In continuation of my last blog post, I still do not believe that Grendel's mother was totally in the wrong here. Matter of fact, I believe that her actions are totally justifiable. That being said, I do not believe that Grendel's mother is good. She came from darkness, was made with darkness, and was created as innately evil. However, her actions were not malicious in the way that could be categorized as evil. Her actions were spurred by the death of her son. she simply did what any good mother would do and avenged her son. Now, naturally, this would spur a whole debate about the capabilities of something inherently evil doing something morally good, but if we're being honest, I don't currently have the brainpower to dive into that. All I'm saying is that even though Grendel's mother is supposed to be evil, she somehow managed to do something that many would argue is good. Obviously killing someone isn't good, but her motive was pure. She was grieving her son and wanted revenge and I feel like that's something that many of us can relate to. {Besides Hamlet did the same thing with avenging his dad (his uncle was a little worse though) and we still consider him to be a good guy..}
In Book VIII of Plato’s Republic, Socrates talks about the possibility of having a well-governed city. However, he also talks about how that particular form of government is impossible to have. A well-governed city becomes a possibility only if you can discover a better way of life for your future rulers than holding office.” (Plato, p 215) Maybe his version of a better life was for those in office to not be lovers of power, since it would then become a fight among rival lovers. Socrates gets to the point that the only rulers who don’t love power are true philosophers. Philosophers are lovers of wisdom and knowledge and not power, ergo they are the perfect rulers. Absolute power corrupts and power corrupts absolutely, so I’m thinking that maybe the trick to being a good ruler is for you to be a philosophical person who loves wisdom and not power. I commented on Jamie’s and Isabelle’s posts.
I completely agree with you. This question this topic brings up is confusing, but nonetheless, I think it is true that Grendel's mother was evil, but also did a morally good action. I too do not have the brainpower to go into a discussion at this current moment.
ReplyDeleteIt’s kind of like a mama bear. The mother will do anything to protect their child even to the point of doing something that most people consider evil. Everything’s fine until their child gets hurt, then all heck breaks loose.
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