked unseemly with her lumpy angle of bone. She is appeared as ‘a beast of burden’. Moreover, when she works in the field-to plant and pick potatoes and peas, to dig for cabbages and roots, she pinned up her skirt on the back that seemed to be ‘a thick stiff, tail’. She appears like ‘some bonny ox. Mrs Thurlow has a bicycle which is never ridden. It remains always well-loaded, and she walks beside it like an ox. Her relation to this cycle reminds the relation of an ox to cart.

      The title is more apt if judge from Mrs. Thurlow’s living character and conduct of life. She is nothing exceptional or remarkable. She is very poor and her life is one of her struggle and ceaselessly drudgery. Though not a beast she had the living of a beast. Like an ox she works steadily and meticulously. Despite the strain of her daily duty she does her work punctually, seriously and devotedly. She labours continuously, unquestioningly and rather selflessly. She has to bear hardship and pain and that she does with the temperament of an ox.

      Mrs Thurlow is basically a rational being. She has her hope and aspiration. She plans for her two boys. She stores money for their better future. From this point she is a caring mother. she tries heart and soul to fulfill her dream. She wants eagerly to raise her humble saving of 54 pounds and to one hundred pounds.

      Mrs Thurlow inspite of her little emotional ambition has an impassivity. Money appears more valuable than the life of Mr. Thurlow  who was arrested and died in prison and her lost money could not be restored. The two boys for whom she builds up a dream is totally collapsed when they deny to come back. Mrs. Thurlow endows that also and carries on her daily drudgery steadily and stolidly almost of the manner of an unresponsive, irrational animal, like an ox.